Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Social Impacts

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.

warning: Creating default object from empty value in /var/www/drupal-6.28/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 33.

Reopen NAFTA, reclaim our oil

Reopen NAFTA, reclaim our oil
Linda McQuaig

Canada will need tough negotiators to gain parity in trade agreement.

Yes, let's punish the official who leaked the Canadian memo that created
heat for Barack Obama, future president of the United States.

But let's not waste much time examining the mouth of this particular gift
horse.

Let's just consider ourselves lucky that the heated US Democratic
presidential race may result in NAFTA (the North American Free Trade
Agreement) being put back on the table.

NAFTA is deeply flawed from Canada's point of view. We failed to get the

S Dakota: Settlement reached in Keystone pipeline's first eminent domain trials

Settlement reached in Keystone pipeline's first eminent domain trials

Associated Press - June 9, 2008 7:05 PM ET

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Some landowners in eastern South Dakota have reached a settlement with TransCanada Keystone for the company's use of eminent domain to build an oil pipeline.

Terms of the agreement were confidential.

The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, is building a more-than 2,000-mile pipeline designed to deliver 590,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Illinois. The pipeline will run through Nebraska.

Ottawa awards BP $1.2B in exploration permits in Beaufort Sea

Ottawa awards BP $1.2B in exploration permits in Beaufort Sea
Last Updated: Monday, June 9, 2008
CBC News

Energy giant BP came out the big winner in the federal government's latest auction for oil and gas exploration leases in the Beaufort Sea, offering to spend nearly $1.2 billion to explore on the Arctic seabed.

BP Exploration Company Ltd. won three of five exploration leases announced late Friday by the federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department.

On the Matter of Tar Sands & Indigenous Lands

Check out the video podcast:

http://citizen.nfb.ca/blogs/citizenshift/on-the-matter-of-tar-sands-indi...

Fort McMurray Group wants to start needle exchange

Group wants to start needle exchange

By VERNA MURPHY
Today staff
Friday June 06, 2008
Injection drug users in Fort McMurray will soon have a safe place to drop off their dirty needles.

Tar sands demand spurs U.S. refinery boom

Oil sands demand spurs U.S. refinery boom
As refiners increase capacity to handle Alberta oil, environmental organizations ratchet up the pressure

SHAWN MCCARTHY
GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER
June 5, 2008

OTTAWA -- American refiners are making massive investments to dramatically increase imports from Alberta's oil sands, even as they face mounting pressure in the United States over the oil sands' impact on greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution.

Chipewyan Prairie Dene Suing to Block New Tar Sands Project

First Nation wants court to block oilsands deal
Posted By THE CANADIAN PRESS

A tiny aboriginal community wants to force Alberta to consult with First Nations in a meaningful way before approving oilsands projects that native leaders say threaten their traditional way of life.

The Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation is asking Court of Queen's Bench to block the approval of Phase 3 of MEG Energy Corp.'s Christina Lake project near Fort McMurray until the province agrees to improve its regulatory process and hold talks with band leaders.

Stop the Tar Sands Oil Rush [Illinois]

Stop the Tar Sands Oil Rush
What's New

Major oil companies want to use Illinois as a major artery for bringing dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. market — with enormous consequences for our local environment and our global climate.

Background

Regulatory delay hits pipeline

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, May 26, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - The Mackenzie Gas Project is facing another regulatory delay.

A report by the Joint Review Panel (JRP) expected in mid-2008 has now been once again delayed to sometime next year.

"We cannot see this as a positive development for the project," said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesperson for Imperial Oil in Calgary.

Rolheiser said it will delay the ultimate decision on whether the pipeline will proceed.

"Exxon Mobil CEO takes aim at environmentalists" [MGP]

Exxon Mobil CEO takes aim at environmentalists
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Thursday, May 29, 2008

DALLAS -- Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil-and-gas company, came out swinging Wednesday against the environmental movement, arguing the science of climate change is far from settled and that his company views it as its "corporate social responsibility" to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels.