Animals

Tar Sands: The worst fuel on the planet?

A Reporter's Notebook: "Midwest oil mining a crude idea to many: Are we now scraping the bottom of the barrel?"

Photo from chicagotribune.com. Taken by Jiri Rezac / WWF UK.

As Minnesota sanctions the transport and use of oil sands--the second largest reserve of usable crude in the world--it takes a prominent role in a transcontinental controversy.

Many argue our state is on the wrong side.

From dead birds to sick humans and fish, hardly anyone has anything positive to say about the new carbon intensive fuel polluting our air and water.

B.C. government awards tenure to BP Canada for coalbed methane project
December 8//2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The provincial government has given the green light to a contentious coalbed methane project in southeastern B.C.

Energy minister Richard Neufeld says BP Canada has been awarded tenure for its Mist Mountain project, near Fernie in the East Kootenay region.

Billions of litres of tainted oilsands water leaking: Report
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, December 09, 2008

OTTAWA - Oilsands production is releasing four billion litres of
contaminated water into Alberta's groundwater and natural ecosystems every
year, according to a new national report that was immediately dismissed as
"false" by the provincial government.

The annual volume of water pollution in 2007 would have been enough to
fill Toronto's Rogers Centre, but could be stopped if the federal

More time granted to comment on pipeline
Groups petitioned U.S. State Department on behalf of farmers, ranchers

Thom Gabrukiewicz • tgabrukiew@argusleader.com • December 6, 2008

People will have much more time to comment on the application for a presidential permit required to build TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Tahltan Nation Applauds Government Decision to Suspend Coalbed Methane Development in the Sacred Headwaters

DEASE LAKE, BC, Dec. 5 /CNW/ - The Tahltan Central Council (TCC), the
organization responsible for protecting Tahltan Title and Rights, applauds
today's provincial government announcement to amend Shell Canada's petroleum
and natural gas tenure license. The amendment will stop Shell from exploring
and developing coalbed methane (CBM), a form of natural gas extracted from
coal beds, in the Klappan region. The Klappan is a region in northwestern

Tar sands threatens millions of birds, report says
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
December 2, 2008

The development of the tar sands could lead to the loss of more than 160 million birds over the next 30 to 50 years because of the elimination of habitat and deaths from drowning in tailings ponds, according to a report being released today.

Enbridge brings experts to Burns Lake to inform locals
Published: November 25, 2008 11:00 PM

Enbridge held an open house on Nov. 17 at College of New Caledonia (CNC) as part of its efforts to let the public know what is going on with its Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Several dozen people attended the open house, which was held from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm to allow people flexibility in attending the information session, and a dozen Northern Gateway engineers, environmental experts, and communications people were on hand to answer people’s questions.

CANADA: Native Rights Concerns Cloud 2010 Games
By Jon Elmer

VANCOUVER, Dec 1 (IPS) - A coalition of indigenous elders, social
justice activists and community organisers is voicing opposition to
the upcoming Winter Olympics, promising to continue their protests up
to and throughout the 2010 games.

Taking advantage of a three-day media briefing hosted by the official
Olympic body in late November, the Vancouver Organising Committee
(VANOC), activists and native representatives invited the local and

Bush Quietly Passes Dozens of New Rules
Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, 1 Dec (IPS) - As the world community meets in Poland
this week to find solutions to the climate crisis, the George W. Bush
White House is chaining the United States' tiller to prevent a change
of course by President-elect Barack Obama by passing new anti-
environmental rules and regulations at a furious pace.

Nearly a million hectares of public wildlands in Wyoming and Utah are
being opened up to oil shale extraction, the Endangered Species Act is

Claims of industrial genocide in northern AB
Click here to email Troy Adams
11/24/2008

A speaker at a conference of people opposed to oilsands development in northern Alberta says aboriginals face a ``genocide'' as companies release waste into rivers that flow through their communities.

Mike Mercredi told the Everyone's Downstream 2 conference in Edmonton that it's a slow, industrial genocide.