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.
Conservation, not pipeline, gaining N.W.T. support: poll
Last Updated: Monday, September 24, 2007 | 5:43 PM CT
CBC News
Support among residents of the Northwest Territories is waning for the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline, while interest in conservation is rising, according to the results of a poll released Monday.
The poll, conducted by McAllister Opinion Research, says backing for the pipeline is at 68 per cent, which is down six per cent from its last poll in 2004.
Hundreds march in Edmonton to protest labour laws
Canadian Press
September 22, 2007 at 10:21 PM EDT
EDMONTON — Hundreds of angry and loud tradespeople have laid Alberta's labour code to rest in a dramatic mock funeral.
Protest organizer Eric Klyne led the funeral procession to the legislature Saturday, flanked by men dressed as the grim reaper and a priest.
The demonstration capped off two weeks of labour unrest that began following an Alberta Labour Relations Board ruling that forbid the carpenters union from going on strike.
Grandma vs. the Oil-Sands Mine
By Kevin Graham
E/The Environmental Magazine
September/October, 2007
Eighty-five-year-old grandmothers aren’t typically subject to
censorship, but Liz Moore is no ordinary grandma. After touring an
oil-sands operation in Canada, Moore returned to her home in Colorado
and began researching the mining process. Eventually, she spent
$3,600 on a website that chronicles the destructive environmental
impacts of oil-sands mining.
“I was appalled at what I saw—the devastation of the land,” she says
Tuning in to the North
Review by MARIAN BOTSFORD FRASER
September 22, 2007
"Late Nights on Air"
By Elizabeth Hay // McClelland & Stewart // 364 pages, $32.99
"The rise in value of the Canadian dollar "is an energy story," said Busch. With crude oil futures trading at more than $83 U.S., investment capital is pouring north to help extract oil from so-called tar sands, also known as oil sands, in the province of Alberta.
"The average cost to produce a barrel from tar sands is $40 to $45," Busch said. The current world oil price "puts oil development from tar sands on steroids."
Go crazy: Dollar sinks below loonie
Bill Barnhart | Market report
September 21, 2007
Canada: Losing Water Through NAFTA
by Stephen Leahy
Global Research, September 23, 2007
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada lost control over its energy resources. Now, with “NAFTA-plus”, it could also lose control over its freshwater resources, say experts.
Canada’s water is on the trade negotiating table despite widespread public opposition and assurances by Canadian political leaders, said Adèle Hurley, director of the University of Toronto’s Programme on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies.
It appears here the one being less than honest below is this Robert Jones-- shipping bitumen that has been "blended" with a Kerosene like by product called diluent that is needed to make the bitumen flow in a pipe is not refining. The refining process, and this is exactly the purpose of the Keystone-- will take place "downstream"(as the industry likes to call it) in Illinois. In other words, this press release on his part is Jones, working for TransCanada, trying to count on ignorance among people who would be aghast if they understood the facts. Disinformation is not a military policy only.
We have to wait and see what the CEP and the AFL do to tackle this horrible (yet predictable) news... their campaigns against the pipeline has been in the forefront, and had it prevented the pipeline was also preventing the delivery of up to another half million barrels a day-- approximately the production of either the Suncor or Syncrude plants. Fight on all fronts!
--M
Keystone Pipeline gets Canadian approval
Sep 24, 2007 - 11:24:21 CDT
By the Associated Press
U.S. market pundit flees 'socialist' North
JOHN PARTRIDGE
Globe and Mail Update
September 19, 2007 at 3:28 PM EDT
The sky must be falling: Denis Gartman is beating a white-knuckle retreat from the Great White North.
The U.S. market commentator is abandoning his lengthy love affair with Canada and he's blaming Alberta's oil and gas Royalty Review Panel and the province's suddenly – wait for it –“socialist” government for his hasty exit.
Booming Alberta crippled by wildcat strikes by frustrated tradesmen
September 16, 2007
EDMONTON (CP) — Alberta's booming construction landscape is being disrupted with pickets and protests as a complicated labour law that hobbles building trade unions from striking is being attacked by hundreds of workers.
The giant Petro-Canada upgrader project in Edmonton was crippled for several days last week after unionized workers refused to cross picket lines set up by carpenters and other tradesman seeking higher wages but unable to stage a legal strike.
