It is falsely assumed that big projects equal lots of jobs and, by extension, labour peace if not outright satisfaction. The size and scope of the tarsands means for incredibly dangerous work conditions-- some fatalities at the plants have already occurred. The products seldom get their "value added" in union-run locations, instead the heavy bitumen can be shipped to many different locations across North America for refining, denying benefits to the union. However, the Union does not represent the "guest worker", now being imported in increasing numbers as legislation is changed to make access easier, the term of exploitation last longer, without any new efforts or pathways to deciding to stay after helping tear up the earth.
TransCanada gains full ownership of Keystone pipeline
29 June 2009
TransCanada has announced its acquisition of ConocoPhillips' remaining stake in the Keystone pipeline for US$550 million (€392 million), giving it full control over the new Canada-to-US oil pipeline.
The $5.2 billion Keystone line is designed to carry 435,000 barrels of crude a day over a distance of 3,456 km from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in southern Illinois, US.
Local work helping western oil sands
By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch // June 26, 2009
It’s big, it looks complicated, it’s worth a half a million dollars and it’s an integral part of Thunder Bay’s economic future.
On Friday Venshore Mechanical Ltd. unveiled one of two fuel offloading modules it has built – with the assistance of several other local-area companies – and plans to deliver to western Canada for use in the multi-billion oil sands project.
Opti's parent corporation is Ormat, the Israeli corporation that developed "orcrude"-- otherwise known in Alberta as "co-generation"-- burning the waste gunk from the bottom of a barrel of tar sands bitumen to provide energy. This would eventually be used in much of historical Palestine to develop oil shale and has been using the Long Lake plant as a laboratory to make this production happen. Long Lake officially went commercial in October of last year.
--M
OPTI sticks to plan to raise cash
DAVID EBNER // VANCOUVER
Globe and Mail
Jun. 27, 2009
Issues: Learning from the present
Strong response to racist backlash against Six Nations in Ontario offers important lessons for Albertans
Macdonald Stainsby / oilsandstruth.org
Vue Weekly, Week of June 25, 2009
Sonic, Shell team for oilsands patent
Details of 'innovation' not disclosed
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
June 24, 2009
CALGARY - A small startup has teamed up with one of the world's largest oil majors to develop a patent for processing heavy oil and oilsands.
Vancouver-based Sonic Technology Solutions on Tuesday said it has partnered with Shell Canada to jointly file a patent application for the recovery of bitumen from oilsands.
Alaska pipeline steals the show
Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 22, 2009
INUVIK - The ninth Inuvik Petroleum Show just couldn't catch a break.
Last year, attendees of the annual oil and gas trade show - though high on news that BP Energy had bid more than $1 billion for a parcel of offshore land in the Beaufort Sea - operated under the shadow of the Joint Review Panel, whose report on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the $16.2 billion Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP) was still nowhere to be seen.
Alberta's oil sands show signs of life
Katherine O'Neill, and Dawn Walton
Globe and Mail, Monday, Jun. 22, 2009
Unlimited overtime pay was just one of the many perks John Halbauer enjoyed as a welder during Alberta's super-sized energy boom.
That's disappeared, along with 11 of the 25-year-old's 13 co-workers who got laid-off in January. “I was worried. I didn't know if I was going to have to move back home or what,” the Kimberley, B.C., native said.
Pipeline proposal raises vexing questions
Written by Jeannette Paterson
Prince George
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Wanting to get a better sense of how or if the Enbridge pipeline would benefit the majority of British Columbians, I looked back at the Thomas Berger Inquiry held in the 1970s regarding the Mackenzie Delta natural gas pipeline.
It was, of course, recommended that a 10-year moratorium be put in place until the aboriginal people living in the area had completed their land claims and then, from a position of ownership and power, the project could be revisited.
UTS eyes Fort Hills options as Suncor joins group
Tue Jun 16, 2009
By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (Reuters) - UTS Energy Corp (UTS.TO) has begun to plot out new ways to develop the delayed Fort Hills oil sands project but decisions must wait until Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) closes its takeover of the operator, Petro-Canada (PCA.TO), UTS's chief executive said on Tuesday.
UTS, which has a 20 percent interest in the Alberta oil sands development, sees cost advantages in shifting some of the processing to Suncor's massive northern Alberta operations, CEO Will Roach said.
Sinkholes surface along Keystone route
Kevin Bonham, Grand Forks Herald
June 17, 2009
A small series of sinkholes — some 30 to 40 feet deep that have swallowed a handful of 20- to 30-foot pine trees — developed this spring in the sandy soil of the Pembina Escarpment along the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline route, limiting access to a spectacular panoramic view of the Pembina Gorge from a North Dakota Forest Service lookout.
The first sinkhole was discovered in March on the pipeline right-of-way along the Cavalier-Pembina county line.
