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.
Hot granite and steam could clean up oil sands
May 30, 2007 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton // http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/219133
Energy Reporter
The first commercial geothermal facility in the Alberta oil sands could be pulling heat out of the ground and displacing the use of natural gas as early as 2012, according to the head of an oil-company consortium established to investigate the emission-free energy source.
Oilsands growth energizes activists
Environmentalists turn up pressure on 'unsustainable' development with training camp in non-violent protest tactics
Hanneke Brooymans, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, June 04, 2007
EDMONTON - A group of frustrated environmentalists has gathered at a camp on the outskirts of Edmonton to learn eco-activist tactics for use against booming oilsands development.
Ottawa is missing the boat on climate change
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/221119
Jun 04, 2007 04:30 AM
David Crane
A key to dealing with climate change is to design new technologies, from innovations for energy efficiency, new forms of clean energy such as fuel cells, or ways to make energy products such as coal and oil "clean."
Peak oil: A detailed and transparent analysis
(the article at the link provided below includes many graphs to help understand the issue ever more clearly)
by Phil Hart and Chris Skrebowski
http://www.energybulletin.net/30537.html
Baghdad Burns, Calgary Booms
By Naomi Klein // The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070618/klein
The invasion of Iraq has set off what could be the largest oil boom in
history. All the signs are there: multinationals free to gobble up
national firms at will, ship unlimited profits home, enjoy leisurely
"tax holidays" and pay a laughable 1 percent in royalties to the
government.
This isn't the boom in Iraq sparked by the proposed new oil law--that
will come later. This boom is already in full swing, and it is
Opinions differ on safety of possible nuclear plant
Last Updated: Monday, May 28, 2007 | 11:42 AM MT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/05/28/alberta-nuclear.html
A sustainable energy advocate is warning about the possible safety drawbacks of building a nuclear power plant in Alberta, but an engineering expert said the risks are small.
"There are all sorts of different ways in which material can leave the plant under both normal operating conditions, accident conditions or the possibility of a security incident," said Mark Winfield of the Pembina Institute.
Nuclear Power Alternative in Alberta Raising Questions of Appropriateness
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=32318
By Dina O'Meara
27 May 2007 at 09:02 PM GMT-04:00
CALGARY (CP) -- Nuclear power might be all the rage for some interested parties in Alberta's oil patch, but others question the need for such controversial power generation in an industry that requires more steam than electricity.
Alberta finance minister feeling nervous about energy royalty review
Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 | 9:31 PM ET
Canadian Press: JIM MACDONALD
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/070530/b0530128A.html
EDMONTON (CP) - With many Albertans feeling left in the dust by the current energy boom, Finance Minister Lyle Oberg says he's nervous about an ongoing review of billions of dollars in annual resource royalties.
Oberg concedes it's the kind of issue a government can get beaten over the head with, especially if voters don't have confidence in the way the review is handled.
The shocking price of using up fossil fuels
Emissions would stay in the atmosphere for more than 5,000 years, scientist says
Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e605ed94-9c7f-42fa...
Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Burning all known reserves of fossil fuels, from Alberta's tarsands to China's vast stores of coal, would have much graver long-term consequences than previously thought, according to climate scientists.
CANOE -- CNEWS: Macleans - Harper embraces the nuclear future Page 1
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Rogers/Macleans/2007/05/03/pf-4150972.html
May 3, 2007
Harper embraces the nuclear future
Climate-change anxiety breathes new life into nuclear power,
and shifts Ottawa's plans
By JOHN GEDDES -- Maclean's
Stephen Harper would seem an unlikely pitchman for nuclear
power. When the Prime Minister launches into his familiar spiel
about Canada as an emerging "energy superpower," we all think
we know what he's talking about - he's an Alberta MP, after all, and
