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.
Note the source: "Oilsands Review", so take not too much comfort in their pronunciations nor forget that much isn't spoken of in the article on the "improvements" in procedure just yet. Nonetheless, it's worth reading and familiarizing ourselves with.
--M
The changing face of oilsands mining
Mobile crushing systems on the way
http://www.oilsandsreview.com/articles.asp?ID=401
Diane L.M. Cook
Jun 2007
TANKER TRAFFIC TALKED ABOUT
A public forum being held in Victoria on Tuesday, May 22 will examine the impact of oil tanker traffic in B.C. waters.
By Thomas Winterhoff
News staff
http://www.vicnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=36&cat=23&id=986802&m...
May 18 2007
May 22 public forum
will examine tanker traffic off B.C.’s coast
With Alberta’s tar sands fueling Canada’s booming oil industry, domestic and international energy companies are looking for better and faster ways to transport raw petroleum products to world markets.
Choke point for oil sands may be water shortage
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
May 11, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070511.TARSANDS11/TPS...
The amount of water available in Northern Alberta isn't sufficient to accommodate both the needs of burgeoning oil sands development and preserve the Athabasca River, contends a study issued jointly yesterday by the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta.
OST statement on Rally for Housing at Edmonton Legislature
Today, May 17, 2007 there was an emergency rally held in Edmonton in support of those who are increasingly being blown away by Alberta’s “boom”. As housing prices continue to skyrocket while available housing plummets, workers can no longer even find places to live right at the “Ground Zero” of the operations of the Tar sands near Fort McMurray.
Edmontonians have seen unlimited rent increases every year, with no end in sight.
"Canada gets pollution, US gets oil and jobs":
Critical questions need to be answered on Keystone, energy union tells NEB
EDMONTON, AB, May 16 /CNW Telbec/ - The entire oil and gas industry is
being restructured with the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and neither
the National Energy Board, nor the provincial or federal governments
understand the implications for oil and gas supply, jobs, the environment and
more.
That statement from Canada's largest union of energy workers today as it
joins with the Alberta Federation of Labour, the Parkland Institute and Dr.
Gordon Laxer
Political Economy Professor, and The Director
Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta
May 10, 2007
Introduction
Parkland Institute is an Alberta-wide research network at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. We are supported by over 600 individual members and dozens of progressive organizations. Parkland Institute conducts research and education for the public good.
My remarks are on the energy and climate change implications of the SPP.
Why No Energy Security for Canadians?
The Peace may become home to nuclear power plant
http://www.prrecordgazette.com/News/305593.html
By Kristy Lesh
Peace River//Record-Gazette Editor
Tuesday May 08, 2007
An Alberta-based energy company is eyeing Peace River to be home to a nuclear power plant to provide clean, emission-free power for the growing oilsands.
Teenagers should be working in the land of cocaine, fake pee, escorts for everyone, and live only for today in a small town with smog greater than a big city.
I'm sending my kids right now!
--M
Teens wooed by Fort McMurray employers
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 | 12:05 PM MT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/05/15/teens-fortmcmurray.html
Teenagers looking for summer work in Fort McMurray, Alta., are being wooed with fat wages, big bonuses and even housing allowances.
After the killing of two non-Canadian "guest workers" from China only weeks ago, a second part of the same structures has collapsed, only thanks to a stop work order was life loss averted. This scenario will play out over and again as the rush to work has people who have no training working on the job and learning at the same time. They want to quintuple production and are out of "domestic labour sources" already. What to do? Kill a few people who aren't even allowed to apply to stay past their temporary work.
--M
Second Storage Tank Collapses at Canadian Natural Oil Sands Site
To achieve the goals being set out by these scientists-- who are perhaps still acting *conservatively* in what they collectively state needs to be done to achieve a healthy biosphere-- we need to speak as plain as day:
