Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
"Energy sector brings wealth, immigrants to Alberta"
Energy sector brings wealth, immigrants to Alberta
Jeremy van Loon, Bloomberg News
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Alberta Premier Alison Redford says oil is opening Canada's fastest-growing province to the world for the first time.
The population of Canada's main oil-producing region has soared by 37 percent to about 3.7 million in the past decade as companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Statoil ASA attracted workers from China, Venezuela and the Philippines to develop the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.
Still waiting for word from WH on Keystone pipeline
Still waiting for word from WH on Keystone pipeline
Chris Woodward - OneNewsNow - 12/29/2011
The clock is ticking for President Barack Obama to either make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline -- or explain why the plan is not in the nation's best interest.
Dan Simmons, director of state and regulatory affairs at the Institute for Energy Research (IER), thinks it is easy to see why the pipeline should be approved.
Oil Shale project raises hackles in Israel
Important note: This article originally had the words Oil Shale reversed as "Shale Oil". However, the common use of the term Shale Oil is in reference to fracking to recover oil near or trapped by shale rock; much like the gas released by fracking in Northeastern BC in Canada or the Northeast of the United States (New York, Pennsylvania, etc). Oil Shale extraction is in many ways worse; we do not yet know what the impact on water would be if this were to go into larger scale production, however, we do know that the energy input alone is likely to be astronomical-- in the case of Israel/Palestine, they are talking about a process of heating the rock in the ground for MANY months before a single drop of kerogen (a pre-oil substance, like the more commonly known bitumen) is literally bled out of the rock.
Just in terms of climate change this project is a disaster, never mind the impact on geopolitics, the immediate environment, Palestinian human rights, Israeli human health, etc. this could be a crime on a scale hard to imagine. It is sad to say there may be something worse than tar sands in Canada. And harder to say that it may, in fact, be in the Holy Land-- and the holiest of places within it.
--M
Imperial Oil approves US$8.6 billion expansion to Kearl tar sands mine
Imperial Oil approves US$8.6 billion expansion to Kearl oil sands mine
By Associated Press
December 21
CALGARY, Alberta — Imperial Oil Ltd. said Wednesday it will go ahead with an $8.9 billion Canadian (US$8.6 billion) expansion to its Kearl oil sands mine in Alberta.
The Calgary-based oil producer and refiner said the second phase of the project is slated to begin producing 110,000 barrels of oil per day by late 2015.
Oil Set to Spike in 2012, Say Analysts
Oil Set to Spike in 2012, Say Analysts
Friday, December 16, 2011
Jason Simpkins
NuWire Investor
"Oil shale development requires thoughtful, careful dialogue"
[This same Boak is shilling as well for the Israeli plan to decimate parts of the Elah Valley to turn rock into oil using heat, damn the energy input. They are not to be trusted and have no previous record of success, but this is reprinted here as an FYI as to what should come out of the ground vis-a-vis their "ideas". --M]
Oil shale development requires thoughtful, careful dialogue
December 12, 2011 7:56 PM
JEREMY BOAK
GUEST COLUMNIST
Jordan Jumps Forward on Energy Development
Jordan Jumps Forward on Energy Development
Laurie Balbo | December 12th, 2011
Environmental activists united in protest for a second time in six months urging public debate over Jordan’s emerging atomic energy program. Over two dozen anti-nuclear activists protested near Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh’s Amman offices last Saturday, in vocal reaction to a government policy statement reaffirming Jordan’s commitment to nuclear development.
The Oil That Comes in from the Cold
The Oil That Comes in from the Cold
By Humberto Márquez
IPSNews
December 31 2011
CARACAS, Dec 30, 2011 (IPS) - Thanks to soaring oil prices and new technology, oil producers in the hot sands of Arabia, the torrid Niger delta or the humid plains of the Orinoco are facing new competition from rivals in the frozen North.
The Anglo-Dutch Shell group was given the green light by the U.S. environmental agency to drill for oil off the coast of the northern edge of Alaska from July 2012, a project in which the company has already invested 3.5 billion dollars.
The politics of pipe: Keystone's troubled route
The politics of pipe: Keystone's troubled route
nathan vanderklippe
CALGARY
Globe and Mail
Dec. 24, 2011
Half-a-decade before TransCanada Corp.’s (TRP-T44.45----%) Keystone XL ran into a wall of political and environmental resistance, a key stretch of the route linking Canada’s oil sands to refineries in the southern U.S. emerged as a tricky, though seemingly surmountable, problem.
The route crossed a landscape of prairie and farmland, far from mountains, tundra, permafrost and other features that make it tough to dig trenches and lay pipe. But there was one obstacle.
The Circular Logic of Energy Independence
The circular logic of energy independence
High Country News
Jonathan Thompson | Dec 27, 2011
“From its beginning 200 years ago, throughout its history, America has made great sacrifices of blood and also of treasure to achieve and maintain its independence. In the last third of this century, our independence will depend on maintaining and achieving self-sufficiency in energy.”
