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.

warning: Creating default object from empty value in /var/www/drupal-6.28/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 33.

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.

Nuclear just too hot for Alberta

It is important that the industry PR men & women are able to believe their own press-- but it is equally important that they are not believed by those of us who wish to counter their stories.

Shell Claiming "Psychology" Driving Oil Prices; Aim to ramp up Tar Sands Production 5 times

Shell Chief Says `Psychology' Boosting Oil Prices

By Sonja Franklin

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said there is sufficient crude oil supply in global markets and that prices are driven by speculation.

``The supply and demand is pretty OK,'' he said at a briefing with reporters in Calgary today. ``What we do have is a lot of psychology in the price. We have to expect volatility in the oil price due to this psychological component.''

Peak Oil Facts Converge with Theory

Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2007 Kasturi & Sons Ltd,
The Financial Times Limited
September 14, 2007 Friday
PEAK OIL FACTS CONVERGE WITH THEORY

Peace River: Environmental group protests the nuclear plant

Environmental group protests the nuclear plant
Peace River Environmental Society questions economic benefit and ecological effect
Justin Pot / R-G Staffwriter
Tuesday September 11, 2007

It’s Wednesday afternoon. Inside the Peace Valley Inn’s Emerald Room representatives from Energy Alberta are handing out pamphlets and talking to citizens about their concerns regarding the proposed nuclear power plant. A Power Point presentation loops on a white screen, tables are arrayed with information and refreshments as the representatives make the rounds, talking to everyone who comes in.

Bitumen Who’s Who

When I see an article like this, I am reminded of a quote from Utah Philips: "The earth is not dying, she is being killed... and the people killing her have names and addresses!"

--M
--
Bitumen Who’s Who

Six influential individuals who's opinions count regarding oilsands development
From Western Gold: Heavy Oil and Oilsands in Canada

There are a lot of things about Alberta’s oilsands that are nice to know:

Angry Union Workers Continue Loud Demonstrations Against Labour Laws

Angry Union Workers Continue Loud Demonstrations Against Labour Laws
Sep, 13 2007 - 2:40 PM

CALGARY/AM770CHQR - A court ruling early Thursday morning has put the kibosh on information pickets being staged at various locations throughout the province, particularly in the Edmonton area and Fort McMurray.
Outside the Petro-Canada refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, the cease and desist order didn't have much of an impact, as many more workers gathered, including Roger Jordan.

Street drugs, gangs on rise in the West

Street drugs, gangs on rise in the West
'Street-level' social problems worst in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver: study
Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, September 12

Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and gang activity, says a report released Tuesday by the Canada West Foundation.

In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 frontline workers, experts and community leaders.

Suncor Trying to Buy Up Natural Gas Supplies for Tar Pits

However benignly this article is written, it means that the pipeline infrastructure from all directions-- BC, NWT, southern AB, lower 48 and more-- is expected to grow heading *into* the tar pits so that it can grow heading *out of* the tar pits. This doesn't include the "into" pipelines for 'diluent' kerosene needed to convert heavy bitumen into a flowing sludge mock-oil. This article is timed with the corporate projection announcement made by Suncor that they intend to overtake Syncrude as the single largest producer of tar sands mock oil this year. Small wonder, it's a matter of physics.

"Nuclear power buyer not for real"

Let me ask a question: Is it not incredibly bad PR for a corporation to announce that they have a "secret buyer" for one of the world's most infamous sources of energy, and a source of energy that hasn't even been approved or constructed yet?

Canada's water 'on the negotiating table'

Canada's water 'on the negotiating table,' report says
Vague wording in NAFTA doesn't protect country against bulk shipments and other forms of sale to the U.S.
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070910.WATER10/TPStor...
September 10, 2007

Despite regular assurances from the federal government that Canada won't allow water exports, the country remains vulnerable to water diversions to an increasingly thirsty United States, says a new research paper commissioned by the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.