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.
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.
Pipeline leak in northeastern B.C. was not sabotage
Friday, February 20, 2009
CBC News
Two pipeline workers were injured by a leak in a northeastern B.C. natural gas pipeline, but the incident was not another case of sabotage, an official said.
Spectra Energy spokeswoman Rosemary Silva said Friday two workers were doing routine maintenance on a 45-centimetre pipeline when the breach occurred.
The two workers were taken to hospital with minor injuries and one was later released, she said.
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
Such an article as the one below is a very good thing to see, in a certain sense. It means, of course, that stage one & two of social action against the tar sands have now been passed: stage one is they ignore you, and two is they ridicule you. Three, of course-- so goes the old saying, anyhow-- is that we are violently opposed.
If this is not a set-up by the RCMP and/or associated folks, then the bomber is a moron. Either way, this will be used to come after dissent, especially mere moments after the announcement that security costs wold go up five times the planned amount for 2010. The need is for "security" forces to have something to be "secure" from.
--M
Two people reportedly hurt in pipeline blast near Fort St. John
Canwest News Service
February 20, 2009
Damage caused to a natural gas pipeline is seen east of Dawson Creek in this October 12, 2008 photo.
Photograph by: Canwest News Service
Baker Lake hunters, elders oppose uranium mine
"Like part of their spirit."
February 20, 2009
JOHN BIRD
Joan Scottie was on the front lines 20 years ago when the community of Baker Lake said an historic "no" to uranium mining - and she's still fighting the same battle today.
But this time, key Inuit organizations have switched sides.
"I'm frustrated with our aboriginal organizations," Scottie said. "They are the ones who are supposed to represent us. Instead, they are getting revenue in millions of dollars from the mining companies for our hunting grounds."
*Ottawa, Canada, February 19, 2009 –* United States President Barack Obama
is meeting today with Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada for his first
foreign visit as a President. The main discussion will center on trade
between the two nations as well as topics of environment, climate and energy
security in North America. Obama's concerns about implementing an agenda for
a clean and green energy economy highlights' Canada's oil sands, a vast
potential oil source that comes at a big cost to the environment and the
INTERVIEW-
NASA's Hansen concerned about Canada's oil sands
Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:41pm GMT
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Canada's oil sands are an environmental "wild card," NASA's James Hansen said in an interview before President Barack Obama's trip to Ottawa, where energy and climate change will be on the agenda.
As director of the U.S. space agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, with a focus on climate change, Hansen has long opposed the burning of oil, gas and coal for their contribution to global warming.
Canada’s Tar-Sands Oil Can Be ‘Clean,’ Obama Says
By Jim Efstathiou Jr.
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oil extracted from tar sands in Canada can be made a clean energy source, and the U.S. will work with its northern neighbor to develop the technology, President Barack Obama said.
