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 21, 2007
The Tar Sands and Canada's Food System
Are beans the only cure for natural gas?
by Dru Oja Jay
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Canada’s industrial food system is deeply reliant on natural gas.
Tar sands opponents point out that burning natural gas, a relatively clean fuel, to extract oil will result in massive increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, some experts say the implications of using natural gas go far beyond global warming.
The Energy Challenge
Fight Against Coal Plants Draws Diverse Partners
Robin Loznak/The Great Falls Tribune
By SUSAN MORAN
Published: October 20, 2007
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Richard D. Liebert turned his back against a hard wind the other day, adjusted his black cap and gazed across golden fields of hay. Explaining why he is against construction of a big coal-burning power plant east of town, Liebert sounded like one more voice from the green movement.
Richard D. Liebert, who owns the Windwalker Ranch near the planned site, is a vocal, and unusual, opponent of the power plant.
Beaufort find is oil, not gas
Devon Canada gas hunt yields oil; company seeks partners; oil poses challenges
By Gary Park
For Petroleum News
Devon Canada has posted the first oil find in the Canadian Beaufort Sea in 25 years — a twist of fortune for the company which had been hoping for trillions of cubic feet of gas to spur progress on the Mackenzie Gas Project.
“We had expected gas, so we are somewhat surprised, but this is a lot better than just water,” Dennis Johnston, Devon Canada’s frontier exploration manager, told Petroleum News.
Playing politics with pipe
TransCanada’s Keystone project wins NEB approval, but disdain from unions for exporting refining jobs to the United States
Dale Lunan
Back in the day, opposition to big-inch pipeline projects would come from a host of stakeholders with a direct connection to any new pipeline: First Nations protecting sacred grounds and traditional hunting territories; environmentalists concerned about the impact of pipeline construction on fragile ecosystems; farmers and ranchers worried about the loss, temporary or otherwise, of productive land.
Unstable Mix: Politics and Liquefied Natural Gas
PM Harper: Opposes LNG shipments through New Brunswick waters.
Citing 'safety concerns,' feds fight LNG project back east -- but not along BC's coast.
By Rob Annandale
October 11, 2007
TheTyee.ca
Chuck Childress moved to "paradise" over 40 years ago. He enjoys nature, but this veteran of the mining, construction and pulp and paper industries is no enviro-fundamentalist.
Two Rallies On Oil Royalties
Oct, 17 2007 - 10:20 AM
CALGARY/AM770CHQR - With just days to go until the premier announces his decision on whether to hike oil and gas royalties in Alberta, two rallies are being held with two very different messages.
Quattro Energy Services is urging any and all grassroots oilworkers to come to the steps of the Legislature at 11 a.m. Wednesday for a rally against royalty increases.
Quattro President Derrick Jacobson warns this province shouldn't bite the hand that feeds it.
ATCO Frontec and Fort MacKay First Nation to Build 500 Room Oilsands Lodge
CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Oct. 17, 2007) - ATCO Frontec and the Fort MacKay First Nation have entered into a partnership to build and operate a critically needed new 500-room lodge in the booming Alberta oilsands region north of Fort McMurray.
Phase one of the Creeburn Lake Lodge will open February 2008, offering important new accommodations for oilsands workers and an array of career opportunities for members of the Fort MacKay First Nation.
Alberta oil sands fire forces mass evacuation of facility
By: Canadian Occupational Health & Safety News
October 15, 2007
FORT MCMURRAY (Canadian OH&S News) -- More than a thousand workers from an Alberta-based energy company were sent home following an early morning oil sands fire at a facility 25 kilometres north of Fort McMurray earlier this month.
Canada needs word of common purpose
Oct 16, 2007 04:30 AM
James Travers
OTTAWA - Imagine a throne speech that sets Canada's direction instead of putting it on course for an election. Imagine, too, a prime minister boldly beginning a frank discussion on the challenges clouding a bright future.
How much would that change the words Governor General Michaëlle Jean speaks tonight for Stephen Harper? Dramatically.
Video footage shot by oilsandstruth.org with the Dominionpaper.ca & Msguided.org over the course of the summer, huddled together into amateur documentary form (click on the story to view all five parts):
Part one:
Part two:
