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.

Protesters Disrupt "Spirit Train" Sendoff: Two arrested, festivities cancelled

Protesters Disrupt "Spirit Train" Sendoff
Two arrested, festivities cancelled
September 21, 2008
by Dawn Paley - The Dominion

About 50 people showed up to protest the "Canada Pacific Spirit Train"
event Sunday in the Vancouver suburb of Port Moody. Taking a position
in front of the main stage, the group carried signs and placards, and
a large banner that read "Resist 2010: No Olympics on Stolen Native
Land."

While demonstrators banged on pots and pans, Gord Hill, speaking on
behalf of the Olympics Resistance Network, announced, "We want homes

Cutting Deadly Sulphur Dioxide Emissions Costing Syncrude Billions

Sulphur costs rise at Syncrude
Herald News Services
September 20, 2008

Oilsands - Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s cost for installing equipment to cut emissions of deadly sulphur dioxide has more than doubled to $1.6 billion, the joint-venture's biggest shareholder said Friday.

Canadian Oil Sands Trust, which owns 36.7 per cent of Syncrude, said the cost of the project to retrofit two upgraders with equipment to cut output of sulphur and other particles by 60 per cent had risen from its previous $772-million estimate because of delays and rising labour and material costs.

Evaporating credit to hurt smaller tar sands players

Evaporating credit to hurt smaller oilsands players
Consolidation expected amid lack of capital
Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, September 19, 2008

Ongoing credit woes roiling global financial markets will make a big impact on smaller operators and speed up consolidation in the cash-heavy oilsands sector, observers said Thursday.

"Canada Tar Sands Oil Equals Saudi Arabia"-- Enbridge Plans

Canada Tar Sands Oil Equals Saudi Arabia
MINA, Canada - 16 Sep 2008

With Canadian crude oil becoming a far larger part of the future U.S energy supply landscape, the principal oil and gas pipeline system connecting the two countries is rapidly rebuilding its presence in Superior.

US Refinery Investments Align With Tar Sands Supplies to 2015

US Refinery Investments Align With Oil Sands Supplies to 2015
Posted on: Thursday, 18 September 2008
By Sword, Lindsay

The Contagion Spreads-- Producers Re-think Tar Sands

THE CONTAGION SPREADS
ALBERTA: As crude prices fall and banks tighten the purse strings, producers forced to weigh their options
NORVAL SCOTT AND DAVID EBNER
September 17, 2008

CALGARY and VANCOUVER -- As the U.S. banking crisis boosts borrowing costs and crude prices plummet on global demand fears, the economics of building oil sands projects are coming under pressure.

Boston ASPO: The Canadian tar sands

2006 Boston ASPO: The Canadian tar sands
Whiskey & Gunpowder / Energy Bulletin
November 13, 2006
By Byron W. King

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear, And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear; With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold, A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold.

Alberta's ‘dirty' oil a sticky problem for Charest

Alberta's ‘dirty' oil a sticky problem for Charest
KONRAD YAKABUSKI // The Globe and Mail
September 18, 2008

If you had to choose between Alberta oil or crude from Algeria and Angola, which should you pick?

This is the decision Quebec Premier Jean Charest faces now that Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. has unveiled plans to pipe heavy crude from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Montreal for the first time.

Petrocan talking itself out of tar sands (The Massive Fort Hills Project)

Petrocan talking itself out of oil sands

Andrew Willis, September 17, 2008 at 9:09 AM EDT
Petro-Canada is talking itself out of the Fort Hills oil sands project.

The latest cost estimates on the project, released late Tuesday, highlighted a 50-per-cent spike in expenses over the past 15 months, on a project that was already projected to eat up $14.1-billion. Keep in mind: This initiative still needs approvals from both the Petrocan board and government bodies.

Dead forest standing-- Greenwashing a tar sands sacrifice zone

Issues - Dead forest standing
Greenwashing a tar sands sacrifice zone
MACDONALD STAINSBY / oilsandstruth.org

The famous Hollywood movie Dead Man Walking made common parlance of the term for a person on death row leaving his cell for the last time, heading for execution. The person about to be executed will walk towards where they will take their last breath, and “dead man walking” is a term about those last steps.