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
Russia to Build Tunnel-- Rail, Highways and Pipelines-- to Alaska
Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska
By Yuriy Humber and Bradley Cook
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a5OJJzlp0xwM&refer=c...
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.
Destination Dubai: Port Approved in Kitimat, sliding towards Gateway pipelines and more
The approval of the port in Gitimaat ["Kitimat"] needs to be rescinded. This port is completely useless if there is a shipping moratorium, and with a port approval it is politically much harder to imagine both the maintenance of the shipping ban (building a port is for use) and to prevent the construction of the Enbridge Gateway Pipeline.
Priming The Pump [Walrus Magazine]
"To hell with Al Gore’s inconvenient truths; to purgatory with quisling scientists and their voluminous reports stating that Alberta’s tar sands—whether the oil there is blasted by natural gas, exploded by nukes, or even extracted in some fashion palatable to those wearing hemp or burlap—are an environmental disaster zone that, if exploited, will (by themselves) render null and void Canada’s commitment to Kyoto. Never mind. On that midsummer night, Harper, in search of foreign direct investment, was flush with energy, industry, and economic-growth models.
Alberta Fed of Labour asks NEB to Stall Keystone Pipeline Project
Labour wants Keystone pipeline put on hold
NEB warned pipeline is a job killer
EDMONTON, April 16 /CNW/ - In a submission to the National Energy Board
(NEB) on April 13, 2007, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) argues that
the Keystone pipeline project that is currently before the NEB for approval is
not in the public interest.
"We have asked the Board to consider the broader, long-term impacts of
approving the pipeline to connect suppliers of bitumen in Alberta to
purchasers of bitumen in the United States," says AFL President Gil McGowan.
ConocoPhilips: No "Quick fixes"; Describes pipes from Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico
As the world increasingly becomes terrified of the consequences of climate change, peak oil realities leave only the worst possible oil left, in terms of net energy and in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Smart corporations-- and oil and pipeline companies are definitely clever-- will start to shift from a lack of concern to "feeling the same pain" but "warning against" taking appropriate measures. If one wants, they can still make money hacking away for corporations in the Lower 48 who will pay for "studies" that disprove or downplay climate change.
More hopeful signs that the Mackenzie Gas Project is Dead?
Before the corks are popped and the bubbly pouring, let us recall that this pipe has been declared "dead" more times than Elvis Presley. At the end of the Berger Inquiry from the 1970's, there was a moratorium placed on this pipe until A) final agreements [sic] were established with all nations from the Valley; B) protected areas and proper environmental plans for the rest were laid out.
Keystone Pipeline from Ab. Tarsands could Decimate 220 acre Kansas Nature Preserve
Oil pipeline could bisect preserve
BY BECCY TANNER
http://www.kansas.com/196/story/45507.html
The Wichita Eagle
Plans to extend an oil pipeline through Kansas have some people concerned it could encroach on the Chaplin Nature Center near Arkansas City.
TransCanada energy company says it was not aware of the center when it created the preliminary pipeline route, which goes through the 220-acre preserve.
Now that the company knows about the concerns, "we are currently reviewing alternatives to this routing," said Shela Shapiro, communications specialist for TransCanada.
Enbridge Pipe Spilling Oil in Saskatchewan-- Underground
Enbridge pipeline shut down after leak
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070416.wenbridge041...
DAVID EBNER
Globe and Mail Update
One of the biggest Canadian oil pipelines to the United States has been shut down after a leak was discovered Sunday night, according to operator Enbridge Inc.
Line 3 connects Hardisty, Alta., with Wisconsin, carrying 450,000 barrels of oil a day to refiners in the U.S. Midwest — more than 20 per cent of Enbridge's capacity on its mainline, which is comprised of several links.
World Oil Reserves Are Not Being Fully Replaced
Two notes: This story comes from within the industry.
Two: the point about "The high oil prices and sharply increased upstream spending budgets of most oil companies..." translates into how expensive it is to drill/mine/pump/dig the heavy crude out of the earth and into a pipe-- the term "upstream" means the oil equivalent of a watershed. "Downstream" would be the refinery.
Energy demand to Lessen on its own?
Sadly, this form of analysis is a pipe dream, no pipeline pun intended. In the scenario that the Democratic Party of the US actually tackling the automobile industry for mileage requirements, it would first of all be many years before any significant portion of the vehicles on the road were of any consequential difference. Second, the production of all these new cars would require energy, and the alternative energies we hear about (Ethanol, for example) do not reduce but increase reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions-- you just don't have to see them as directly.
