Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Tarsands Infrastructure: South/ East [US & Can]

Though the category is labelled "US", the proposed new projects also traverse untouched Canadian territory across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The names of some of the larger ones include The Alberta Clipper Project, The Spearhead Pipeline (expansion) and the Keystone Pipeline, along with other pipelines controlled by TransCanada and Enbridge, as well as Imperial Oil. Despite the massive size and scale of pipeline networks already existing through the continental United States, these pipelines and associated construction would be needed to achieve US and Canadian government goals of reaching 5 million barrels a day of tar sand oil being shipped out of the tar sands "ground zero" of Alberta.

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Tarsands Infrastructure: South/East [US] is a category that represents the many connecting and supplying pipelines and associated projects that are needed to transport fuels for the production of tar sands bitumen and to move tar sand heavy bitumen to the Lower 48 of the US for refining. This involves some massive new pipeline projects to Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, California, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere including existing refineries in Ontario and Quebec. Though the category is labelled "US", the proposed new projects also traverse untouched Canadian territory across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The names of some of the larger ones include The Alberta Clipper Project, The Spearhead Pipeline (expansion) and the Keystone Pipeline, along with other pipelines controlled by TransCanada and Enbridge, as well as Imperial Oil. Despite the massive size and scale of pipeline networks already existing through the continental United States, these pipelines and associated construction would be needed to achieve US and Canadian government goals of reaching 5 million barrels a day of tar sand oil being shipped out of the tar sands "ground zero" of Alberta.

A Tar Sands Partnership Agreement in the Making?

Macdonald Stainsby | August 1st 2011

Campaigns against tar sands production have grown rapidly over the last four years. From the relative obscurity in Alberta to an international lightning rod for people trying to address all manner of concerns from indigenous and community self-determination to peak oil and climate change – criticisms of the largest industrial project in human history have gained a major voice. The voices are certainly not homogenous, but a large contingent of these voices call for a shut down of tar sands production and a move away from fossil fuels – if not an outright move away from market-led growth of any sort. But, in the language of the environmental elite, what are the “decision makers” preparing to do with all this anti-tar sands resistance?

U.S. Oil Giants Poised to Gain on Keystone Pipeline

By Amy Harder
Updated: August 5, 2011

Three major American oil companies are poised to gain big if the Obama administration green-lights a controversial pipeline that would send 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

Conflicting signals on Keystone XL pipeline expansion

Conflicting signals on pipeline expansion

Report suggests U.S. has 'tipped the scales' in favor of OKing permit for 2nd leg of Keystone project; not so, official says.

By Neela Banerjee • Tribune Newspapers STLtoday.com | Posted: Thursday, July 14, 2011 12:00 am

WASHINGTON • At a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania in early April, President Barack Obama was asked about a bitter fight between industry and environmentalists over a proposed $7 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline to ship crude from Alberta's oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

"Should Alberta's cross-border oil pipeline be extended to Texas?"

Should Alberta's cross-border oil pipeline be extended to Texas?

July 9, 2011
CBC News

Alberta's energy minister says he's going to push Ottawa to promote TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. government.

Alberta gov. pushing Keystone XL in US

Alberta seeks more Keystone pipeline support
CBC News
July 9, 2011

Alberta's energy minister says he's going to push the federal government to more actively promote TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline to the American government.

In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Ron Liepert said he expects to meet with Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver before the federal-provincial energy ministers conference at the end of July and will push for some help convincing the Americans to approve the pipeline.

Enviros, celebs plan W.H. protest

Enviros, celebs plan W.H. protest
POLITICO [reprinted in the Seattle PI]
Published 03:41 a.m., Thursday, June 23, 2011

A group of environmentalists and liberal celebrities are organizing civil disobedience protests at the White House against a proposed oil pipeline - with the emphasis on "civil."

In an open letter, actor Danny Glover, activists Bill McKibben, James Hansen, David Suzuki and others ask for volunteers willing to risk arrest at the White House from mid-August to Labor Day.

But they don't want downtown Washington to look like Vancouver after the Stanley Cup Finals.

Neighbors wary of tar sands refinery in Detroit

Neighbors wary of tar sands refinery in Detroit
By Eartha Jane Melzer | 06.23.11

The Marathon refinery in southwest Detroit is expanding in order to process more Canadian tar sands crude oil, a move it admits will increase pollution in a neighborhood already burdened by industrial contamination.

The Detroit Free Press reports that many want to leave the neighborhood and that Marathon has bought up some of the homes around its 81 year-old factory for use as parking lots or green space.

Canadian firm to probe Utah tar sands

Canadian firm to probe Utah oil sands
Project to build mine would be first of its kind in United States
Written by
CHI-CHI ZHANG
Associated Press
April 17 2011

SALT LAKE CITY -- Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah's Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States.

It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

"It's no pipe dream"

It's no pipe dream

Politics has no place in Keystone review

For Calgary Herald April 10, 2011

Politicians on both sides of the border should cool the rhetoric over TransCanada Corp.'s contentious pipeline to Texas and get back to dealing with the facts.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama contradicted his earlier message about the need for increased imports from friendly countries such as Canada.

Montana issues permit for Imperial Oil test module

Montana issues permit for Imperial Oil test module
Associated Press, 04.11.11, 02:53 PM EDT

LEWISTON, Idaho -- The Montana Department of Transportation has issued a permit that would allow Imperial Oil to haul a huge load of refinery equipment from Idaho into Montana on its way to an oil sands project in Alberta, Canada.

Montana issued the permit to Imperial Oil on Friday, clearing the way for the 500,000-pound test load to leave the Port of Lewiston as early as Monday night.