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
The Thrill is Gone
The Withering of the American Environmental Movement
The Thrill is Gone
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR; February 3 / 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair...
"The Dark Ages. They haven't ended yet."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
A kind of political narcolepsy has settled over the American environmental movement. Call it eco-ennui. You may know the feeling: restlessness, lack of direction, evaporating budgets, diminished expectations, a simmering discontent. The affliction appears acute, possibly systemic.
Ottawa to phase out tax break for tarsands producers
Ottawa to phase out tax break for tarsands producers
SHAWN MCCARTHY
Globe and Mail Update
OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty moved Monday to end a much-criticized tax break for oil sands producers, but softened the blow to the industry by providing a long lead time for the changes.
In his budget speech, the Finance Minister announced the government will phase out the accelerated capital cost allowance which allows oil sands producers to quickly write off the cost of their investment for income tax purposes.
Mackenzie Gas Project to cost $16.2B: Imperial Oil
A few quick points.
With the recent holes in all of the so-called "action plans" on climate
change so big you could drive one of the tarsand trucks carrying 400
tonnes of earth through it, the updating of projected costs here is a
giant challenge-- a gauntlet drop, if you will-- at the feet of the
Federal government.
The MGP is now well known to be, despite being the largest industrial
project in settler Canada's history at the time it was first conceived,
just a mere inflow into the vast energy needs of the tarsands. As
Alberta Government declares water for tarsands sacred even in drought
This is the crux of the matter: water.
Now that the government has officially decided that the needs of feeding climate change are more important that even emergencies such as drought relief, the time to allow these people to make decisions regarding the tarsands has gone beyond past due.
Building Pipelines for Tarsand oil to Texas, Okla. & Louisiana
These plans are happening in the wake of the document-- only leaked, not for the public-- calling on the Federal government of Canada to quintuple tarsands development. Allowing the continuation of the tarsands process means allowing this infrastructure construction, as well. After all, if the water and the land is destroyed to feed a market, the oil must get to that market. Stopping these pipelines is part of stopping the tarsands.
A moratorium is not enough.
Enbridge Plans Expansion of Pipelines
http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org/newsstories/enbridgeplansexpansion
Feb 06, 2007
Buying the Green Movement: Scouring Scum and Tar from the Bottom of the Pit
Scouring Scum and Tar from the Bottom of the Pit
Petr Cizek
Canadian Dimension Magazine, July/August 2006 Issue
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2006/07/07/557/
N.W.T. natural gas destined for tarsands/ MGP to be repegged $11 billion
N.W.T. natural gas destined for Alberta's oilsands, groups charge
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 | 11:01 AM CT
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/02/27/jrp-edmonton.html
CBC News
A coalition of national environmental groups is concerned that natural gas from the Northwest Territories will be used to fuel oilsands extraction in northern Alberta.
N.W.T. to push for water deal with Alberta
N.W.T. to push for water deal with Alberta
Last Updated: Friday, March 2, 2007 | 11:17 AM MT
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/03/02/water-oilsands.html
Water will top the agenda when the environment ministers from the Northwest Territories and Alberta meet in Edmonton on March 20.
The territorial government is trying to reach an agreement on water quality and quantity with its southern neighbour, said Bob Bailey, the N.W.T.'s deputy environment minister.
Yet More Projects Get Go-ahead: Kearl project approved
The strategy of the major oil and energy producers in being able to maintain what they call "non interference" (via regulation, shut downs, etc) is simple. Keep all of the projects that are combining to cause: Climate change, theft of resources from people and nations, deforestation and mining of the landscape alongside increases in violence against women, children and elders in their wake-- disconnected from one another.
Water Rights for Sale in Alberta
If you aren't cynical enough and want further proof that none of the Canadian political parties are serious about tackling climate change, the fact they never mention the tarsands demonstrates that it is mostly for show.
When the recent document urging the five fold expansion of the tarsands was leaked through the CBC, this should have made it quite clear why this new water regime is necessary.
The world is running out of fresh water and Canada has lots of it.
