Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

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.

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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.

Grandmother from Colorado Versus Syncrude

U.S. activist takes on Syncrude
Colorado woman 'appalled' by the energy used at the Alberta tar sands operation
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070503.OILSANDS03/TPS...
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

Syncrude Canada Ltd. has picked an unlikely David-and-Goliath-type battle with a feisty 85-year-old Colorado grandmother over a website she created that portrays the giant energy company in an unflattering light over the environmental costs of the tar sands.

TransCanada prefers Coal Power to Nuclear; Ruling nothing out for Tar Sands Power

TransCanada considers Alberta nuclear source
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/208153
Apr 27, 2007 07:02 PM
Dina O'Meara
Canadian press

CALGARY–Pipeline and power giant TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) said today coal is still king in Alberta, but that building a nuclear power plant in Western Canada could be an option in the future.

"The way we look at it, nuclear is primarily an option for supplying electricity demand in Alberta, long-term" Hal Kvisle, president and chief executive said, following the company's annual meeting.

Energy Alberta Announces Plans for Nuclear Plant near Whitecourt, Elsewhere

Nuclear power plant proposed for Whitecourt

Energy Alberta Corporation, an Alberta-based energy company, is actively looking at the town of Whitecourt and other Alberta communities as a potential host for a nuclear power plant.
http://www.whitecourtstar.com/News/303973.html
Tuesday May 01, 2007

The company has said they expect the plant to be part of an exciting new venture that will benefit Alberta for decades to come and will provide clean, emission free power required by the ever-growing oil sands projects.

Norway Buys Into Tar Sands

It is going to be incredibly illustrative how Canadian elites treat this-- if it gets a mention in more than stating-the-facts ways such as this announcement below. Silence would be every bit as loud. A major, non-private oil corporation for a 'foreign' country (that is, not the United States or Canada) has purchased Calgary based North American Oil Sands. Will the same level of fear mongering that accompanied Chinese investments be unleashed, along with a 'white peril' thinly veiled reference to base reactions towards Norway?

I seriously doubt it.

--M

Tar Sands Completely Untouched by "Green Plan"

When we are able to chart where the tar sands are going, and by adding up the component plans that are already announced we can, the sheer size and scope makes ignoring them or allowing -- as the article says-- for "business as usual" a complete, total surrender to being decimated by climate change. Mr Harper has already had private meetings with the US Dep't of Energy and Natural Resources Canada, along with the oil executives.

Sunoco Gives More to Democrats now than Republicans

The tactic being assumed by all the major players in the tarsands as of late is to pretend to love the earth too, but just that they have a different idea of what it will take to save the atmosphere and, well, life. This is right up the alley of the Democratic Party, who have a long history of pretending to care about green causes while assassinating all legislative and participatory attempts to make them back it up.

Nor is it at all surprising that Sunoco would be involved today. The story of Sunoco in tarsands?

Husky CEO Promises to Pass on 'Greening Costs' of Tar Sands to Customers

Public to pay for green policy: Lau
Husky CEO blunt about passing on government-mandated higher costs
Jon Harding, Financial Post
April 20, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=3ba6045c-...

CALGARY - John Lau, president and chief executive of Husky Energy Inc., fired off a warning yesterday to Alberta and Canadian legislators circling the oilsands: Consumers, not oil companies, will bear the brunt of government policies that add costs to the massive energy developments.

Stelmach wants Audience with Gore, Big Oil-- not "Consultations".

Alberta premier to 'drop by and listen' to Al Gore
April 23, 2007 | 5:01 PM MT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/04/23/oil-speech.html

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach hopes to speak with climate change activist Al Gore at a sold-out lecture in Calgary Monday night.

Gore, the former U.S. vice-president who won an Academy Award for his climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, has openly criticized the oil patch and the world's reliance on non-renewable, carbon-based fuels.

Two "Temporary Foreign Workers" Dead, Four Injured in Tar Sands Accident

Two dead, four injured in roof collapse at job site north of Fort McMurray
http://www.oilweek.com/news.asp?ID=8643

FORT MCKAY, Alta. (CP) _ Two workers were killed and four others injured Tuesday when a roof collapsed at a Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. job site north of Fort McMurray.

The company said in a news release that the 2:30 p.m. accident involved a roof support structure at the tank erection site of the Horizon Oil Sands Project.

“All authorities have been notified of this incident,‘‘ the company said in a news release.

" Earth to Harper: Get your Head Out of the Tar Sands"

Earth Day rallies target politicians
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/206092
Apr 23, 2007 04:30 AM

Earth Day celebrations across the country yesterday turned the heat on politicians as environmentalists await the launch of a made-in-Canada global warming plan.

In Toronto, hundreds of people, carrying signs with slogans like "Earth to Harper – get your head out of the tar sands," paraded in the streets.

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