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.

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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.

New report finds elevated arsenic risk in Fort Chipewyan

By MATTHEW HEINDL
Fort McMurray Today staff
Friday November 09, 2007

A new study that claims high levels of arsenic and mercury are in the Athabasca River has many calling for a halt to oilsands growth, but two Alberta government departments are not supporting its findings.
More than 70 people in Fort Chipewyan met Wednesday night to hear Dr. Kevin Timoney of Treeline Ecological Research deliver his findings on river sediment deposits downstream of the oilsands.

Our Drinkable Water Supply is Vanishing

Thanks to global warming, pollution, population growth, and
privatization, we are teetering on the edge of a global crisis.

by Tara Lohan

AlterNet (October 11 2007)

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner
for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and
medium. There is no life without water."

We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and
the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed
down like stories over generations - from ice-capped mountains to rivers
to oceans.

G & M:Effect of royalty rates not so painful

Effect of royalty rates not so painful
In recent quarterly reports, energy firms say higher rates won't pinch profits so hard
NORVAL SCOTT
With files from Reuters
November 10, 2007

CALGARY -- A swath of energy companies said this week that the impact of Alberta's increased royalty charges won't be as significant as some in the oil patch had initially feared.

Total SA to Increase Strip Mining over In Situ

Total to alter Joslyn plans

NORVAL SCOTT

November 10, 2007

CALGARY -- French energy giant Total SA is re-evaluating strategy at its Joslyn oil sands development, with a view to doing more mining of the resource than previously expected, according to the junior partner in the project.

(Industry PR) Suncor Production Numbers-- Year to Date

Suncor Production Numbers-- Year to Date

CALGARY, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Suncor Energy Inc. reported today that production at its oil sands facility during October averaged approximately 260,000 barrels per day (bpd). Year-to-date oil sands production at the end of October averaged approximately 233,000 bpd. Suncor is targeting average oil sands production of 240,000 to 245,000 bpd in 2007.

Study Proves It: Tar Sands Operations Poisoning Athabasca Basin, Fort Chipewyan

By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA

High levels of cancer-causing toxins are being found in areas downstream of Fort McMurray's oilsands, says a study commissioned by residents of Alberta's oldest community.

Waters in Fort Chipewyan contain high levels of arsenic, the fish are contaminated with high levels of mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - another pollutant - are higher than they should be, said Kevin Timoney.

Timoney is the ecologist who studied the waters and sediments in the Peace-Athabasca Delta near Fort Chipewyan, 610 air km northeast of Edmonton.

"A look at Alberta's new housing plan"

A look at Alberta's new housing plan

Martin Lussier
Gauntlet News

November 08, 2007

Rental vacancies have been lower than 0.5 per cent in Calgary.

Premier Ed Stelmach announced the government would be undertaking a 10-year plan to address homelessness in communities across Alberta last week. This announcement couldn't come at a better time for some, as the 2006 Homeless Count of Calgary identified over 3,400 people without homes. Stelmach pledged to build 11,000 affordable homes over the next ten years, 4,000 of which are to be built in Calgary.

Edmonton: Report tackles sex trade

Wed, November 7, 2007
Report tackles sex trade
Edmonton Sun
By FRANK LANDRY, CITY HALL BUREAU

Prostitution is a growing problem in Edmonton, fuelled by the city's red-hot economy.

That's among the findings of a new report commissioned to address the problem.

The document calls for "safe housing" for active prostitutes and for those getting out of the sex trade. It also calls for tougher penalties for johns.

Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects

Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Pipeline, refinery would tap into Canadian crude
Oct 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Dirk Lammers
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.–As oil hovers around $90 (U.S.) a barrel, the race is on to tap more heavily into the world's second-largest oil reserve, and South Dakota – a major ethanol producer that typically sits on the alternative side of the fuel industry – is finding itself at the crossroads of two major oil projects.

Poor public image has cost oilpatch billions

Poor public image has cost oilpatch billions
'We have to regain out voice:' Producers group
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The general view of the oil sector -- some of it showing up in its own opinion polls -- is that it's greedy, crooked, environmentally and socially irresponsible, unneeded and, technologically, a dinosaur.

Yet the industry can sincerely assert that it is generous, environmentally and socially responsible, honest, essential and smart.