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
TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline for Export, With Little Return for Canadians
TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline for Export, With Little Return for Canadians
OTTAWA, March 18, 2014 /CNW/ - A new report shows that nearly all of the 1.1 million barrels a day of crude oil the proposed Energy East pipeline would carry would be exported unrefined. The report, TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: For Export, Not Domestic Gain, shows eastern Canadian refineries would process only a small amount of crude from Energy East, given that they already rely substantially on two other North American sources, with a third source imminent.
Tar sands threat moves closer [Maine]
Tar sands threat moves closer
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 14, 2014
In the wake of a troubling decision by Canadian officials, anti-tar-sands activists are urging US Senator Susan Collins to join the rest of Maine’s Congressional delegation in calling for a new Presidential Permit should the Portland Pipe Line Corporation seek to reverse the flow in its own pipeline, which would open the valve to pump tar sands all the way from Canada to Casco Bay.
Tar Sands Pipeline Coming to North Dakota
Oil Sands Pipeline Coming to North Dakota
March 18, 2014 by Alisha Mims •
The largest crude oil pipeline project in the state of North Dakota is getting closer to becoming a reality. Enbridge Energy’s Sandpiper Pipeline Project, also called the Northern Gateway project, would carry oil sands bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s Bakken Shale to the British Columbia coast. Enbridge recently announced plans to make the pipeline operational by 2016.
Alberta Regulator Quietly Halts Steam Bitumen Mining Near Fort Mac
Alberta Regulator Quietly Halts Steam Bitumen Mining Near Fort Mac
by Andrew Nikiforuk, originally published by The Tyee | March 13, 2014
The Alberta energy regulator has suspended the fastest-growing source of bitumen production around Fort McMurray due to concerns about fracturing the region’s cap rock.
Keystone pipeline may be headed for further delay
Keystone pipeline may be headed for further delay
By Tom Cohen, CNN
Wed February 26, 2014
Washington (CNN) -- A debate of more than five years could stretch even longer with Wednesday's call for a health study on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Two Democratic senators -- Barbara Boxer of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- urged Secretary of State John Kerry to examine higher rates of cancer and other illness reported in places impacted by the "tar sands" oil from northern Alberta.
Keystone Protest Held; URI Divestment Possible
Keystone Protest Held; URI Divestment Possible
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
350 Press Release and story of White House Action
Hundreds of Students Arrested at White House Protesting Keystone XL
Posted: 03/02/2014
I just came back from the White House, where the police are still arresting the hundreds of students who are taking part in what will likely be the largest act of youth civil disobedience at the White House in a generation.
This is XL Dissent: a massive surge of protest against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and a powerful show of solidarity with all communities who are fighting the fossil fuel industry and confronting the impacts of the climate crisis.
Alberta doctor tells U.S.: Canada is ‘lying’ about tar sands’ health effects
Alberta doctor tells U.S.: Canada is ‘lying’ about tar sands’ health effects
Thursday, 27 February 2014
American Senators told that oil sands are linked to a huge spike in cancer, despite Canadian government claims
Mychaylo Prystupa
Vancouver Observer
A northern Alberta doctor warned U.S. Senators on what he says have been the devastating health impacts of the tar sands on families – effects, he says, that have been willfully “ignored” by the Canadian and Alberta governments.
Another Enbridge pipeline proposed for Canadian tar sands oil
Another Enbridge pipeline proposed for Canadian tar sands oil
Duluth News Tribune
By: John Myers
March 4, 2014
Enbridge Energy said today it plans to build yet another new oil pipeline into the Northland, on top of two expansion projects already in the works.
Enbridge said it would end service of its aged Line No. 3 from Alberta to Superior and replace it with a larger capacity line to bring northwestern Canadian oil into the U.S.
13 Towns Pass Anti-Tar Sands Resolutions
13 Towns Pass Anti-Tar Sands Resolutions
VPR
By Amy Kolb Noyes
Voters in Albany, Barton, Glover, Hartland, Jay, Richmond, Sheffield, Shelburne, Stannard, Stafford, Sutton, Westmore, and Wheelock passed anti-tar sands resolutions at Town Meeting this year.
The issue was also on the Town Meeting warning in Burke, but voters there decided to table a vote after some discussion.
