Land

Oilsands tailings mined for minerals

By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Today staff
Tuesday April 01, 2008
Mineral rich waste from oilsands mining may soon be the source used to produce a long list of manufactured products from ceramic tiles and paints to electronics and medical appliances.
This could all come about thanks to a pilot project initiated by Titanium Corporation, and funded, in part, through Alberta Energy’s Innovation Fund. The Alberta grant is valued at $3.5 million, an amount being matched by the Toronto-based company.

Imperial Oil Loses Oil-Sands Water Permit, Globe and Mail Says

By Sean B. Pasternak

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Canadian government revoked a water permit that is key to Imperial Oil Ltd.'s C$8 billion ($7.8 billion) Kearl oil-sands project, the Globe and Mail reported.

Government is listening to polluters
Mar 24, 2008 04:30 AM
John Bennett

Federal Environment Minister John Baird claims new regulations announced this month for industry greenhouse gas emitters are "tough – tougher than any anywhere."

So why aren't environmentalists standing up and cheering?

Only a few years ago Stephen Harper called Kyoto "a socialist plot" – but now his government is calling for future oil-sands operations to capture and store the greenhouse gases they create. The Conservative government sure has come a long way, hasn't it? Well no, it hasn't.

Bush Administration's Rush to Develop Oil Shale and Tar Sands Endangers Local communities and Wild Lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
26 Conservation, Citizen, Local Government and Recreation Groups Denounce Lease Plan That Could Affect 2 Million Acres of Public Lands

Push to bar oil sands to US military
By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: March 18 2008 17:11

The powerful chairman of a key congressional committee is pressing the US federal government to comply with energy legislation that bars the use of fuel from Canada’s oil sands.

The legislation, signed into law Dec 19 last year, prohibits the federal government from procuring fuels with a higher greenhouse gas content than conventional fuels, such as that from Canada’s oil sands or coal-to-liquids.

TransCanada to build new pipeline to US

The TransCanada Company announced that it has been granted permission to build a USD 5.2 billion pipeline to export crude oil to the United States.

The TransCanada Company in a statement said that "The US Department of State issued a presidential permit to Keystone authorizing the construction, maintenance and operation of facilities at the United States and Canada border to transport crude oil between the two countries.”

Here's the real reason for Suncor's participation in the Pew/Sunoco funded Canadian Boreal Initiative -- allow for endless tarpit expansion while taking credit for some low-hanging fruit protected areas elsewhere in the boreal forest. An excellent business strategy indeed, especially given the fact that Pew/Sunoco actually *founded* Suncor in 1967. Though Pew/Sunoco sold off Suncor in 1995, they continue to refine large amounts of synthetic (mock) crude oil from the tarpits and desperately want more.

Tarpit Pete

IN THE MAIL: Pipeline can and must be stopped
Grand Forks Herald
Published Wednesday, March 12, 2008
GRAND FORKS — The Keystone oil pipeline should not be built in the location where the state Public Service Commission has given permission to begin construction.

The oil sands omerta

Norval Scott, March 12, 2008 at 3:58 PM EDT

According to oil executives speaking at the World Heavy Oil Congress
in Edmonton this week, a big challenge for the oil sands industry is
to overcome adverse public perceptions of their work. To a man, the
Canadian representatives speaking – including the chief executives of
Suncor Energy Inc. and Nexen Inc. – referred to the need to do better
in the PR battle, and emphasized that this was a priority.

It’s a fight that the companies aren’t winning, and it’s their own

Environmentalists Win landmark Tar Sands Lawsuit
Court Finds Gaping Holes in Environmental Assessment

EDMUNTON - March 5 -The Federal Court of Canada today released a judgment finding fatal legal errors in the environmental assessment of the Kearl Tar Sands Project, north of Fort McMurray.

Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon was in court in January on behalf of the Pembina Institute, Sierra Club of Canada, the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta and the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition.