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.

Cross-border fight simmers over tar sands

David Ebner
Jun 9/ 2010
Globe and Mail

The oil sands have a new adversary: the City of Bellingham, Wash.

On Monday night, in a vote of 7-0, city councillors endorsed a resolution to
reconsider what sort of fuel Bellingham buys for its fleet vehicles, a motion
that pointed a specific finger at “high carbon fuels such as those derived from
the Canadian Tar Sands.”

The resolution is largely symbolic, since the city of 76,000 is locked into its
current fuel supply contract until 2015, but highlights the ongoing political

"environmentalists and Tar Sands operators to announce eco-agreement"

environmentalists and Tar Sands operators to announce eco-agreement

May 25th, 2010 by salmon guy

Eco-certified?

Well, maybe the subject line to this post is not quite true… but probably soon enough. We can call the products: the eco-tar sands; or Greenpeace Oil; or Suzuki Sustainable Bitumen; or otherwise.

Reliance on Tar Sands Grows Despite Environmental Risks

Reliance on Oil Sands Grows Despite Environmental Risks
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: May 18, 2010

There is no chance of a rig blowout here, or a deepwater oil spill like the one from the BP well that is now fouling the Gulf of Mexico. But the oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses other environmental challenges, like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.

The Gulf oil spill in context: US oil consumption

The Gulf oil spill in context: US oil consumption
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
May 31, 2010

[graphs and charts at link at bottom of this article]

Alberta’s Tar Sands and Idaho’s Wilderness Gateway

Unfiltered By Nick Gier, Unfiltered 5-31-10

In April of 2008, over 1,000 ducks flying over Northern Alberta took a break from their migration north and landed in what they perceived was just another lake in the area. They never took flight again, along with other 10,000 other waterfowl that year. The water in many of these lakes has been tarred and poisoned by bitumen processing.

“Joint” agreements: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement.. just plain bizarre

May 31st, 2010 by salmon guy

I’ve been reading through the leaked version of the recently announced Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement – the touted historic agreement signifying a new era of Joint Leadership in the Boreal Forest.

Canadian Forestry Firms’ Agreement Fails on Caribou, Boreal Protection

Canadian Forestry Firms’ Agreement Fails on Caribou, Boreal Protection
Good news turns out to be too good to be true

by Wilderness Committee Manitoba

Winnipeg, MB - A recent announcement by a 21-corporation forestry consortium that led Canadians to believe that huge swaths of boreal forest and caribou habitat were no longer going to be logged turned out to good to be true, as 9 times more caribou habitat is being targeted for logging than is being temporarily preserved over the next three years.

Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement

Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
Officials, First Nations, activists offer praise, criticism
May 26, 2010

The announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has sparked a mix of sweeping pronouncements and passionate reactions. Below, we have compiled a small sampling.

Readers are invited to post additions in the comments sections at the bottom of the page.

"The Ontario government is encouraged to see environmental groups and forest companies working together to help develop a plan that would lead to both a healthy and a prosperous Canadian forest."

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Reconsidered

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Reconsidered
ENGOs sign over right to criticize, companies continue to log caribou habitat

by Dawn Paley
May 26, 2010

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

VANCOUVER—Last week’s announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) was celebrated by environmental groups as a historic deal that could save a significant amount of sensitive woodland caribou habitat.

Southeast Texas Keystone XL Hearings

PIPELINE
Potential piping project opens debate

Jennifer Johnson
Orange County Editor

A proposed pipeline funneling what skeptics call "dirty oil" into Southeast Texas from the tar sand mines of Canada has drawn criticism from some Beaumont/Port Arthur residents, the local branch of the Sierra Club and the Texas office of Public Citizen, but officials working with the unconventional crude say the majority of what is being said is hyperbole at best.