Social Impacts

It should be noted that this article posits that the MGP and Alaska Highway gas lines are competing-- more blather aimed at garnering concessions and subsidies from governments, etc. The reality is that the goal of five million barrels a day of tar sands bitumen extraction-- now said to be in line to happen by 2035-- cannot take place without all the MGP gas and most of the Alaskan. Math is not a debatable point.

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Who’s on first?

Exxon-TransCan Alaska gas line push sends tremor through Mackenzie ranks

By Gary Park
Week of June 21, 2009
For Petroleum News

he Politics of Bait and Switch

by Jeffrey St Clair and Joshua Frank

CounterPunch (May 21 2009)

After little more than 100 days in office, the Democrats, under the leadership of Barack Obama, have unleashed a slew of anti-environmental policies that would have enraged any reasonable conservationist during the Bush years.

UTS eyes Fort Hills options as Suncor joins group
Tue Jun 16, 2009
By Jeffrey Jones

CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (Reuters) - UTS Energy Corp (UTS.TO) has begun to plot out new ways to develop the delayed Fort Hills oil sands project but decisions must wait until Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) closes its takeover of the operator, Petro-Canada (PCA.TO), UTS's chief executive said on Tuesday.

UTS, which has a 20 percent interest in the Alberta oil sands development, sees cost advantages in shifting some of the processing to Suncor's massive northern Alberta operations, CEO Will Roach said.

TransCanada To Acquire Remaining ConocoPhillips' Interest in Keystone Pipeline; To Issue $1.6 Bln of Common Shares
6/16/2009

(RTTNews) - Tuesday, energy infrastructure giant TransCanada Corp.(TRP.TO: News ,TRP: News ) revealed an agreement to acquire Keystone Pipeline System through the acquisition of ConocoPhillips' (COP: News ) remaining interest in the project for approximately US$550 million plus the assumption of approximately US$200 million of short-term debt.

Defenders of the Land, Private Property Abolitionists-- By Shiri Pasternak

Indigenous peoples in Canada have marked the geographical limits of
capitalist expansion through more than five centuries of permanent
resistance. Due to the geography of residual Aboriginal lands, they form a
final frontier of capitalist penetration for natural resource extraction,
agribusiness, and urban/suburban development. While much of the focus of
the economic crisis has centred on foreclosures and job losses in the
manufacturing and service sectors, a renewed push for resources – e.g. tar

Consultation means nothing without consent
June 16, 2009

Three First Nation Band Councils released a joint statement last month in response to the newly proposed Ontario Mining Act, once again raising a critical issue that the Government of Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly failed to recognize: The right to Say NO.

In effect, the absence of this right (the right of consent) in the Ontario Mining Act or any other piece of legislation in Canada is an allowance by the government to molest Indigenous People.

New Climate Report: From Bad to Worse
By Bryan Walsh
Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2009
Time

Even as Congress belatedly tackles legislation that would cut U.S. carbon emissions and international negotiators have bickered over a global climate deal in Bonn, a new report by several federal agencies underscores the truths that too often risk getting lost in politics: global warming is real, it's happening now and if we don't act soon, the consequences are likely to be catastrophic.

Hibernia South ready to start
Nfld. Project; Construction may begin as soon as next year
By Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
June 16, 2009

CALGARY - Exxon Mobil Corp. is hoping to commence construction as soon as next year on a southern extension to the Hibernia oil project offshore Newfoundland, Mark Albers, senior vice-president, told analysts yesterday.

Can oil deal prompt return to The Rock?
Nathan VanderKlippe and Shawn McCarthy
Calgary, Ottawa — Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2009

Is the smell of the sea sweeter than the scent of Alberta crude?

Danny Williams thinks so. The Newfoundland and Labrador Premier trumpeted a major deal yesterday to expand the Hibernia offshore oil platform as another leap forward by a province that has already lured home thousands of workers.

Federal Court Approves of Regulatory Proceedings as an Appropriate Method to Address Aboriginal Concerns

Source: Fasken Martineau - On May 12, 2009, Mr. Justice Barnes of the Federal Court released his Reasons in Brokenhead Ojibway Nation v. Canada, 2009 FC 484. The court upheld the Governor in Council's approval of the National Energy Board's issuance of Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the construction of three pipeline projects. The projects are the Keystone Pipeline Project, the Southern Lights Pipeline Project and the Alberta Clipper Pipeline Expansion Project.