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
NASA scientist to testify at Total tar sands hearing
NASA scientist to testify at Total oilsands hearing
The Canadian Press
Date: Sunday Sep. 19, 2010 10:15 AM ET
One of NASA's top scientists will appear at hearings into a proposed oilsands project to warn about the climate change consequences of approving Total E&P Canada's $2-billion plan to build the Joslyn North mine.
James Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is slated to testify at public hearings into the proposal, which begin Tuesday in Fort McMurray, Alta.
Foundations and the Environmental Movement
Foundations and the Environmental Movement
September 13, 2010
An Interview With Daniel Faber
By MICHAEL BARKER
Ottawa tightens muzzle on climate change, tar sands
Ottawa tightens muzzle
Documents reveal scientists need approval from minister's office before speaking with major media - a measure one researcher calls 'Orwellian'
By MARGARET MUNRO, Postmedia News
September 13, 2010
The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.
Enbridge shuts third line in U.S. due to leak
Enbridge shuts third line in U.S. due to leak
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
September 14, 2010
Enbridge Inc. on Monday said it had substantially cleaned up an oil spill in Illinois even as a third export line to the U.S. was shut down after a leak near Buffalo, N.Y.
Enbridge Energy Partners, the Houston-based affiliate that operates Enbridge's U.S. pipeline network, reported that 6,100 barrels escaped from its Line 6A into an industrial park near Romeoville, Ill., on Thursday, and that 6,050 barrels had been sucked up by vacuum trucks over the weekend.
Utah agency approves tar-sands project
Utah agency approves oil-sands project
By PAUL FOY (AP) – September 13, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY — A top Utah regulator approved plans Monday for the first commercial U.S. oil sands project.
John Baza, director of Utah's Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, upheld an earlier decision by his staff to give Earth Energy Resources Inc. a permit to mine a 62-acre pit in eastern Utah.
Environmental activists had objected to the project and demanded a hearing held by Baza in July.
Canada Helps Create a Tar Sands World
Canada Helps Create an Oil Sands World
Alberta is showing the way for nations with similar reserves. Brace for a global 'age of tough oil.'
By Geoff Dembicki, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca
Efforts to develop oil sands in Alberta are serving as a model for many other nations eager to exploit similar reserves within their borders.
"Potential alternative to upgraders untapped for two decades"
Evolution of an oilsands 'dinosaur' killer
Potential alternative to upgraders untapped for two decades
By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal September 8, 2010
EDMONTON - A process developed in Alberta almost two decades ago that turns bitumen into oil without using upgrading facilities could be a "game changer" for the province, says the co-developer.
"I could never understand why we wouldn't try something simpler and easier for handling bitumen," said Edmonton's Keng Chung, president of Well Resources Inc., who now spends much of his time in China.
Keep industry out
Keep industry out
Calgary Herald September 7, 2010
The provincial government's proposal to have members of the oilsands industry sit on a committee tasked with overseeing a study into the unusual rates of cancer at Fort Chipewyan is an absolute nonstarter.
Neither the residents of Fort Chip, downstream on the Athabasca River from oilsands operations, nor Albertans in general, can have confidence in the conclusions of any study in which members of the industry suspected of being linked to those cancers, have oversight or control.
Enbridge signs Husky, BP deal for Sunrise Project
Enbridge signs Husky deal
Sunrise Project Next In Line; Project raises investments in oilsands to $2.3B
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald September 8, 2010
CALGARY -- Enbridge Inc. on Tuesday continued to redouble its oilsands expansion plans with a deal to tie Husky Energy's proposed Sunrise oilsands project to its Cheecham distribution hub in northeast Alberta.
The Calgary-based shipper said it had signed a $475-million deal with Husky to build and operate the facilities which will initially ship 90,000 barrels per day to its transportation hub near Conklin starting in 2013.
