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
China's cash floods into Canadian energy sector
China's cash floods into Canadian energy sector
By Wenran Jiang
Asia Times
As China has become the world's second-largest economy, its demand for energy has caused it to become the world's biggest comprehensive energy consumer. Accompanying this process has been a sharp upward trend in Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) focused on energy and other resources.
Canada has become the latest addition to Beijing's FDI investment priority list with C$15 billion (US$15.2 billion) worth of Chinese capital pouring into the energy-rich province of Alberta in 2010. [1]
Keystone XL Pipeline Safety Standards Not as Rigorous as They Seem
Keystone XL Pipeline Safety Standards Not as Rigorous as They Seem
Monday 19 September 2011
by: Elizabeth McGowan, Truthout
Research by NRDC shows that only 12 of the 57 conditions set by federal regulators differ from the minimum standards already required for pipeline safety.
Washington - TransCanada and the U.S. State Department have repeatedly touted safety standards for the proposed Keystone XL heavy crude pipeline as robust and unparalleled. As proof, they point to 57 "special conditions" that the Alberta-based pipeline operator has agreed to follow.
Activists, company spar over controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline
Activists, company spar over controversial international oil pipeline
By the CNN Wire Staff
Mon September 19, 2011
(CNN) -- As the decision deadline on the controversial proposal to build a giant oil pipeline between Alberta, Canada, and Texas draws closer, activists and the company behind the project are ratcheting up their war of words.
Known as Keystone XL, the 1,700-mile pipeline has drawn fierce criticism from activists like Daryl Hannah, who spoke to CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Monday.
EIA sees huge oil hike by 2035
EIA sees huge oil hike by 2035
Oil production is set to soar by nearly 27 million barrels a day to meet booming demand from mainly non-OECD countries by 2035, the US Energy Information Administration claimed on Monday.
Eoin O'Cinneide
19 September 2011
Upstream Online
Iran and Qatar are also set to take centre stage in a jump in natural gas production in the next quarter of a century with the Middle East and Australia weighing-in heavily with increased LNG supply.
Can Israeli Oil Shale Outsize Saudi Arabia?
Maurice Picow
Can Israeli Oil Shale Outsize Saudi Arabia?
Maurice Picow | July 7th, 2011
Does Israel want its Negev and Galilee regions torn up for “black gold”?
Alberta Oil Mag on US Job creation, the recession, and the Keystone XL & Gateway Pipelines from tar sands.
Anemic U.S. job growth continues
Northern Gateway quietly gathers momentum amid stalled U.S. economy
By Jeff Lewis
September 04, 2011
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Keep an eye on U.S. President Barack Obama this week. The embattled president is set to announce his jobs package in a joint session of Congress Thursday against a backdrop of anemic U.S. job creation. A Labor Department report on Friday showed the American economy had failed to create jobs in August, putting an end to nearly a year of increases.
CTV Edmonton on Keystone XL Protests in DC
Backlash against Alta., Oil pipeline
Sat Sep. 03 2011 17:43:19
Nahreman Issa, ctvedmonton.ca
It's being called the largest act of civil disobedience in the US-environmental movement and it's directed at Alberta.
A two week "sit-in" outside the White House has come to an end Saturday, resulting in the arrests of more than 1200 people. They're calling on the government to quash the construction of an oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas.
They say despite the arrests, they are more demonstrations on the way.
Potential Enbridge Gateway Investors Grow
UPDATE 1-Enbridge pipe has 2nd China-related backer -report
Fri Sep 2, 2011 1:01pm EDT
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 2 (Reuters) - MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), a small oil sands developer partly owned by China's CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK), is among financial backers of a planned pipeline to Canada's West Coast from Alberta, a newspaper reported on Friday.
Saying no to tar sands pipelines
Saying no to oil sands pipelines
Rex Weyler says the pipeline expansion will "change the entire channel".
comments Comments (2) [ this page]
By Lindsay O’Donnell, August 30, 2011
The marchers chanted "No tar sands, no pipeline".
Koch Bros will be big winners if Keystone sludge-oil pipeline is approved
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Koch Bros will be big winners if Keystone sludge-oil pipeline is approved
by Gaius Publius on 9/04/2011
America Blog
Well, there's a surprise. Obama's worst enemy, and the climate's as well, the ever-famous Koch Brothers and Koch Industries, are positioned to be big winners if (when) the Keystone Tar Sands pipeline is approved.
