Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands

The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities.

To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

warning: Creating default object from empty value in /var/www/drupal-6.28/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 33.

Alberta Tar Sands is a category limited to the location and production of tar sand bitumen, an area the size of the state of Florida in northern Alberta province. The giant processing plants near Fort McMurray where the land itself is strip mined as well as the primarily "in situ" in-ground steam separation/production and extraction plants in the Peace and Cold Lake Regions, all in Alberta, are the "Ground Zero" of the single largest industrial gigaproject ever proposed in human history. The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities. To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

Toronto Star: We'll pay for Suncor expansion

We'll pay for Suncor expansion
Feb 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Cameron Smith

Turning a blind eye is supposed to be a bad thing, because you live a lie. You act as if you didn't know.

In Canada, we do this every day. Some make a lot of money at it. Others believe – in a mad, schizophrenic way – that it's a formula for prosperity.

Last week there was a prime example of turning a blind eye. The business press carried stories that Suncor Energy Inc. is planning to expand its oil sands operations in northern Alberta, at a cost of $20 billion.

How the North Central Corridor and the Mackenzie Gas Project will Team to make Billions for TransCanada

Feb. 1, 2008

TransCanada acquisitions boost profit
$250 milion Bruce power overruns the lone dark spot in picture
CALGARY

TransCanada Corp. has seen its recent profits surge as the Calgary-based pipeline and power utility made several acquisitions and juggled a number of expensive mega-projects.

Profit for the fourth quarter was $377 million, up from $269 million. Revenue rose to $2.19 billion from $2.09 billion.

It's Not Nice to Let Eastern Canadians Freeze in the Dark

Strategic Petroleum Reserves
It's Not Nice to Let Eastern Canadians Freeze in the Dark

GORDON LAXER

The Globe and Mail
February 7, 2008 - Page A19

When Cape Bretoners were hit with a furnace-oil shortage in December as the
result of an early winter and late-arriving fuel tanker, it concentrated the
mind: With icy winter now gripping Canada, isn't it time to counter the
threat of longer and more widespread oil shortages in the near future?

Canada is usually an avid joiner of international conventions. But we're the

Foreign worker plan under fire

The temporary foreign worker programs, already a grotesque violation of the most basic, elementary labour (and human) rights, are being ramped up for the construction plans associated with Alberta's Tar Sands boom, and the Olympics set to cripple Vancouver and indigenous territories throughout BC. These TFW's are a *needed* component of all of this, thanks to the unprecedented size of the gigaproject/Tar Sands. Further, the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement [Tilma] is the facilitator of policy in Alberta being virtually the same in BC.

How to Avoid Action on Climate Change

The following is the text of Ian Angus’s keynote speech at “Smells Like Green Spirit,” a conference sponsored by the University of British Columbia Student Environment Centre, on January 19, 2008.

by Ian Angus, editor Climate and Capitalism
www.climateandcapitalism.com

Canadians are known for being modest and self-effacing. We don’t brag much, and sometimes we seem to have an inferiority complex, a belief that we do okay, but we seldom excel.

WBNP Officials and Native Leaders Address Water Quality in Peace-Athabasca Delta

WBNP Officials and Native Leaders Address Water Quality in Peace-Athabasca Delta
By GABRIEL ZARATE, SRJ Reporter 23.JAN.08

Ongoing concerns about water quality and possible contamination brought officials from Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) and regional native government representatives to Fort Chipewyan Wednesday, Jan. 16. The Peace-Athabasca Delta was the focus of talks, as it lies downstream from the oil sands extraction operations of Fort McMurray.

Big oil stokes the fires for the planet to burn

Big oil stokes the fires for the planet to burn
BP promised to go 'beyond petroleum'. But carbon remains at the heart of big energy firms
February 7, 2008 12:01 AM

There is a parallel universe in operation out there. Politicians try to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, while business executives lay plans to expand their carbon footprint.

Saskatchewan uranium expert brings warning to eastern Ontario, western Quebec

Four city tour to reveal uranium's long-term ecological and health pain for short-term private economic gain

by Lynn Daniluk

OTTAWA - An expert on Saskatchewan's uranium mining industry will warn people against letting the industry establish itself in the Ottawa River watershed in a 5-day book tour Jan. 22-26, 2008.

"Looking for solutions to the carbon conundrum"

This article, while interesting, has a major flaw: There is no sequestration program nor technology, and instead of dealing with the issues of Climate Change RIGHT NOW, with the means available before the next washes into the sea and hurricane hits New Orleans or elsewhere, this "plan" is precisely being taken up to *avoid* planning.

It's interesting, but the logic is not merely flawed, it's criminal.
--M

Looking for solutions to the carbon conundrum

Profit and Power at the Expense of the Lubicon: Pipeline Pushes On

http://mostlywater.org/profit_and_power_expense_lubicon
Syndicated from Intercontinental Cry
Promoted by ron collins on Mon, 2008-02-04 07:50.

According to a recent communique from Friends of the Lubicon, TransCanada officials have decided to proceed with their application to build a new jumbo gas pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory.