Too Good to Be True
Certain organizations--Pew is one--are routinely treated as benign and neutral, beyond partisan politics. They're not.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006499
BY MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER
Friday, April 1, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
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.
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.
Too Good to Be True
Press Release: Oil Prices Rise, Tar Sands Making Massive Growth
Oil Sands Gaining Ground With Rising Costs Of Crude Oil
5/21/2007
http://www.oilandgasonline.com/content/news/article.asp?DocID=%7B3902492...
Palo Alto, CA - As prices and global demand for crude oil continue to increase, the North American oil sands market is poised for remarkable growth. Recent technological developments have considerably reduced the extraction and upgrading costs of bitumen. This, along with high crude oil prices, has made oil sands an attractive proposition for oil companies.
Canadians need to "reel in" Big Oil: The Need for Law Reform
Canadians need to "reel in" Big Oil: The Need for Law Reform
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20070526122247132
by PatriotPete/bcpolitics.ca Peter Dimitrov, May 26, 2007
American Immigration Reform: Born in Canada
Sun, May 27, 2007
U.S. scores points with new immigration bill
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/05/27/4211962-sun.html
By DONNA MARIE ARTUSO
WASHINGTON -- A colossal immigration bill, backed by a bipartisan coalition, is lurching its way through the U.S. Senate -- amendment by cumbersome amendment -- in an attempt to comprehensively reform a system that has been in place for more than 40 years.
Move over Fort Mac, a new boomtown is born
Move over Fort Mac, a new boomtown is born
On the surface Grande Prairie looks unremarkable, but its riches of oil and gas have brought roaring growth
DAVID EBNER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070521.RGRANDEPRAIRIE...
May 21, 2007
GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. -- On the surface, Grande Prairie, with a population nearing 50,000, looks unremarkable. Most buildings are a couple of storeys high, and the only striking feature of the richest neighbourhood in town - called Wedgewood - is the number of three-vehicle garages.
Why Whitecourt or Peace River for Nukes? It's the In Situ, stupid!
Shell eyes nuclear power in oil sands
New technology that extracts bitumen from limestone demands huge quantities of electricity
DAVID EBNER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070521.wxrnuclear22...
Globe and Mail
May 21, 2007
Calgary — — Royal Dutch Shell PLC [RDS.B-N]is looking at nuclear power to support its experimental oil sands ambitions, on which it has already placed a bet of more than half a billion dollars.
Backlash against a whistle-blower
GLOBE & MAIL, MAY 19th by Andrew Nikiforuk
THE ENVIRONMENT: HEALTH AND SAFETY
Backlash against a whistle-blower
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070519.DOCTOR19/TPSto... nvironment
For years, Dr. John O'Connor has made headlines by continually asking why natives near the oil sands have so much cancer.
But that's not the only reason he's in such hot water now. Andrew Nikiforuk reports ANDREW NIKIFORUK May 19, 2007.
The Globe and Mail.
Whitecourt, used as a 'thin wedge', begins consultations with Nuke Proponents
Whitecourt is a small town near massive (mock) oil development. It's also a town known for helping establish the "precedent" of industrial development. If the nuclear proponents get one reactor approved somewhere to feed their insatiable drive for (tar sands mock) oil, then it will grow politically available ten thousand times higher, and our job gets worse.
What shall we do?
--M
Energy Alberta talks nuclear power with Whitecourt residents
More Firms moving into the Tarsands
This article is quite notable in that it comes from Qatar, and it is basically a Middle Eastern tip of the hat to peak oil. As the world continues to search for new sources of bitumen to make [mock] oil from the tarsands, this description of the mini rush for nation-states and companies to diversify their portfolios to include tarsands oil is yet more indication less and less people in positions to know about it believe that oil prices will drop below "economical levels" for the tarsands. That is roughly $30 barrels.
--M
More firms moving into costly oil sands
SPP "Could Dwarf NAFTA"
The SPP, let us not over-state things, is designed to allow the fastest use of tarsands oil while moving goods and other trasport items, including 'temporary workers' across borders that are no longer free for travel minus a passport. One giant set of rules built up to achieve the maximum flow of goods, in particular energy, while restricting the same among people.
The sovereignty of energy and capital.
--M
Wide-ranging accord with U.S., Mexico could dwarf NAFTA, MPs hear
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/270407_dwarf_nafta.html
Don Butler / CanWest News | April 27, 2007
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