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
Klein concedes: No Environmental Plan, No Health Care Plan
Former Premier Ralph Klein warns of health backlash
By RENATO GANDIA
Today staff
Thursday April 05, 2007
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/Local%20News/298912.html
VANCOUVER -- Former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is quick to admit he didn’t have a plan to fix the blistering effects of the oilsands boom on the strained infrastructure of Fort McMurray and other parts of Alberta.
But he’s not as forthcoming about the reason.
Pioneering Welsh town begins the transition to a life without oil
Pioneering Welsh town begins the transition to a life without oil
As the supply of cheap fuel dwindles, rural Lampeter embarks on 'energy descent'
Felicity Lawrence
Saturday April 7, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2051911,00.html
There is, as the ads say, no Plan B. The age of cheap oil is drawing to a close, climate change already threatens, and politicians dither. But the people of Lampeter, a small community in the middle of rural Wales, gathered together earlier this week to mobilise for a new war effort. They decided to plan their "energy descent".
Syncrude President: Industry Needs Massive Tax Breaks
Before you read on to the article below, I thought I would help to arm the reader with this link to some financial reports from Syncrude: "Selected annual financial information"
http://cos-ar.beta.zu.com/annual_report/2006/html/discussion_analysis/se...
...so with those numbers in your head and a secret plan (not a proposal) to quintuple production almost exclusively to feed US markets' rapacious needs well known to Jim Carter of Syncrude, then see what the concerns really are.
--Macdonald
"We're shipping oil to Texas, which is kind of funny when you think about it"
Enbridge eyes Gulf route
Demand growing; Buying assets seen as better plan than building pipeline
Jon Harding, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, April 05, 2007
CALGARY - Enbridge Inc. is accelerating plans to satisfy a growing thirst for Canadian crude among refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast and would rather buy existing assets in the United States than build a $4-billion direct pipeline link between Alberta and Texas.
Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline hits new snag: Dehcho want land use plan
Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline hits new snag
First Nation wants wilderness plan first
LISA SCHMIDT, CanWest News Service
Montréal Gazette, Calgary Herald
April 05, 2007
The last aboriginal holdout to the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline is putting up another hurdle to its development, calling on the federal government yesterday to protect vast swaths of northern wilderness before the project can proceed.
Dehcho Nation wants land protection for pipeline
Dehcho Nation wants land protection for pipeline
Apr 04, 2007 07:39 PM
James Stevenson
Canadian press
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/199652
CALGARY–Ottawa must act now to protect a vast swath of land in the Northwest Territories if it wants to see a $16-billion natural gas pipeline built down the Mackenzie Valley, a major Dene First Nation said Wednesday.
Tar Sands halt called for at "Oilsands consultations"
Oilsands committee told to halt development
Last Updated: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | 12:28 PM MT
CBC News
A provincial government committee touring Alberta to hear what people have to say about the pace of development in the oilsands were told on their Edmonton stop to halt development.
Everyone who spoke to the panel Tuesday night made passionate arguments in favour of stalling new projects until a wide range of problems are addressed.
Enbridge the Big Winners: Many Pipes, Expanding Capacity
With the land already compromised South and the tarsands themselves so vast and ugly, these are the projects that we can safely overlook or play down, right?
Showdown With Big Oil-- Ed. Sun
When these are the types of editorials written by those most sympathetic to the tarsand producers, we know the tide is slowly yet surely turning.
-M
Showdown With Big Oil
April 3, 2007
By NEIL WAUGH
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Business/Columnists/Waugh_Neil/2007/04/03/390...
There’s a battle brewing out there. People are getting right ticked off.
The boom-to-end-all-booms is starting to look like a bust for many. And they are getting mad.
Already Premier Ed Stelmach has three not-in-my-backyard movements going in his constituency alone.
Suspicious Death at the Suncor Tar Pit....?
Suspicious death at the oilsands
By CP
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/04/02/3897136-sun.html
FORT MCMURRAY -- RCMP are investigating the suspicious death of a man at the Suncor oilsands plant north of Fort McMurray.
A worker found the body yesterday morning and reported it to emergency services.
Several hundred tradesmen were sent home and security was tight at the plant while police investigate. Const. Tye Roddick-Ament said investigators are not ruling anything out, including the possibility of foul play.
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