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.
October 24, 2007
A New Wave of Exploitation
Canada, Alberta defy UN, sell off rights to disputed Lubicon land
by Kevin Thomas
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Elder Reinie Jobin examines Lubicon land razed by oil companies. The Lubicon were not consulted or notified. Photo: Friends of the Lubicon
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.
October 21, 2007
Harper's Index
Stephen Harper introduces the tar sands issue
by Stephen Harper
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
We are currently the fifth largest energy producer in the world. We rank 3rd and 7th in global gas and oil production respectively. We generate more hydro-electric power than any other country on earth. And we are the world’s largest supplier of uranium. But that’s just the beginning.
October 17, 2007
Working Full-Time
The work camps of Fort McMurray
by Lindsay Bird
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Two mechanics from site picked me up at the Fort McMurray Greyhound station at 2pm. I had spent the uncomfortable six-hour bus ride from Edmonton beside a large, sweating man from Bathurst, New Brunswick, who worked at the same site to which I was travelling. When this connection was discovered, he excitedly phoned his sons, also on-site, to tell them 'a girl was coming.' My introduction to the alternate society of work camps had begun.
NUCLEAR SMOKE AND MIRRORS FROM ALBERTA TO AUSTRALIA:
The AECL’s Advanced Candu and Bush’s Global Nuclear Partnership
By Jim Harding
Over the span of 38 years, Northern Alberta has changed from a pristine environment rich in cultural and biological diversity to a landscape resembling a war zone marked with 200-foot-deep pits and thousands of acres of destroyed boreal forests. Lakes and rivers have been contaminated and groundwater systems drained. The impact of the tar sands industry is what I am talking about. This industry has also resulted in the disruption to the Dene First Nations and their treaty rights, including the cultural disruption to the Cree and Metis communities.
Gil McGowan: A Union Vision For The Future Oilpatch
By Mike Byfield
[from: Dob Magazine: "on online source for the oil and gas industry"
Non-OPEC Oil Production
Toni Johnson, Staff Writer
October 19, 2007
Council on Foreign Relations
Introduction
October 20, 2007
Passing Out in Upgrader Alley
In Alberta's "Industrial Heartland," massive developments rival those of the Athabasca tar sands region
by Lori Theresa Waller
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Shell’s upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. [creative commons] Photo: Matthew Dance
October 18, 2007
Tar Sands and the American Automobile
Heavy crude largely heads south to fuel American cars
by Yves EnglerBianca Mugyenyi
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
A traffic jam during shift change, near Fort McMurray. The tar sands will primarily fuel North America's vast fleet of cars. Photo: Dru Oja Jay
The following is an edited excerpt from a forthcoming book by Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler, tentatively titled Stop Signs: A road trip through the USA to explore the culture, politics and economics of the car.
