Economics

*Oilsands will never get a fair shake*

*Lamphier:* I've always had a thing for National Geographic. Without
access to its pictures, I'm sure I would have flunked Grade 5 geography.
My projects on the Great Pyramids of Egypt or the lost Incan city of
Machu Picchu would have been a crashing bore. I know that in my heart.
_*MORE...*
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/Oilsands+will+never+fair+shake/1...

* Canada needs the oil sands*

*NP:* National Geo-graphic magazine's current ar ticle on Al -berta's

Tories, Liberals defend oil sands
Feb 25, 2009
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – Conservatives and Liberals both came to the defence of Alberta's oilsands today, responding to a stark 20-page spread in this month's National Geographic magazine.

The article, "The Canadian oil boom: Scraping the bottom," details the environmental and social problems around the oilsands, as well as an explanation of the extraction process.

TransCanada has eyes on California as possible future market

CALGARY - TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) sees California as a potential future market for Canadian crude oil, an executive with the Calgary-based pipeline giant said Tuesday.

The company has a long-term proposal to ship crude from Northern Alberta's oilsands region down to energy-hungry California, said Steve Becker, TransCanada's vice-president of pipeline development.

This Op-Ed was refused publication by the New York Times.

by Charles Hall and Nate Gagnon

EROEI.com (March 23 2007)

Op-Ed Editor, New York Times:

The recent front page article "Oil innovations pump new life into old
wells" by Jad Mouawad (March 5 page 1) is dangerously misleading. The
author would have us believe that technological innovations will
increase the proportion of oil recoverable from known fields
sufficiently to compensate for the dearth of new discoveries. It gives
a false sense of security about our difficult oil situation based on a

Syncrude pockets $18.5B bonanza
Liberals slam 'sweet deal' negotiated in 1997 worth billions of dollars to oilsands producers
Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal
February 24, 2009

Oilsands giant Syncrude stands to earn a extra $18.5 billion over the life of its operations as a result of cashing in late last year on a royalty option it negotiated more than a decade earlier with the Alberta government, says Liberal MLA and energy critic Kevin Taft.

It’s time to rethink harmful tar sands projects
By Roy Strang - Peace Arch News
February 17, 2009

There may, after all, be a small silver lining in the dark fiscal cloud hanging over us.

It’s so small that it’s hard to discern amidst the monetary gloom, but it’s there nonetheless.

The unspoken part of this "unpalatable" duality is that green-minded folks have just such an equally repulsive "choice". Either be "unreasonable" and "not a part of the solution" by pointing out that CCS and all other Climate Change in the tar sands "solutions" are nonsense, especially when one sees the forms of emissions yet to come from the In Situ developments. There is no solving the climate crisis, preventing deforestation, preserving the Mackenzie River Basin or using the remaining natural gas on Turtle Island in a sane manner-- unless we also prevent the tar sands from operating.

Alberta gets fresh black eye with oilsands coverage
By Kelly Cryderman, Canwest News ServiceFebruary 22, 2009

CALGARY - It seems the Alberta government can't catch a break.

To add to the long list of international publications that have focused on the environmental costs of the oilsands, National Geographic chose its March edition to splash images of the development - with at least four pictures depicting unsightly tailings ponds - across its pages alongside an article.

Pipeline could bring needed revenue to state
By Aaron Nelson
Black Hills Pioneer

BELLE FOURCHE - A crude oil pipeline that would become the longest in North America and could bring much needed revenue and as many as 2,000 workers to the western region of the state would pass through Butte County, officials told county commissioners on Wednesday.

POLITICS: Rhetoric and Reality Clash on Obama's First Foreign Visit
By Chris Arsenault

VANCOUVER, Feb 20 (IPS) - On his first foreign visit as U.S.
president, Barack Obama's rhetoric of "hope" and "change" came face to
face with the hard, divisive policy realities of climate change from
Canada's tar sands, a growing insurgency in Afghanistan and the
sputtering world economy.

Some 2,500 spectators lined the streets of Ottawa to watch the
president's motorcade make its way to Parliament Hill, a marked