Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present. However transient the individuals may be, the populations will not leave, as “development” takes on a logic all its own. All levels of run away development are subordinate to that development, not social need.
Dirty Fuels and the Bailout
As Dayo noted earlier, the final version of the bailout bill was sprinkled with goodies for renewable energy—including tax credits for solar investments and a one-year renewal of the production tax credit for wind power. Unfortunately, clean energy wasn't the only kind of energy to get a tax break. The bill also contains some sizeable tax giveaways intended to promote what may well be the dirtiest energy sources in existence: oil shale, tar sands, and liquefied coal.
Protesters block rail line hoping to halt Olympic Spirit Train
Canadian Press // October 12, 2008 at 7:55 PM EDT
VAUGHAN, Ont. - Protesters say they have barricaded a rail line north of Toronto in hopes of stopping CP Rail's Olympic Spirit Train.
Protester Dan Keller says about 20 non-violent activists have assembled on the rail line with one woman having chained herself to the tracks.
At this time, York Region police are monitoring the situation.
BREAKING NEWS For Immediate Release
October 12, 2008
Rail Blockade Disrupts CP Rail’s Olympic Spirit Train
“Six Nations and solidarity activists resist Olympic theft of Indigenous land, ecological destruction, and attacks on the poor”
Venezuela goes to natural gas cars
Compiled from Herald News Services
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, will trade gas-
guzzlers for new vehicles that run on natural gas and provide drivers
with natural gas for their cars for a year in a bid to boost gasoline
exports.
The old cars will be recycled and the country will profit from
increased fuel exports, President Hugo Chavez said Friday.
"We're going to exchange these mobile squanderers with a beautiful
modern family vehicle that uses gas that doesn't cost anything,"
2010 Olympic security costs could hit $1 billion, says minister
CBC News, Oct. 10, 2008
The cost of security for the 2010 Winter Games could reach as high as $1 billion but B.C. will not be on the hook for the runaway costs,according to the provincial finance minister.
B.C. is protected from cost overruns because the province is only paying for security inside Games venues, Colin Hansen told CBC News on Friday morning.
Refineries progress, but are years away from opening
By Dirk Lammers, AP Business Writer
Story Published: Oct 10, 2008
ELK POINT, S.D. (AP) – The United States hasn’t built an oil refinery on a new site in more than 30 years, but a pair of projects eyeing out-of-the way corners of South Dakota and Arizona are slowly working their way up to the big leagues.
Tar sands stocks hit 52-week lows on financing fears
Carrie Tait, Financial Post Published: Monday, October 06, 2008
CALGARY -- A slew of Canada's most respected oil and gas outfits slammed into 52-week lows during Monday's tumultuous trading session, highlighting fears that companies in the oil patch face a struggle to rustle up the cash necessary to plow ahead with expensive projects.
Labour groups critical of Harper’s oilsands comments
Friday, October 10, 2008
By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Today staff
Recent election promises by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper focusing on oilsands irritated two labour groups fighting for Canadian job, and energy, security.
Both the national Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union and the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) claim Harper continues to ignore Canadian national energy security, and the jobs pouring out of the country.
Politicians vs. our last healthy industry
Mark Milke, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, October 10, 2008
In a serendipitous release Wednesday, Statistics Canada published data on how much the oil and gas industry spends on extraction, i.e., getting oil and gas out of the ground so we can power our automobiles and heat our homes and offices, among other uses.
The numbers are staggering. In 2007, the industry spent $49.7 billion on capital expenditures. On the operating side, Canada's energy industry cut cheques worth $37.6 billion.
Ability of oilsands players to weather storm a question of timing: economist
The Canadian Press
October 10, 2008 - 12:44 a.m.
CALGARY - The ability of oilsands players to weather the recent economic tempest will in large part depend on timing, an economist says.
On Friday crude oil prices shrivelled to US$80 - break-even territory for many high-cost oilsands projects.
Derek Burleton of TD Economics says companies that started their projects a few years back will be in better shape, since their plans were based on crude prices not all that different from today's.
