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.
Norwegian vote may kill oilsands stake
Statoil's Alberta role an issue in election
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
September 12, 2009
T he fate of Statoil- Hydro's oilsands investments in Canada could hinge on the outcome of Norway's general election Monday.
The presence of Norway's state-owned oil producer in northeast Alberta has emerged as a contentious issue in the country's bitterly contested vote, which some are saying is too close to call.
Protests in Britain target Canada's oilsands
Updated Sat. Sep. 5 2009
Ian Munroe, CTV.ca News
A handful of First Nations activists returned home last week after grabbing national headlines in England for protesting Alberta's oilsands developments.
They had travelled to a London suburb as part of a week-long gathering of several thousand environmental campaigners, dubbed the Climate Camp.
Among other concerns, the First Nations group hoped to pressure British Petroleum to halt plans for an oilsands extraction project in northern Alberta.
Tar czar: Ignatieff panders to Alberta's Big Oil
By Derrick O'Keefe
September 9, 2009
Near the end of Michael Ignatieff’s True Patriot Love -- an exploration of the men in his mother’s family rushed to publication in an effort to assert his Canadian bona fides -- we are treated to a play-by-play of the road trip he and his wife took in 2000, retracing the pioneering sea-to-sea journey of his great-grandfather.
Tar sands: Downplaying a mistake
By Emily Hunter
| September 8, 2009
Today I hit Calgary in my journey to the tar sands, the oil headquarters of Alberta. All the oil giants rest in this part of Albertan land -- Esso, Shell, Petro Canada -- who all have their hands in the tar sands. Here I spoke with the united face of the oil companies, CAPP (the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers). I tried to confront them in oil pains to the planet. But there answer was more of the same, that the tar sands is more or less 'sustainable.' But is this true?
BP’s “Bloody Petroleum” targeted in protest by indigenous activists and Climate Camp
Yesterday at 22:01
***Post far and wide***
31st August 2009
For immediate release
BP’s “Bloody Petroleum” targeted in protest by indigenous activists and Climate Camp
Photo and filming opportunities on Tuesday September 1, 2009 from 11am (London, UK time) at the North East corner of Trafalgar Square, press conference 12.30pm (London, UK time) outside BP Headquarters, 1 St James’ Square. Photos of the day will also be available for publication by request.
Return to Tarmageddon
An Italian company's plan to develop tar sands in the Congo has activists worried
by Ben Powless
The Dominion
August 28, 2009
IGLESIAS, ITALY—You’ve likely heard about the tar sands in northern Alberta. You’re probably familiar with the devastation—environmental and social—this megaproject has brought to the land. Maybe you even have a relative who lives or works there.
From margin to mainstream
Once seen as outsiders, green protest groups now have a big influence on government policy
Jonathan Leake
The Sunday Times
August 30, 2009
For Ed Miliband it was a moment of acute embarrassment. What he needed, the environment secretary had told a recent press conference, was a “mass mobilisation”, with green activists taking to the streets to put pressure on the government. This, he said, would give ministers the political space they needed to get tough on climate change.
BMO helped lift BP's oilsands skepticism
Husky Partnership
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
CALGARY - The oilsands reached a new level of respect when BPPLC announced a basin-entry, US$11.7-billion partnership with Husky Energy Inc. in December.
The transaction surprised many because of BP's historic skepticism, under former CEO John Browne, towards Alberta's massive oilsands deposits.
First Nations take oilsands concerns to U. K.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/First+Nations+take+oilsands+conc...
<>By Hanneke Brooymans, Edmonton JournalAugust 28, 2009
Three First Nations people from northern Alberta are in London,
protesting the involvement of United Kingdom companies in oilsands
development.
Residents of Fort Chipewyan are especially concerned about some types of
cancer in their communities.
"Because of the people in my community dying and being sick, that's not
Mystery location of the Climate Camp
Updated on 26 August 2009
By Tom Clarke
Organisers of the annual Camp for Climate Action are taking the secrecy of the London location for this summer's protest very seriously, as Tom Clarke finds out.
Police plan for Climate camp (credit:Getty Images)
"Can you give us ANY idea where climate camp is going to be?" I ask my contact for this year's anti-emissions protest. "Anywhere inside the M25, but it will be on open ground" they tell me. Well that helps.
