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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Aging Chevron oil refinery must clean up or shut down

By Peter Cech, The Province June 1, 2010

I am appalled that oil leaks are still happening in Burrard Inlet in the heart of the Lower Mainland.

There's a long string of "events" related to Chevron's operations in North Burnaby. "Unplanned discharges" of particulate and toxic fumes in the air we breathe are an annual event.

We've even been subjected to leaks of methyl tertiary butyl ether. This goes beyond the "nuisance odours" we've been subjected to for decades.

Alberta’s Tar Sands and Idaho’s Wilderness Gateway

Unfiltered By Nick Gier, Unfiltered 5-31-10

In April of 2008, over 1,000 ducks flying over Northern Alberta took a break from their migration north and landed in what they perceived was just another lake in the area. They never took flight again, along with other 10,000 other waterfowl that year. The water in many of these lakes has been tarred and poisoned by bitumen processing.

Athabasca Oil Sands, Greystar, Nexen: Canadian Equity Preview

Athabasca Oil Sands, Greystar, Nexen: Canadian Equity Preview
May 31, 2010, 8:27 AM EDT

By Matt Walcoff

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of the following companies may have unusual moves in Canadian trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses.

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. (ATH CT): PetroChina Co.’s partner in Canadian oil sands development received an “outperform” rating in new coverage from Justin Bouchard of Raymond James Financial Inc. The company “represents one of the most attractive acquisition candidates in the oil sands space,” the analyst wrote in a report.

New pipeline won't sate Asian oil demand -Enbridge

New pipeline won't sate Asian oil demand -Enbridge
Mon May 31, 2010 5:08pm EDT

CALGARY Alberta, May 31 (Reuters) - The planned C$5.5 billion ($5.3 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline will not be big enough to satisfy demand for Canadian oil sands crude from Pacific Rim nations, Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO), the line's backer, said in regulatory filings.

“Joint” agreements: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement.. just plain bizarre

May 31st, 2010 by salmon guy

I’ve been reading through the leaked version of the recently announced Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement – the touted historic agreement signifying a new era of Joint Leadership in the Boreal Forest.

First Nations and Tar Sands Industry Clash in the Courts and the Hague

Canadian Forestry Firms’ Agreement Fails on Caribou, Boreal Protection

Canadian Forestry Firms’ Agreement Fails on Caribou, Boreal Protection
Good news turns out to be too good to be true

by Wilderness Committee Manitoba

Winnipeg, MB - A recent announcement by a 21-corporation forestry consortium that led Canadians to believe that huge swaths of boreal forest and caribou habitat were no longer going to be logged turned out to good to be true, as 9 times more caribou habitat is being targeted for logging than is being temporarily preserved over the next three years.

Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement

Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
Officials, First Nations, activists offer praise, criticism
May 26, 2010

The announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has sparked a mix of sweeping pronouncements and passionate reactions. Below, we have compiled a small sampling.

Readers are invited to post additions in the comments sections at the bottom of the page.

"The Ontario government is encouraged to see environmental groups and forest companies working together to help develop a plan that would lead to both a healthy and a prosperous Canadian forest."

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Reconsidered

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Reconsidered
ENGOs sign over right to criticize, companies continue to log caribou habitat

by Dawn Paley
May 26, 2010

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

VANCOUVER—Last week’s announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) was celebrated by environmental groups as a historic deal that could save a significant amount of sensitive woodland caribou habitat.

Chinese firm buys $435-million stake in Penn West

Chinese firm buys $435-million stake in Penn West to form oilsands joint-venture
Thu May 13 2010
Lauren Krugel
The Canadian Press

CALGARY — China is making yet another push into Alberta’s oilsands, taking on a five per cent stake in Penn West Energy Trust and inking a joint-venture to develop some of the Canadian oil heavyweight’s land.