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.
Oilsands suck dollars from cleaner oil and gas
Dave Yager, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, May 04, 2008
There's a giant sucking noise emanating from northeast Alberta that gets louder as oil prices rise.
Called the Athabasca Tar Sands, its rapid development is draining imagination from the Stelmach government, flexibility from labour markets and diversification from Alberta's economy. It has also sucked Edmonton into a hopeless global environmental confrontation.
Dead ducks tar Canada's image, PM says
JOHN COTTER
The Canadian Press
May 2, 2008
EDMONTON -- Alberta is under heavy pressure to strengthen its environmental
standards as the fallout from the death of 500 ducks in a toxic wastewater pond
gets stickier than the province's oil sands.
Images and stories of the dying waterfowl have been appearing on news outlets and
blogs around the world, prompting Prime Minister Stephen Harper to suggest that
the dead ducks have tarred Alberta's and Canada's international image.
Opponents line up against proposed Canada oil pipeline
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
April 22, 2008
A new oil pipeline proposed in northern Minnesota is getting resistance from an unusual direction. Opponents say the large pipeline would contribute significantly to global warming -- not so much from the oil itself, but for how the oil is extracted in Canada.
Poor leadership nudged push for eminent domain (S Dakota)
Apr 20, 2008
Eminent domain is now front and center in the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline project.
Eminent domain, according to library.findlaw.com, is sometimes called "condemnation," and is the legal process by which a public body (and certain private bodies, such as utility companies, railroads, redevelopment corporations and -- in this case -- a pipeline company) is given the legal power to acquire private property for a use that has been declared to be public by a constitution, statute or ordinance.
They Can't Just Walk All Over Us: Farmers Resiste a Pipeline
Kari Lydersen, April 2008, The Progressive
Carlisle Kelly saved money from his Amtrak job for years to buy one of the last remaining wooded pieces of land in the expansive farm country of central Illinois . Because, as he tells it, "I'm crazy about the animals." An avid hunter and outdoorsman, he wanted to preserve the ancient oaks on a rare hilly, neverfarmed area near LeRoy, Illinois, and restore farmland back into native foliage for wild turkeys and deer.
http://intercontinentalcry.org/lubicons-walk-out-of-auc-hearing/
“If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.”
Oil pipeline developers want ND route changes
By DALE WETZEL Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press - Thursday, April 17, 2008
BISMARCK, N.D.
State regulators will hold a hearing next month on 49 proposed changes in the North Dakota route of the Keystone oil pipeline, which is intended to bring crude from western Canada to Oklahoma and Illinois.
Enbridge gets approval to expand oil pipeline
Apr 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Enbridge Inc., Canada's largest pipeline company, has received regulatory approval to expand an existing oil pipeline in Alberta to reduce the chance of a bottleneck as tar-sands output rises.
The expansion's capacity will be 880,000 barrels a day, Canada's National Energy Board said yesterday in a written decision on the agency's website. Attached to the approval were 15 conditions, including a requirement to file an environmental protection plan before starting work.
Alberta Oil Sands affect the environment
COLBY STREAM
News Writer
"Problems don't stop at the border," Co-Director of Boise State Canadian Studies Lori Hausegger said. "They go across the border, so that's an issue everyone has to think about."
Canada week, which takes place the first week of April every year, addresses some of these problems.
"Canada week helps, I think, to educate folks and Boise State … about Canada. People don't know a whole lot about the country," Co-Director of Boise State Canadian Studies Ross Burkhart said.
Tribes, landowners in the Dakotas face down giant pipeline
Posted: April 11, 2008
by: Stephanie Woodard
State Department hands out tobacco, stirs anxiety
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Unease appears to be growing in North and South Dakota over imminent construction of the 2,000-mile Keystone Pipeline, which would transport oil from northern Canada across seven U.S. states from North Dakota to Oklahoma.
