Energy and how it is captured and consumed is barely viable in tar sands production. While the amount of oil in places such as the tar sands in Alberta or the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela may have deposits of similar size to the reserves of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the return of new energy after expending energy in production is not even close. In Iraq, the process of using one barrel of oil generates 100 new barrels. In the tar sands, estimates of 3 to 1 and even as low as 1.5 to 1 have been made. Offsetting the net energy loss would require minimally 25-30 tar sands facilities for one Saudi plant operating at the same capacity.
Grande Prairie suffering effects of uncontrolled growth
City's national ranking fell from fourth to 99th in one year
Dan Barnes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
GRANDE PRAIRIE - On a brilliant, blue sunglasses-mandatory Monday, the good folks of Grande Prairie were enjoying the outdoor pleasures of a city that just two short years ago was ranked the fourth best place to live in the country.
Ahead of Calgary. And Vancouver. And yes, even Edmonton.
New Pipeline Approved
Feb 21 2008 7:19PM
KXMBTV Bismarck
The Public Service Commission gives the go-ahead for a 218 mile oil pipeline through eastern North Dakota.
The Keystone Pipeline will run through eight counties. You can see it on this map.
The pipeline will carry about 600-thousand barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Illinois and Oklahoma.
Commissioner Kevin Cramer says it's in the public interest to build the pipeline.
Enbridge rekindles oilsands pipeline plan
Jeffrey Jones, Reuters Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008
CALGARY -- Enbridge Inc. has rekindled plans for a $4-billion pipeline to Canada's West Coast in response to demand from producers and refiners wanting oilsands-derived crude shipped to Asia, Enbridge's chief executive said Thursday.
Enbridge, the country's second-largest pipeline operator, has convinced enough potential customers to fund the remaining costs to get the Gateway pipeline project to the regulatory approval stage, CEO Pat Daniel said.
Nature
Nature 451, 866 (21 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451866a; Published online 20 February 2008
Science in retreat
Canada has been scientifically healthy.
Not so its government.
Comparisons of nations’ scientific outputs over the years have
shown that Canada’s researchers have plenty to be proud of,
consistently maintaining their country’s position among the
world’s top ten (see, for example, Nature 430, 311–316; 2004). Alas,
their government’s track record is dismal by comparison.
When the Canadian government announced earlier this year that it
Excerpt from Alberta Liberals / Kevin Taft on "Labour Shortages"
Oil Price Closed Above $100 a Barrel; World Leaders Ignore this Signal of Impending Shortages
Press release, The Oil Drum
The price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil closed above $100 for the first time on February 19, 2008. "Rising oil prices have been giving a clear signal of pending shortages for over five years now," according to TheOilDrum.com. By ignoring this signal, world leaders are steering the world toward an energy disaster characterized by shortages, high energy prices, inflation, civil unrest and famine.
Meetings set in 3 cities on oil shale, tar sands
Feb. 16, 2008 12:09 a.m. MST
Public meetings have been scheduled in three Utah cities to discuss development of the state's oil shale and tar sands resources. The shale and sands resources fall within the jurisdictions of the Moab, Monticello, Price, Richfield and Vernal BLM field offices.
The Bureau of Land Management has set up the following informal meetings:
Big oil's enemy within
The ultimate threat to big oil comes not from green campaigners - but its own shareholders
February 20, 2008 12:15 AM
Tony Hayward
New BP boss Tony Hayward has overseen a reversal of policy towards tar sands.
Business leaders are now pleading with governments for regulation. When did that last happen? Executives usually hate anything that interferes with their freedom of movement. But climate change appears to have changed all that.
Pipeline holdouts unlikely to buckle
By CP
FORT SIMPSON, N.W.T. -- The new leader of the last aboriginal group to hold out against a northern natural gas pipeline says he isn't likely to bring the Dehcho First Nation on board the $16-billion project any time soon.
Gerald Antoine, chosen last week as interim chief, said yesterday he's not convinced joining a consortium of northern aboriginals that would own a one-third share in the Mackenzie Valley project would serve his people's best interests.
Saying Goodbye To The Oil Age
by Peter Goodchild
Countercurrents.org (January 29 2008)
The first practical oil drill was developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
in 1859, by Edwin L Drake. Now, only a short while later, the planet
Earth is running out of oil, without which almost nothing in modern
civilization can function. A number of scientists and engineers have
pointed out that the world's oil production will peak early in the
twenty-first century; it has probably already done so. At the beginning
of the century, the human race was using about thirty billion barrels of
