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.
PNWER study on Energy "recommendations" for the Region
Nukes for the tar sands, massive new hydro projects in BC & AB, natural gas pipelines, new coal plants & more! And if we don't do this? Well, according to PNWER: blackouts, job losses and extreme price increases will occur! Be afraid, consume, and forget about everything else. This is to "help" stop climate change we are told. Coal, tar sands, these are now "solutions". Don't think about it, or else you will get a headache...
--M
*****
Russia and Venezuela Will Coordinate on Energy
By ANNE BARNARD // NYTimes
Published: July 23, 2008
MOSCOW — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia declared Tuesday that their countries would more closely coordinate their actions on global oil and gas markets and that they would work together on foreign policy, a sphere in which both countries have sought to counter American influence.
July 23, 2008
Will Offshore Drilling Help?
by Tam Hunt, Community Environmental Council
With oil prices topping new records every week, the chorus for increasing offshore drilling is growing. Will it help?
Canadian energy policy "Made in USA"
The window may be closing on what's left of Canadian decision-making power over our own energy.
Dateline: Tuesday, July 22, 2008
by Linda McQuaig
When Americans want something that lies in another country, the consequences for that other country can be severe.
Even if they don't actually invade, they put a lot of pressure on lesser countries to behave as they want.
The future of the oil sands is one of the most important and contentious issues facing Canada.
Alaska House OKs gas pipeline license for TransCanada Corp.
11 hours ago
JUNEAU, Alaska — The Alaska State House of Representatives has approved a state license for a Canadian company to pursue a natural gas pipeline project that could unlock 130 million cubic metres of North Slope gas reserves daily.
The House backed the plan on a 24-16 vote Tuesday. A reconsideration vote is planned Wednesday, but that's usually a formality. If approved then, the bill will go to the state Senate, which must approve or reject it before Aug. 2.
Issues - 2 + 2 = 5
Why Alberta’s $4 billion greenwash doesn’t add up to much of anything
RICARDO ACUÑA / ualberta.ca/parkland
It seems lately that the role of government in Alberta has become more and more about image and spin than about actually doing anything concrete and positive in the public interest. The attitude seems to be that it doesn’t really matter if you are actually doing anything positive, as long as you can convince people that you are.
Suncor says oil sands pipeline shut after leak
Thu Jul 17, 2008
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A pipeline carrying diesel fuel from Suncor Energy Inc's northern Alberta oil sands operations sprung a leak on Tuesday, but production at the facilities has not yet been affected, the company said.
Suncor, the No. 2 oil sands producer, said a leak on its pipeline running from Fort McMurray, Alberta, to Edmonton was detected at 11:30 a.m. local time on July 15 and the pipeline was shut down.
2010 Organizing and the Tar Sands: Inspiring the SPP and Helping the Olympics
By Macdonald Stainsby; July 14, 2008 - Znet
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18182
For much of the last year, many of the anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian forces across Canada have started to work towards converging many of the bigger issues to take place in 2010 into a larger whole.
Enbridge delays Gulf Coast pipeline
Company blames lagging output in oil sands as it pushes back project to 2014
NORVAL SCOTT AND SHAWN MCCARTHY
July 10, 2008
CALGARY, OTTAWA -- Enbridge Inc. is pushing back plans to build a $2.6-billion pipeline that would connect the oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, blaming the delay on the slow pace of development in Alberta.
Stupid oilsands schemes
Oilpatch welfare smacks of Don Getty years
By NEIL WAUGH, EDMONTON SUN
Tue, July 15, 2008
Premier Ed Stelmach was spreading the good news last week in hopes of deflecting any bad news he might get later this week when he meets his provincial counterparts in Quebec City.
"We need to spread the word," the premier told oil industry execs a day after unleashing $2 billion in oilpatch welfare, which had haunting echoes of the pump-priming Don Getty years.
"Our province is a reliable supplier of abundant energy produced in a responsible manner."
