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.

Fort McMurray teens swapping sexual favours for shelter

Fort McMurray teens swapping sexual favours for shelter: report
'Pace of life' in booming city contributing to problem, official says
Last Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2007 | 8:19 PM NT
CBC News

A survey by a homelessness committee found some teenagers in the booming city of Fort McMurray are resorting to prostitution in exchange for a bed or couch for the night.

The report, released this month by the region's Homelessness Initiatives Steering Committee, said 65 young people between the ages of 11 and 17 are without a permanent home in Fort McMurray.

Woodland Cree Suing to Halt Carmon Creek Project [Shell]

First Nation Challenges Alberta's Policy on Oil Sands Tenures and Development
Requests halt on approval of Shell's Carmon Creek Project

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Oct. 1, 2007) - In a historic application to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, the Woodland Cree First Nation (WCFN) has filed legal action against the Alberta government today. The First Nation asserts the Alberta government is breaching its legal and constitutional duty to consult with First Nations on oil and gas tenures, and specifically those relating to oil sands development projects.

The Globe on Raising Tar Sands Royalties

If Albertans want it all, oil sands must pay
October 2, 2007

Listening to the great Alberta royalty debate is like watching the Yankees play the Red Sox: It's hard to know which overprivileged group to root against. Should you boo the oil sands CEOs, who pay too little? Or jeer the provincial politicians, who spend too much?

From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of
Possibility
by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger
Houghton Mifflin, 344 pages, $25.00

What We Know About Climate Change
by Kerry Emanuel
MIT Press, 85 pages, $14.95

Climate Change: What It Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren
edited by Joseph F C DiMento and Pamela Doughman
MIT Press, 217 pages, $19.95 paper

Note: Bill McKibben will be answering questions from readers about his
article "Can Anyone Stop It?" and the possibilities for action to stop

SPP Super Highway almost ready: US Senator

Copyright 2007 The Tulsa World
Tulsa World (Oklahoma) // September 29, 2007
Senator: NAFTA Superhighway is nearly a reality
RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer

State Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, said Friday that the so-called
"NAFTA Superhighway" is "close to reality" and is being built for
"transporting goods and people from Mexico and China."

Brogdon made the remarks during a news conference at Tulsa
International Airport for the Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free
Enterprise conference being held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at

Dollar drops faster than Oil Prices Rise; Record Prices only Skin Deep

Energy Roundup: Oil Prices Gain
Oil Prices Top $83, Sunny Day for Solar Shares, GE Building a Plant in Vietnam
September 28, 2007: 01:09 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - The following is a summary of top stories in the energy sector at midday Friday.

Oil Heads for Record Territory Again

Oil futures climbed past $83 a barrel, as the steadily weakening dollar continued to draw buyers into commodity markets.

Stupid to the Last Drop: How plans to detonate a nuke to get the tarpits flowing never came to pass

Big, bad oil in all its glory
Financial Post

Saturday, September 29, 2007

STUPID TO THE LAST DROP: HOW ALBERTA IS BRINGING ENVIRONMENTAL ARMAGEDDON TO CANADA (AND DOESN'T SEEM TO CARE)

William Marsden,

Alfred A. Knopf Canada

256 pp. $29.95 (Available Oct. 2)

---

The rise of the loonie has been partially explained by the price of oil, which recently hit a record of almost US$84 a barrel. The Canadian economy has the world's attention because Alberta's oilsands contain an estimated 174 billion barrels of oil, the second-largest oil reserve tally after Saudi Arabia.

"Why Ottawa must back pipeline"

Anytime Diane Francis starts her turgid prose, if you instinctively stay on the opposite side of whatever she is saying then you will probably be fairly safe. In this case, the rule holds. Ever more so, however, is a slight admission contained within the article: "There's enough already to produce one billion cubic feet per day and the pipeline needs 1.3 billion a day," why, pray tell, does the pipeline "need" 1 billion point three cubic feet a day?

Long emergency or long march back to the cave?: America's New Religion, Part II

America's New Religion, Part II
Dubai, UAE
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Long emergency or long march back to the cave? You decide,
Resurrection the mainline of American industrial power,
Tarantulas and the Gila monsters in Las Vegas and more...
-------------------------

Joel Bowman, reporting from the sweltering Middle East...

Yesterday we brought you an essay by James Howard Kunstler. Mr. Kunstler is the author of the book, "The Long Emergency," in which he predicted, as Eric pointed out yesterday, "the end of the privileged, energy-dependent American lifestyle."

Energy Alberta Corporation backtracks on firm nuclear power purchase agreements

Henuset pursues nuclear power for Alberta
Jon Harding, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2007

CALGARY -- A fuel bundle from a nuclear reactor seems wildly out of place inside the rustic lobby of Calgary's Willow Park Wines & Spirits. Courtesy of Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL), the cylinder sits beside a display case containing some of the world's finest wine and scotch.

It is a serious juxtaposition in the chalet-like business office of Canada's largest private liquor store, which now doubles as the home of Energy Alberta Corp.