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.

I will not dance to your beat (a poem by Nnimmo Bassey)

Nnimo Bassey, from Friends of the Earth Nigeria

I will not dance to your beat (a poem by Nnimmo Bassey)

I will not dance to your beat
If you call plantations forests
I will not sing with you
If you privatise my water
I will confront you with my fists
If climate change means death to me but business to you
I will expose your evil greed
If you don’t leave crude oil in the soil
Coal in the hole and tar sands in the land
I will confront and denounce you
If you insist on carbon offsetting and other do-nothing false solutions
I will make you see red

China’s move on tar sands is about more than money

China’s move on oil sands is about more than money
China's Sinopec is seeking to buy a 9-per-cent stake in the Syncrude oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alta.

Campbell Clark
Ottawa —Globe and Mail
Apr. 15, 2010

This is a test. Chinese oil company Sinopec’s move to buy a piece of Alberta oil sands producer Syncrude is the latest move in Beijing’s step-by-step gauging of the investment waters in Canada.

China is watching to see if the deal sets off alarm bells in Canada, particularly in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative caucus.

Tar sands will shrug off enviro castigation

Oil sands will shrug off enviro castigation
By: Matthew Hill
23rd April 2010

Make no mistake about it, the Alberta oil sands development will roar on.

While shareholder groups of oil multinationals Shell and BP have recently tried to force those companies to pull out of Alberta, politicians like Sarah Palin are shouting slogans such as: "Ramp up development."

And looking at the bigger political picture, it is clear to see why.

Musings from Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, Bolivia

Musings from Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, Bolivia
April 21, 2010

RBS in battle with the Cree First Nation over dirty oil development project on tribal lands

RBS in battle with the Cree First Nation over dirty oil development project on tribal lands
18 Apr 2010

George Poitras has come a long way to make his point.

From his traditional Mikisew Cree homelands on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta, he has journeyed to Murray Place in the centre of Stirling – to confront the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Oil Majors Under Shareholder Pressure For Canadian Tar Sands

Oil Majors Under Shareholder Pressure For Canadian Tar Sands
04/13/2010
SustainableBusiness.com News

As shareholders gather in London this week for BP’s (NYSE: BP) annual general meeting, American and British investors are coordinating an effort to put pressure on four major oil multinationals over their controversial investments in the Canadian oil sands.

See You in Cochabamba!

See You in Cochabamba!
Evo Morales Plans Bolivian Alternative Climate Summit for April
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 01. 6.10

Not wasting any time, Bolvian president Evo Morales has announced that his nation will be hosting an alternative climate summit in the city of Cochabamba on April 20-22, the New York Times reports. Morales is calling on activists, scientists and government officials "who want to work with the people" to attend. Bolivia was one of five nations dissenting on the non-binding COP15 agreement:

EU yields to Canada over oil trade "barriers": sources

EU yields to Canada over oil trade "barriers": sources
Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:27pm EDT
Reuters
By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has yielded to Canadian demands it remove possible trade barriers to polluting oil sands to avoid further damage to ties, according to sources and leaked documents.

Relations are already strained after the European Union banned imports of seal products last July on animal welfare grounds, a move Canada is challenging at the World Trade Organization.

Company seeks first U.S. tar sands project, in Utah

Company seeks first U.S. oil sands project, in Utah
The Associated Press
Updated: 03/28/2010 11:44:51 AM MDT

Salt Lake City - An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day.

Earth Energy Resources Inc. has a state lease to work a 62-acre pit in Uintah County, where it has demonstrated technology that can extract oil out of sands using a proprietary solvent it calls environmentally friendly.