Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Energy

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.

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$983M jumbo pipeline project touted by TCPL [North Central Corridor]

Intro Rant:

It is very important we think about this correctly: The North-Central Corridor is the "alternative" to nuclear power. Both of these proposals are entirely driven by the energy input needs of cooking, digging, flipping and poisoning the earth in the Athabasca region, north of Fort McMurray. Both would devastate yet further many indigenous territories in the north, including the "Tear Drop" traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree Nation. Both would not only facilitate but vastly expand the consumption of energy for the increased output of the tar pits.

CARC’s Final Argument: Get More Information or Reject [Mackenzie] Pipeline Project

NEWS RELEASE 21/11/07

CARC’s Final Argument: Get More Information or Reject Pipeline Project

Officially Announcing the North-Central Corridor! A pipe for the pits!

TransCanada files for natural gas permit
By Staff Reports
Argus Leader
PUBLISHED: November 21, 2007

TransCanada Corp., which is seeking to build the crude oil Keystone Pipeline through South Dakota to supply refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma with oil from Alberta, is also looking to expand its natural gas carrying capacity to better serve the Canadian oil industry which is the source of that crude.

North-Central Corridor application exactly equal to Mackenzie pipeline initial production (0.8 billion cubic feet per day)

TransCanada Seeks to Build C$983 Million Gas Pipeline (Update4)

By Jim Polson

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- TransCanada Corp. will seek approval for a C$983 million ($996 million) natural-gas pipeline project to increase access to production in northwestern Alberta needed by Canadian oil-sands producers.

A permit for the North Central Corridor project will be filed today with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board for the 300-kilometer (186-mile) pipeline and associated facilities, TransCanada said in a statement. The company's pipeline system already is the largest in Canada.

Application for North-Central corridor to bring Mackenzie Valley gas directly to the tar sands

TransCanada seeks permit for $983M gas pipeline
November 21, 2007
THE CANADIAN PRESS

CALGARY – A TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) subsidiary is seeking permission to build a 300-kilometre natural gas pipeline in Alberta at an estimated cost of $983 million.

The North Central Corridor pipeline is designed to carry gas to ``growing intra-Alberta markets resulting largely from increased oilsands development," the company stated Wednesday.

TransCanada said Nova Gas Transmission's application to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board comes after 11 years of consideration of the line.

Upgrader fire ignites safety concerns

Upgrader fire ignites safety concerns
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | 11:44 AM MT
CBC News

A third sour gas leak in two years at a Shell refinery northeast of Edmonton has some residents wondering how safe it is to live in the area known as Upgrader Alley.

A giant fireball erupted above Shell's Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan on Monday afternoon, sparked by a leak of the highly toxic and flammable gas. About 3,000 workers were sent home, but no one was injured in the incident.

Worker Rod Whitford said it wasn't a big scare.

Chávez and Ahmadineyad agree that the dollar empire is collapsing

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/noviembre/mar20/47dolar.html

TEHRAN, November 19.— Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated today
in Teheran that “the dollar empire is collapsing,” according to ANSA.

“Soon we won’t be talking about dollars anymore because the value of
the dollar is in free fall and the dollar empire is collapsing,”
Chávez said to a group of journalists.

The Bolivarian leader visited Tehran, coming from Riyadh where he had

"Changing your light bulbs may not be enough to save a single polar bear"

Changing your light bulbs may not be enough to save a single polar bear,
but there are things we can do collectively - and easily - that will
really make a measurable difference in the battle against global
warming. Mark Lynas has a three-part plan.

by Mark Lynas

New Statesman (November 08 2007)

We have about 100 months left. If global greenhouse gas emissions have
not begun to decline by the end of 2015, then our chances of restraining
climate change to within the two degrees "safety line" - the level of

Editorial: Reconsidering the tar sands

Editorial: Reconsidering the tar sands
McGill Daily

Going by mainstream media coverage, the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta are like a 21st century Wild West: breathless reports speak about the “boom” economy, bushels of money being made, and about how everything is gigantic. But as the tar sands have become the centrepiece of a new energy corridor sending oil and gas to the U.S., scant attention has been paid to the profound economic, ecological, and social costs that are at stake.

Future of Alberta Tar Sands & oil could be decided in B.C

Future of Alberta oil could be decided in B.C
Charles Frank , CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 18, 2007

The future of Western Canada's energy industry may well be defined by what happens far from Alberta's foothills in the quiet town of Kitimat on British Columbia's picturesque coast.