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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Is the Mackenzie Pipeline dead?

Is the Mackenzie Pipeline dead?
Peter Foster
National Post
August 18, 2009

Here’s a thorny question to pose as Prime Minister Stephen Harper moves
about the Canadian North this week promoting Arctic sovereignty and
use-it-or-lose it development: is the Mackenzie Valley natural gas
pipeline dead?

A year ago, Imperial’s CEO Bruce March declared that he was as optimistic
about Mackenzie development as he had been “in five or six years.” As
recently as January, Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice was talking

Peace wants say on massive dam

Region wants consideration before any studies on $6-billion Site C

BY SCOTT SIMPSON, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
AUGUST 19, 2009

Northeast British Columbia won't yield to B.C. Hydro's Site C mega-hydroelectric project without a fight.

Directors of the Peace River Regional District have voted to recommend the B.C. government reject Hydro's request to undertake geotechnical surveys of potential locations for the estimated $6-billion Site C dam and its reservoir.

China, Venezuela, et al: Three energy deals, $78B

Three energy deals, $78B
August 18, 2009

While there's been a frenzy of deals in the alternative energy market, fossil fuels still dominate the numbers when it comes to consumption and investment from companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM). Note these three deals involving China and Australia, Russia and Venezuela, and Iran and Malaysia.

Alberta cuts funding for acid-rain tests

Edmonton — The Canadian Press
Aug. 18, 2009

Alberta has cut funding for tests to determine how much acid rain is falling in the oil sands region around Fort McMurray, according to a government document obtained by The Canadian Press.

The cut went ahead even though the briefing note for the province's Environment Minister dated Aug. 11 acknowledges acid rain is falling on the energy boomtown.

The note adds that precipitation falling in northeastern Alberta has a "similar" acidity to that falling downwind in Saskatchewan.

Canadian Oil Sands Trust (Largest member of Syncrude Consortium) Q2 earnings plummet 91%

Canadian Oil Sands Trust Q2 earnings plummet 91%
Carrie Tait, Financial Post
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Tar Sands to Keep Gulf of Mexico Full of Supply

Canada, ultradeep water assure US Gulf oil supply
Tue Aug 18, 2009
By Bruce Nichols - Analysis

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Growing volumes of crude oil from Canada and the Gulf of Mexico should assure U.S. Gulf Coast refiners adequate supplies for years to come despite fast-declining imports from Mexico and Venezuela.

Exxon boosts Pegasus Pipeline to tar sands by 50%

Exxon boosts pipeline to oil sands by 50%
By Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Aug 17, 2009

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil refiner, boosted its capacity to transport crude from Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

Exxon Mobil increased the capacity of its 1,381-kilometre Pegasus Pipeline by 50% to about 96,000 barrels a day, the Irving, Tex.-based company said Wednesday in a statement.

Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project

Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project
Aug 05, 2009

DETROIT -- Marathon Oil Corporation, an integrated energy company, has announced that it is delaying the completion of the expansion of its Detroit refinery.

The company had earlier set the deadline for completion of the venture by mid-2012. It has not announced its new timeline for project completion.

The firm is upgrading the refinery to process 80,000 barrels of heavy oil per day.

http://www.heavyoilinfo.com/marathon-delays-detroit-refinery-expansion-p...

Making sense of the disconnect in oil prices

Making sense of the disconnect in oil prices
By Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Herald
August 13, 2009

Oil prices edged over the $70 US per barrel mark again this week, staying at a level where they have spent most of August's trading days. But the relative strength being shown by oil prices is continuing to confound most observers.

Keystone Pipeline spokesman says sinkholes filled in Gorge

Pipeline spokesman says sinkholes filled in Gorge
Aug 14 2009
Associated Press

Grafton, N.D. (AP) A spokesman for the Keystone oil pipeline says crews have finished filling seven sinkholes in the scenic Pembina Gorge that were formed after horizontal drilling to bury pipe.

Spokesman Jeff Rauh says the North Dakota Forest Service and the state Public Service Commission approved the plans for repairing the sinkholes. He says the company will monitor them for about a month.

Officials said earlier the sinkholes were about 40 feet deep.