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.

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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.

The Human Right to Water and Indigenous Peoples

"Water is Life"

The Human Right to Water and Indigenous Peoples

Submission to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights by the
International Indian Treaty Council, NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN
Economic and Social Council

April 13, 2007

I. INTRODUCTION

The International Indian Treaty Council is pleased to respond to the High
Commissioner's invitation to submit information relevant to the Council on Human
Rights' requested study on the human right to water. We thank the High Commissioner

The On-Going Carbon Age

THE ONGOING CARBON AGE
BY DANIEL CASEY
APRIL 20, 2007
http://maisonneuve.org/index.php?&page_id=12&article_id=2714

Mining Journal: Breakdown of Companies and Projects

Growing for black gold
http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/issues/ISarticle.asp?id=185949&stor...
By: Marilyn Scales
Price tag for all oil sands projects nears $100 billion

Canada's oil sands are the world's largest single petroleum resource, nearly 1.7 trillion barrels. Most of this country's recoverable reserves (175 billion out of 180 billion bbl) are found in the Athabasca oil sands.

Climate Change to Create Unparalleled Economic Depression: Suzuki

Unchecked global warming would spawn unparalleled depression, Suzuki warns
http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/national_news.asp?itemid=62139
DENNIS BUECKERT
Friday, April 20, 2007

OTTAWA (CP) - David Suzuki says Canadians are ready to pay for fighting climate change so long as it's fair.

After a cross-country tour in which he heard from thousands of people in more than 40 cities, the veteran broadcaster and author says Canadians are ready for a carbon tax that would penalize wasteful use of energy and reward efficiency.

National Post on Peak Oil and the Tar Sands

FYI for the non-Canadian located reader: The National Post is Canada's ultra right wing newspaper.

--M

Sands are shifting for oil supply
Expert says we should be ready for big jump in price
Diane Francis, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, April 21, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=b9a3434b-...

The world continues to run rapidly out of oil and natural gas, which points to dramatically higher prices in a handful of years.

Tar Sands slowly Expanding into northwest Saskatchewan

Oilpatch eyes neighbour
Bitumen find in Saskatchewan could spawn new industry
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=e108138b-...
Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

By oil sands measures, the core sample plucked from 200 metres below a spindly Jack-pine forest last month was a beauty. Saturated with bitumen, the brownish, one-metre cut, part of a 20-metre oil sands zone, smelled like fresh asphalt. The sand was as warm and homogenous as that of a Caribbean beach.

Priming The Pump [Walrus Magazine]

"To hell with Al Gore’s inconvenient truths; to purgatory with quisling scientists and their voluminous reports stating that Alberta’s tar sands—whether the oil there is blasted by natural gas, exploded by nukes, or even extracted in some fashion palatable to those wearing hemp or burlap—are an environmental disaster zone that, if exploited, will (by themselves) render null and void Canada’s commitment to Kyoto. Never mind. On that midsummer night, Harper, in search of foreign direct investment, was flush with energy, industry, and economic-growth models.

ConocoPhilips: No "Quick fixes"; Describes pipes from Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico

As the world increasingly becomes terrified of the consequences of climate change, peak oil realities leave only the worst possible oil left, in terms of net energy and in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Smart corporations-- and oil and pipeline companies are definitely clever-- will start to shift from a lack of concern to "feeling the same pain" but "warning against" taking appropriate measures. If one wants, they can still make money hacking away for corporations in the Lower 48 who will pay for "studies" that disprove or downplay climate change.

Enbridge Pipe Spilling Oil in Saskatchewan-- Underground

Enbridge pipeline shut down after leak
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070416.wenbridge041...
DAVID EBNER

Globe and Mail Update

One of the biggest Canadian oil pipelines to the United States has been shut down after a leak was discovered Sunday night, according to operator Enbridge Inc.

Line 3 connects Hardisty, Alta., with Wisconsin, carrying 450,000 barrels of oil a day to refiners in the U.S. Midwest — more than 20 per cent of Enbridge's capacity on its mainline, which is comprised of several links.

Energy demand to Lessen on its own?

Sadly, this form of analysis is a pipe dream, no pipeline pun intended. In the scenario that the Democratic Party of the US actually tackling the automobile industry for mileage requirements, it would first of all be many years before any significant portion of the vehicles on the road were of any consequential difference. Second, the production of all these new cars would require energy, and the alternative energies we hear about (Ethanol, for example) do not reduce but increase reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions-- you just don't have to see them as directly.