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
Backlash against a whistle-blower
GLOBE & MAIL, MAY 19th by Andrew Nikiforuk
THE ENVIRONMENT: HEALTH AND SAFETY
Backlash against a whistle-blower
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070519.DOCTOR19/TPSto... nvironment
For years, Dr. John O'Connor has made headlines by continually asking why natives near the oil sands have so much cancer.
But that's not the only reason he's in such hot water now. Andrew Nikiforuk reports ANDREW NIKIFORUK May 19, 2007.
The Globe and Mail.
"Orinoco Seizure by Hugo Chavez Threatens Global Oil Stability"
It should come as no surprise that this move is "welcomed" in such reactionary fashion; radicals act, reactionary anti-movements react. Here is just such an ideological reaction below.
Orinoco Seizure by Hugo Chavez Threatens Global Oil Stability
Martin Hutchinson on May 18th, 2007
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/orinoco/2007/05/18/
Ottawa Strong Armed Akaitcho into Relinquishing Valuable Lands
Ottawa 'strong-armed' Akaitcho in land claim: Bevington
Last Updated: Thursday, May 17, 2007 | 3:16 PM CT
CBC News
The federal government forced the Akaitcho Dene First Nations into not claiming areas where exploration companies want to look for uranium, Western Arctic NDP MP Dennis Bevington alleged Thursday.
Whitecourt, used as a 'thin wedge', begins consultations with Nuke Proponents
Whitecourt is a small town near massive (mock) oil development. It's also a town known for helping establish the "precedent" of industrial development. If the nuclear proponents get one reactor approved somewhere to feed their insatiable drive for (tar sands mock) oil, then it will grow politically available ten thousand times higher, and our job gets worse.
What shall we do?
--M
Energy Alberta talks nuclear power with Whitecourt residents
More Firms moving into the Tarsands
This article is quite notable in that it comes from Qatar, and it is basically a Middle Eastern tip of the hat to peak oil. As the world continues to search for new sources of bitumen to make [mock] oil from the tarsands, this description of the mini rush for nation-states and companies to diversify their portfolios to include tarsands oil is yet more indication less and less people in positions to know about it believe that oil prices will drop below "economical levels" for the tarsands. That is roughly $30 barrels.
--M
More firms moving into costly oil sands
South Dakota Hearings on Keystone Pipeline to Begin
PUC To Hear Oil Pipeline Proposal
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,56895
05/09/2007
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission has scheduled four public hearings in June along the route of a proposed oil pipeline that would run through the eastern part of the state.
The TransCanada Keystone Pipeline would carry oil from a terminal at Hardisty, Alberta, to Illinois to supply US refineries. The 1,800-mile pipeline would enter the United States in North Dakota and also cross South Dakota, Nebraska, a corner of Kansas, and Missouri before reaching Illinois.
SPP "Could Dwarf NAFTA"
The SPP, let us not over-state things, is designed to allow the fastest use of tarsands oil while moving goods and other trasport items, including 'temporary workers' across borders that are no longer free for travel minus a passport. One giant set of rules built up to achieve the maximum flow of goods, in particular energy, while restricting the same among people.
The sovereignty of energy and capital.
--M
Wide-ranging accord with U.S., Mexico could dwarf NAFTA, MPs hear
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/270407_dwarf_nafta.html
Don Butler / CanWest News | April 27, 2007
Changes in the Tarpit Mining Procedure
Note the source: "Oilsands Review", so take not too much comfort in their pronunciations nor forget that much isn't spoken of in the article on the "improvements" in procedure just yet. Nonetheless, it's worth reading and familiarizing ourselves with.
--M
The changing face of oilsands mining
Mobile crushing systems on the way
http://www.oilsandsreview.com/articles.asp?ID=401
Diane L.M. Cook
Jun 2007
Harper and Bush "Under Fire From Environmentalists"
Harper and Bush under fire from environmentalists
Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=80120b49-2802-4...
Published: Saturday, May 19, 2007
OTTAWA -- Canadian and American politicians renewed attacks on their respective governments Friday over concerns the Harper and Bush administrations are cooking up a scheme to undermine international action on climate change.
Government of Canada Announces: "[N]ot considering ownership of the Mackenzie Gas Project"
Statement - Mackenzie Gas Project
http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/May2007/18/c3025.html
OTTAWA, May 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and
Non-Status Indians issued the following statement today regarding the
Mackenzie Gas Project:
In response to recent media coverage on the Mackenzie Gas Project, I
would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the federal
government's position on the project.
