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.

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Ignatieff — in Alberta — talks down proposed Gateway pipeline

Ignatieff — in Alberta — talks down proposed oilsands pipeline

By Renata D’Aliesio, Canwest News Service
July 11, 2010

CALGARY — Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff chastised the Harper government Saturday for waiting too long to build a relationship with China — but he remained steadfast against the prospect of tankers shipping oilsands fuel to Asia from the northern B.C. coast.

Ignatieff, in Calgary for a Liberal Stampede breakfast fundraiser, renewed his call for a ban on oil tankers in northern British Columbia.

Blowout near Conklin shoots steam and bitumen into the air

This project-- Devon Jackfish-- had only just announced their approval to double in size. They also just got a few million dollars as "cutting edge leaders" in C02 "capture" technology. They are supposed to be among the best of the tar sands companies in terms of "performance" and "doing the right thing".

Canadian Tar Sands Will Become Top US Crude Source

Canadian Oil Sands Will Become Top US Crude Source
Published: Monday, 28 Jun 2010
By: Justin Solomon
CNBC Producer

As the future of offshore drilling remains in jeopardy, more investors and energy companies are focusing their attention on the US's neighbor to the north, Canada.

Canada has proven oil reserves of more than 170 billion barrels—second only to those in Saudi Arabia. Much of that crude lies beneath the tundra of Alberta in a thick oil, sand and water mixture called bitumen, more commonly called oil sand.

Devon Energy reports Alberta Tar Sands well leak

Devon Energy reports Alberta Oil Sands well leak
By Edward Welsch

CALGARY (MarketWatch) -- A blowout at one of Devon Energy Inc.'s oil sands wells in northeastern Alberta over the weekend sprayed an oil mist into the air for nearly 36 hours, the company and regulators said Monday.

Devon employees discovered a leak in one of the producer wells at the company's 35,000 barrel-a-day Jackfish facility mid-day Saturday and managed to seal the leak by midnight Sunday, a Devon spokeswoman said.

Total to Buy UTS to Expand in Canadian Tar Sands

Total to Buy UTS to Expand in Canadian Oil Sands
July 07, 2010

By Kari Lundgren and Stephen Cunningham

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Total SA, Europe’s second-biggest oil producer, will buy UTS Energy Corp. for C$1.5 billion ($1.4 billion) in cash and shares in a new company to boost its output from Canadian oil sands.

Rally at Canadian Embassy, White House Opposes Tar Sand Pipeline

Rally at Canadian Embassy, White House Opposes Tar Sand Pipeline
July 10, 2010
Kansas City Info Zine

By Jessica Kokesh - Environmentalists are protesting plans for a second pipeline that would send tar sands from Canada to Texas to be refined into oil.

Washington, D.C. - infoZine - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire - Environmentalists urged government officials to block construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline during a protest Thursday.

Michigan protests tar sands oil

Michigan protests tar sands oil
Published: July 9, 2010

DETROIT, July 9 (UPI) -- A pipeline carrying oil from tar sands in Canada to markets in the United States is an environmentally risky project, protesters in Michigan said.

Commercial deliveries of crude oil to the U.S. Midwest from the Keystone pipeline from Canada started during the last week of June.

TransCanada, the operator of the pipeline, said a U.S. leg of the pipeline includes more than 1,000 miles of new pipe to northern and Midwest states.

Corporate whining about unfair treatment of tar sands

Canadian Oil Sands Unfairly Tainted By BP Fiasco
June 21, 2010
Gordon Pape is editor and publisher of The Canada Report.

The town of Bellingham, Washington (population 75,000) made news recently when the local council passed two resolutions effectively banning the use of fuel derived from the Canadian oil sands (or "tar sands" as environmentalists prefer to call it).

CPP invests $250M in tar sands

CPP invests $250M in oilsands

Federal pension plan buys 17 per cent of Laricina Energy Ltd.
July 6, 2010
CBC News

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has paid $250 million for a stake in a small Alberta oilsands firm.

On Tuesday, Canada's largest pension plan purchased 8,333,333 shares in Laricina Energy Ltd. for $30 per share in a private placement. After the sale, CPP will own 17 per cent of the energy company.