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 tar sands that bind-- two National Post Articles

[FYI - these two articles appear side by side in the 2 September 2008
edition of the National Post, pg. A15, "First of a Series"]

The oil sands that bind

As concern about the future of oil mounts, the Post looks at the
world's most-talked-about commodity. Today, Adam Waterous explains how
the oil sands strengthen Confederation and Donald Boudreaux explains
why running out of oil is a virtual economic impossibility

Adam Waterous, National Post Published: Tuesday, September 02, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=760790

Why oil won't fall below $100

Why oil won't fall below $100
With a surge in the price of global commodities, it's costing more to produce a barrel of oil than ever before.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: August 22, 2008: 3:47 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Last week, falling oil prices looked unstoppable. The last few days have seen a halt in that slide. Still with prices well below the record set in July and a shaky world economy threatening demand, the question remains: How low can oil go?

Work Camps near Fort Mac Expanding; Company also Provides Camps in Afghanistan

Oilsands housing expansion announced
Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Tuesday, August 26

EDMONTON - For the sixth time since 2007, PTI Group's Wapasu Creek Lodge near the Suncor plant north of Fort McMurray is set to expand.

The facility will grow to 2,942 rooms, an increase of 672 dorm-style rooms, to accommodate a mix of workers from the surrounding oilsands area. Oil States International (NYSE:OIS), owner of PTI, expects the new rooms to be opened by mid-2009.

"We foresee more expansion in the future to serve our multiple clients," says spokesman Bradley Dodson.

Shell slammed over "sustainable" tar sands advert

ASA rules advert claiming tar sands projects are part of a "sustainable future" is misleading
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 13 Aug 2008

Oil giant Shell has once again had its knuckles rapped by the watchdog for overstating its green credentials after it claimed in an advert that its $10bn oil sands project in northern Canada represented a "sustainable energy source".

Take Charge: Dirty Work in Alberta

Take Charge: Dirty Work in Alberta
By Morgan Goodwin - August 26, 2008
Take Charge Campaign

This newsletter is provided by the Take Charge Campaign, a local initiative to encourage and to help people to conserve energy. It is published twice a month.

This week in Dirty Energy: Alberta Tar Sands

What's happening in the Alberta tar sands in Canada is the most destructive project on Earth, according to Environmental Defence. Thousands of square miles of tundra are being scraped away to harvest an oil-rich layer of earth between 10 and 80 feet deep.

NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north

NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north
Pipelines may let area share boom
By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

Beneath the forests of Alberta, 2,300 miles miles northwest of Buffalo, you’ll find the latest black gold: a mix of sand and oil being mined as a new kind of gusher.

And Alberta’s Athabasca Oil Sands are just part of a petroleum boom that has made Canada the world’s top supplier of oil to the United States.

Canadian Oil Officials to Meet With Obama Adviser, Star Reports

By Sean B. Pasternak

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian government and oil industry officials will meet with Senator Barack Obama's top energy adviser today to promote Canada's oil-sands industry, the Toronto Star reported.

The meeting with Jason Grumet will be led by Conservative Party member Tony Clement, the Star said. Officials are hoping to shed Canada's label of producing expensive oil that requires large amounts of energy and water to extract, the newspaper reported.

Indian Uprising Radio: Price of tar sands oil

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Indian Uprising Radio: Price of tar sands oil
KFAI's Indian Uprising, August 24, 2008 from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. CDT #279
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/08/indian-uprising-radio-price-of-tar...

Daryl Sager (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Energy Justice Program
Associate, Fresh Energy, Inc. Fresh Energy of St. Paul, Minnesota is
an organization leading the transition to a clean, efficient and fair
energy system. Its goals are: Healthy Economies, Healthy People,
Healthy Environment and Energy Independence. Fresh Energy focus areas

Rare cancer strikes

Rare cancer strikes
Small community near Alberta oilsands has disproportionate number of bile duct disease
By VIVIAN SONG

A mutated, two-mouthed fish caught downstream from the Alberta oilsands caught the attention of the Canadian public last week. Beneath its first mouth is a confusing aberration, a second, baby, jagged-toothed lower jaw that seems to grow timidly out of the fish-face.

Two boys fishing in Lake Athabasca caught the 2.5-kilo goldeye two weeks ago and handed it over to the Mikisew First Nation.

Two-Mouthed Fish Discovered Near Alberta Tar Sands (two stories)

Two-Mouthed Fish Discovered Near Alberta Oil Sands, CBC Reports
By Jeremy van Loon

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A mutant fish with two mouths was caught in northern Alberta, near the Canadian province's Athabasca oil sands, stoking residents' concerns about pollution, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The fish was hooked from a dock at Lake Athabasca and handed over to park wardens, CBC said on its Web site today. Locals are fighting expansion of heavy oil production because of its impact on the environment, the Web site said.