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
National Climate Change Plans Come Nowhere Near What We Need to Do
"Meanwhile, Canada falls farther behind in its rail infrastructure, continues to build sprawling, car-dependent, single-family houses on local farmland, and continues to invest in the appallingly destructive Alberta Tar Sands, Harper's home turf and financial base.
Canada cannot do its part to save the lives of those millions of people who will be victims of climate change until it decarbonizes its economy. That means no more Tar Sands and no more automobile suburbs."
National Climate Change Plans Come Nowhere Near What We Need to Do
Posted 2007/05/01 | By: Ryan McGreal
Nuclear Power for Alberta being labelled "Inevitable"
The language of "inevitability" is the only thing that is truly inevitable. A rule of thumb for something that your instincts tell you may not be a good idea and perhaps might see opposition is that the moment it is treated as "inevitable" means that those who plan such things truly fear it is actually not at all inevitable.
China's consul general flies to Fort McMurray
China's consul general flies to Fort McMurray
Meets with 120 Chinese workers after fatal accident
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=0166748b-62c8-4...
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
EDMONTON Chinas Calgary-based consul general flew to Fort McMurray Friday to meet with a group of Chinese workers based at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.s Horizon oilsands project in the wake of a workplace accident that left two men dead and four others injured.
Grandmother from Colorado Versus Syncrude
U.S. activist takes on Syncrude
Colorado woman 'appalled' by the energy used at the Alberta tar sands operation
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070503.OILSANDS03/TPS...
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
Syncrude Canada Ltd. has picked an unlikely David-and-Goliath-type battle with a feisty 85-year-old Colorado grandmother over a website she created that portrays the giant energy company in an unflattering light over the environmental costs of the tar sands.
Coast Tsimshian to take 'Direct Action' against Port Construction in Prince Rupert
This new port development, lauded as a part of a Canadian strategy to open up a Gateway to the Asia Pacific, is all a part of the new plans to make northern BC-- in Prince Rupert and further into the shoreline at what is commonly called Kitimat-- a major hub for bringing in diluent fuels from Russia while shipping Tarsand mock oil to China and California.
TransCanada prefers Coal Power to Nuclear; Ruling nothing out for Tar Sands Power
TransCanada considers Alberta nuclear source
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/208153
Apr 27, 2007 07:02 PM
Dina O'Meara
Canadian press
CALGARY–Pipeline and power giant TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) said today coal is still king in Alberta, but that building a nuclear power plant in Western Canada could be an option in the future.
"The way we look at it, nuclear is primarily an option for supplying electricity demand in Alberta, long-term" Hal Kvisle, president and chief executive said, following the company's annual meeting.
TransCanada to extend reach of Keystone right to the East Coast
Yet another great example of how impossible it is for a democratic discussion for the people of all of North America to be commenced without a realistic environmental impacts assessment from the tarsands-- an assessment that must take place for the entire continent, necessary components therein, and all of the "natural extensions" that will "guarantee the lifetime" of this or that pipeline (For example in the Mackenzie Valley-- stage one of the pipeline would ultimately lead to a decimation of the Colville Lake/Sahtu region through a gazillion and one gas pads).
Dakotas look to Fast Track Keystone Pipeline from Tarsands
Oil pipeline on fast track
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070429/NEWS/7042...
Firm hopes to pump 435,000 barrels per day under S.D. by 2009
By Peter Harriman
pharrima@argusleader.com
April 29, 2007
For South Dakotans used to seeing large projects such as the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad expansion toil for years to gain regulatory approval and fight legal challenges, a proposed oil pipeline through eastern South Dakota appears to be moving at astonishing speed.
[Tarsand Mock] Oiling up the Coast: Proposed tanker route into Kitimat.
[Tarsand Mock] Oiling up the Coast
Proposed tanker route into Kitimat.
Harper shrugs off 35-year ban on risky tanker traffic.
By David Beers April 30, 2007
TheTyee.ca
People on British Columbia's north coast have come to rely on a couple of assumptions.
One, oil tankers are forbidden to sail close to their jagged shore. Too risky.
Two, Albertans and their oil schemes are a safe, comfortable distance away.
Energy Alberta Announces Plans for Nuclear Plant near Whitecourt, Elsewhere
Nuclear power plant proposed for Whitecourt
Energy Alberta Corporation, an Alberta-based energy company, is actively looking at the town of Whitecourt and other Alberta communities as a potential host for a nuclear power plant.
http://www.whitecourtstar.com/News/303973.html
Tuesday May 01, 2007
The company has said they expect the plant to be part of an exciting new venture that will benefit Alberta for decades to come and will provide clean, emission free power required by the ever-growing oil sands projects.
