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.

Shell Backs out of Sarnia Refinery for Tar Sands

Shell backs out of oil sands project
July 10, 2008 // Post-Tribune staff writers
By Gitte Laasby and Christin Nance Lazerus

An oil giant that planned to refine the same Canadian tar sands as BP
Whiting has canceled plans for an expansion in Ontario.

Shell Canada is scrapping a proposed refinery project in Sarnia, which would
have turned tar-like crude from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, into
refinery-ready light oil, the company announced Tuesday.

But BP Whiting's modernization will continue to move forward, BP spokeswoman

Residents turn out to learn about refinery project (Sarnia Ontario)

Shell Canada finally crosses border

July 2, 2008
Residents turn out to learn about refinery project
By James Kelley // Voice Reporter

For many, the visit from Shell Canada was way overdue.

State Representative Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair, and Shell Canada officials
met with concerned citizens last Monday at the East China Township Offices
to provide information about a proposed oil refinery project along the St.
Clair River.

Shell Canada has been planning a project since 2006 to build a Tar Sands
Crude Oil Refinery along the St. Clair River. This is the first time Shell

Lake Athabasca north shore busy with mining

Lake Athabasca north shore busy with mining
By Don Jaque 25.JUN.08
Slave River Journal

Red Rock Energy is one of at least seven exploration companies actively drilling for uranium on the north shore of Lake Athabasca in the Uranium City vicinity.

Fort St. John "won't be another Ft McMurray"

Fri, July 4, 2008
Fort St. John ready to handle oil and gas boom
By LAUREN KRUGEL, THE CANADIAN PRESS

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C., -- Whose motto is "The Energetic City" -- will be able to avoid many of challenges that have become synonymous with the oilsands boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alta., said the city's mayor.

Two enormous natural gas finds in northeastern B.C. -- the Montney Trend and the Horn River Basin -- have piqued the interest of a number of big U.S. and Canadian oil and gas names and sent a massive amount of investment pouring into the region.

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion
Fri Jul 4, 2008 10:53am EDT
By Yoko Kubota

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Indigenous communities from around the world urged G8 rich nations on Friday to help them participate in global climate change talks, saying they contributed least to but are most affected by global warming.

Clad in colorful traditional robes, 26 representatives from countries including the United States, Canada, and Japan, along with some 400 students, activists, and academics, met on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

Compensation for Ge Genbao & Lui Hongliang, TFW's killed at CNRL Last Year

Despite what they write below, CLAC is not a "union", but an anti-union bosses association of workers. Nonetheless, this article is the first time that the two killed Temporary foreign workers names have been released to my knowledge. Their widows had recently made it known that only 12 percent of their husbands wages have ever reached them, long after their deaths at the hands of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's speed ups in construction. Take the following "labour" press release with a major grain of salt.

--M

Widow of worker killed in Alberta finally gets compensation

You won't believe the title of this far right wing article...

This is rather, ahem, self explanatory...
Especially when you read the bio of the author, on a site with several ex-Fox writers.

--M

Alberta Heavy Crude to be World’s cleanest production
By Mark Smyth Monday, June 30, 2008

For those who were not aware of the joint statement from the 76TH ANNUAL U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS in Miami this past week, to boycott Canadian gasoline made from oil sands heavy crude, pay very close attention.

Workers are suddenly leaving Alberta, heading to Atlantic Canada, but will it last?

Workers are suddenly leaving Alberta, heading to Atlantic Canada, but will it last?
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff // Saturday July 5th, 2008

A new report shows an exodus of people from Alberta and an influx into Atlantic Canada, the reverse of a long-standing trend that has troubled New Brunswick for a decade.

Many Maritimers are heading home from Alberta as they find that the quality of life in the Atlantic region and Metro Moncton is top notch. Here some Metro Moncton residents enjoy the water feature in front of Moncton City Hall.

Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion

Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
by Naomi Klein
July 3, 2008
The Nation

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly right-wing media hosts had to prove their populist cred by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: “disaster capitalism.” It usually goes well–until it doesn’t.

Issues - New ERCB directive on toxic tailings is a huge step in the wrong direction

RICARDO ACUÑA / ualberta.ca/parkland

The Alberta Government, along with their friends in the oil industry, have recently embarked on a major campaign to educate Canadians and Americans about the fact that extraction of oil from Northern Alberta’s bituminous sands is actually an environmentally friendly and ecologically sound process.