Peak Oil is starting to be understood across a broad spectrum, but the direct connection between peak oil, climate change and the American market-led attempt to squeeze all energy out of Alberta cannot be overstated. The smaller the global supply of oil gets, the more CO2 has been emitted and the more climate change will have advanced. This leads to more interest in the tar sands—because the profit margin goes ever higher the fewer alternatives there are for petroleum. Without Peak Oil bearing down on humanity, no economical reason would exist to produce this energy intensive, low-output petrol.
Notes for the presidential candidates
by Dave Cohen
The next president of the United States will have to confront the urgent problems attending rapid oil depletion in the OECD countries.
The world's liquid fuels supply can no longer meet demand and global exports levels are set to decline. Oil prices are high, volatile and rising each year, which is likely a permanent condition in the markets while demand remains strong.
Tar Sands vs. Clean Water: Eating the Earth for Cars
by Mark Robinowitz
Global Research, December 11, 2007
oilempire.us
The tar sands production center in northern Alberta in Canada is one of the clearest signs that the easy-to-get oil is on the wane. Tar sands are a low grade hydrocarbon deposit that requires enormous energy input to process and convert it into something resembling petroleum.
The pipeline dream lurking in Canada's wild
By Steve Kallick | December 10, 2007
ONE OF many ways to combat global warming is to replace our dirtiest, carbon-polluting fuels, especially coal and oil, with cleaner fuels like natural gas. So proponents of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, an 800-mile megaproject to tap into Canada's natural gas reserves, now say that's their plan. They want us to believe, somehow, that building this massive project through Canada's Boreal Forest wilderness will be good for the environment. Not surprisingly, a closer look at the facts suggests otherwise.
Tuesday December 11, 2007
The Guardian
www.guardian.co.uk
The real answer to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground
All the talk in Bali about cutting carbon means nothing while ever more oil
and coal is being extracted and burned
By
George Monbiot
Ladies and gentlemen, I have the answer! Incredible as it might seem, I have
stumbled across the single technology which will save us from runaway
climate change! From the goodness of my heart, I offer it to you for free.
No patents, no small print, no hidden clauses. Already this technology, a
The International Boreal Conservation Campaign (www.interboreal.org) is another front group established by the Pew Charitable Trusts, much like the Canadian Boreal Initiative (www.borealcanada.ca). The Pew family built the original tar sands project, which became Suncor. Although the Pew family no longer owns Suncor, the family company Sunoco continues to refine much synthetic crude oil. This is their non-statement about the tar sands. Of course, no mention about a moratorium or a shut down. After all, Suncor is one of their partners in the Canadian Boreal Initiative.....
Dec 6, 2007 1:00:00 PM MST
TransCanada, Imperial led group to benefit from rumoured Mackenzie restructuring (TransCanada-Mackenzie)
CALGARY _ Analysts say a reworking of the Mackenzie Gas Project will be a boon for all involved, with pipeline operator TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) likely to see major returns and the Imperial Oil-led consortium (TSX:IMO) of producers relieved of much of the cost burdens that have threatened to kill the entire energy project.
UP IN SMOKE
Scott Harris / scott@vueweekly.com
a decade of Canadian inaction
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=7611
A decade after the international community agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, and five years since Parliament ratified the agreement, there isn’t a lot of good news about how Canada has done in living up to its international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Rethinking the Implications of Climate Change and Peak Oil
by Richard Heinberg
MuseLetter #187 / November 2007
Environmental and development NGOs are now fixated on climate change to
the exclusion of nearly every other topic. Discussions in and among
these organizations center on capping carbon emissions and trading
emissions rights, and doing this internationally in a way that will be
deemed equitable by the global South and acceptable to the industrial
Northern countries.
Most of these policy organizations are seeking ways of implementing
It's the Tar Sands, Stupid
PM Harper: Bali ballyhoo.
Canada home to global warming's new ground zero.
By Mitchell Anderson
Published: December 4, 2007
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TheTyee.ca
You can't practice abstinence while running a brothel. Yet politicians of almost all stripes talk simultaneously about developing the Alberta oil sands while getting serous about reducing carbon emissions. Sound like a crock? It is.
Petrocan chief backs oil sands despite royalties
Overall viability won't be affected, says CEO Brenneman, but company's conventional oil and gas spending likely to be cut
DAVID EBNER AND NORVAL SCOTT
With files from Canadian Press
November 29, 2007
CALGARY, EDMONTON -- Higher petroleum royalties in Alberta will not hurt the "overall viability" of Petro-Canada oil sands projects, but some planned investment in conventional oil and gas in the province will be affected, chief executive officer Ron Brenneman said yesterday.
