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.
Commentary
A licence to pollute dressed up in rhetorical petticoats
JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
January 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
Canada's conventional oil supplies are running down. They are being replaced with oil from Alberta's tar sands.
Each barrel of tar-sands oil produces two to three times more greenhouse-gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil. The result is obvious: Greenhouse-gas emissions from Alberta oil have been rising.
January 16, 2008
Feds expand temporary foreign worker pilot project
21 occupations added to expedited labour market opinion program
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Custom Handbook
The federal government has added 21 occupations to the expedited labour market opinion (E-LMO) pilot project, which makes it faster for employers in British Columbia and Alberta to hire foreign workers.
Airport passenger numbers still growing
By CHUCK CHIANG
Today staff
Tuesday January 22, 2008
If the Fort McMurray Airport seems more crowded than ever these days, it’s because that is exactly what’s happening, according to the latest passenger numbers.
The airport saw 559,059 passengers either board or get off scheduled commercial flights last year, a record high and 34 per cent higher than 2006’s 415,965 figure.
Airport officials said the pace of growth has surprised even them, noting that passenger numbers only reached 106,768 ten years ago.
Odour problem fix will cost $200M, Suncor says
Firebag output to be expanded
Reuters; With files from Canwest News Service
CALGARY - Suncor Energy Inc. says clearing up odour problems at its Firebag thermal oilsands operations near Fort McMurray will cost about $200 million, but it hopes to complete the work later this year, allowing it to boost output at the site.
A different kind of climate politics is needed
Environment Minister Baird even copied his Washington mentors by holding out to the last minute and then dramatically withdrawing his objections so that the vote could be unanimous.
by Ian Angus
January 16, 2008
“We are ending up with something so watered down there was no need for 12,000 people to gather here in Bali to have a watered-down text. We could have done that by email.” —Dr. Angus Friday, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States
TIME FOR US TO SAY 'NO MORE OIL FOR WAR' TO US
RICARDO ACUÑA / ualberta.ca/parkland
There are few things we progressive Albertans enjoy more than the opportunity to take a holier-than-thou attitude towards the United States.
Selling out sovereignty in orbit and the North
Jan 22, 2008 04:30 AM
Michael Byers
Stephen Harper talks a fine game on Arctic sovereignty. He's told Canadians that we need to "use it or lose it." He's publicly berated U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins over the status of the Northwest Passage. He's even promised to build a deepwater dock on northern Baffin Island and ice-strengthened patrol vessels for the Canadian Navy.
Premier tells U.S. that environmental toll from oilsands is a "myth"
5 days ago
WASHINGTON - Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach asked American business leaders Wednesday not to buy into the "myth" that oilsands production comes at too high an environmental cost, saying attempts to curtail it "don't make sense."
But he faced disbelieving protesters at every turn on the first day of his trade visit to the United States, including about 35 environmentalists who passed out flyers to guests arriving at a Canadian embassy reception.
Published on 10 Jan 2008 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 20 Jan 2008.
Peak oil: Why is it so difficult to explain/understand?
by Martin Payne
After several years of partial success in explaining the physics-based phenomenon sometimes known as “Peak Oil”, this author has come to one conclusion: Peak Oil is difficult to explain, and it is difficult for most people to understand.
The Dirty Dilemma of Canadian Crude
Tar sands oil comes at an environmental cost. But blocking it from the U.S. may make matters worse
By Damian Joseph
January 21, 2008
