Land, regardless of whether covered by forests, tundra or grasslands, is threatened by mining operations such as Alberta’s vast open tar pit operations, or through incredible networks of “right of way” cuts for pipelines that extend in the hundreds of thousands of miles, all told, and across the continent in four directions and to three oceans—either through feeding the tarsand operations with fossil fuel energy or through feeding energy markets from tarsand operations after production. In the case of pipeline right of ways, they can blast directly through mountains or be buried in permafrost if needed, to get the energy to move.
Northwest Passage's northern route open again
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008
The northerly route of the Northwest Passage has been declared navigable by the Canadian Ice Service.
It's just the second time in history -- and the second year in a row -- that the Parry Channel has opened enough to let regular ships safely through.
Westar Energy to Build Transmission Line Near Atchison, Kansas
Posted on: Tuesday, 2 September 2008, 09:00 CDT
Westar Energy, which is engaged in power generation, transmission and distribution, has announced that it will build a 115kV high-capacity transmission line near Atchison, Kansas.
First Nations look to halt pipeline project
Chiefs want Ottawa to consult with them over project
By PAUL TURENNE, SUN MEDIA //
Tue, September 2, 2008
A potentially historic court hearing that may ultimately cause pipeline construction in Manitoba to be delayed and could possibly see local First Nations get a piece of oil revenues began in Winnipeg today.
Suncor oil sands plant outage means less light oil
Tue Sep 2, 2008 5:15pm EDT
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it expects a processing unit at one of its oil sands upgrading plants to be off line for up to 90 days, changing the mix of its output but not cutting overall production.
Suncor, which runs Canada's second largest oil sands mining and synthetic crude operations, said a hydrogen plant at the northern Alberta site suffered an unscheduled outage in August.
Canada pushing to exploit Alberta's oil sand
Rob Gillies, Associated Press
Sunday, August 31, 2008
(08-31) 04:00 PDT Fort McMurray, Alberta
The largest dump truck in the world is parked under a huge mechanical shovel waiting to transport 400 tons of oily sand at an open pit mine in the northern reaches of Alberta.
Each Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler - three stories high, with tires twice as tall as the average man - carries the equivalent of 200 barrels of heavy oil worth nearly $23,000 per haul at today's prices.
ALABAMA VOICES: Drilling not answer
August 31, 2008
First of two parts
By John Ackerman
Over the past few months there has been a great deal written about our dependency on fossil fuels and an alternative to this dilemma called "drill here, drill now, pay less" was offered.
Enbridge, BP to expand pipeline network
August 29, 2008 at 12:44 PM EDT
CALGARY — Enbridge Inc. and BP Plc plan to spend up to $2-billion (U.S.) expanding their pipeline systems to ship growing volumes of Canadian crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast, they said Friday.
Enbridge, best known as operator of the main artery for Canadian oil exports, and BP, the British oil major, said they aim to develop a system to ship 250,000 barrels of oil a day to Texas City, Texas, from Flanagan, Illinois, by 2012.
Toll road may aid pipeline costs
SHAWN MCCARTHY // GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER
August 29, 2008
OTTAWA -- The federal and territorial governments are looking at inviting private-sector partners to build a toll highway up the Mackenzie Valley as a way of opening the North for development and lowering costs for a long-delayed natural gas pipeline.
If By Clean You Mean Filthy
by Umbra Fisk
Grist (July 23 2008)
Question
Dear Umbra,
I noticed that several of the presidential primary debates were
sponsored by clean coal. This was announced during breaks and several
commercials aired. I have since seen several more commercials and online
advertisements. Is clean coal an oxymoron? Is this a PR stunt or are
there any real environmental benefits to clean coal that rival solar and
wind? See www.americaspower.org.
Andrew S.
Brookline, Massachusetts
Answer
Dearest Andrew,
Canada's Harper Says Mackenzie Pipeline to `Come to Fruition'
By Theophilos Argitis and Alexandre Deslongchamps
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is ``optimistic'' Imperial Oil Ltd.'s Mackenzie pipeline project will ``come to fruition.''
``I am optimistic that in the not-too-distant future this project will come to fruition,'' Harper told reporters today in the village of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
