Climate Change / Emissions

A great article and summation, though I believe that author Swanson is a tad too optimistic to suggest that the project looks dead. The plans for moving heavy bitumen [et al] to other markets-- with the US most likely demanding to be the first ones considered-- must happen in phases, because the recoverability/daily oil-producing capacity cannot be tripled overnight.

This article is a great glimpse, yet it seems to tell us that certain market players throughout the US are less able to predict the future of oil recoverability and capacity than the rest of the population. The line: "The industry is also gambling that oil prices will stay high. If they collapse, expensive oil-sands projects may not pay off." is the needed throw-in to make people not embrace the Peak Oil reality we are already at the start of.

Approximately only a month ago the first new refinery in decades was announced to be under construction in the lower 48 states. This is not to be the last, as the absolutely unparalleled growth of the tarsands is leaving bottle neck-like conditions for transporting the sludge-then-crude-then petrol through the refining processes across Turtle Island. Husky will no doubt go along with some of the foreseen upgrading of facilities, rather than worry about an entirely new refinery. It's all a part of the largest project in history.

--M

Husky on the prowl for refining capacity

When Royal Dutch Shell recently bought out Shell Canada, the world's most notorious oil corporation became directly involved in many of the world's most deadly plans for the environment, social rights and indigenous self-determination. In northern British Columbia, RD Shell has inherited an exploration permit to look in the sacred headwaters of the Nass, Skeena and the Stikine rivers for Coalbed Methane, perhaps the single worst water damaging form of gas extraction that has been linked to stillbirths in animals and humans nearby.

Enbridge still online with Gateway project
Jul 12, 2007 06:31 PM
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/235384
Dina O'Meara
Canadian press

CALGARY–Enbridge Inc. was taken by surprise Thursday by comments PetroChina, its major partner in an ambitious Alberta to British Columbia pipeline, was pulling out of the $3-billion project.

"We have not discussed CNPC's comments with them," spokesperson Glenn Herchak told The Canadian Press. "So it would not be appropriate to comment."

Black gold's tarnish seen in Canada
Cash and jobs flow bountifully from Alberta's oil sands, but they come at a cost to the environment and native peoples.
By Tim Reiterman, Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oilsands8jul08,0,732...
FORT MCMURRAY, CANADA — The Aurora Mine exudes the odor of petroleum and the look of untapped riches.

What they didn't want you to know: oil's dirty little secret
Copyright 2007 Lloyd's List International
All Rights Reserved
Lloyd's List // July 13, 2007

The theory of Peak Oil is that world production will peak and plateau
at a undefined point in time and then begin to decline, while demand
continues to rise Five decades after it was first brought to the
world's attention, the finite supply of oil and what this means is
only just being accepted

"IT'S the end of the world as we know it", sang US rock band REM, a

June 12, 2007
Or Why It Feels Good to be Smeared by Patrick Moore
Confessions of a Anti-Nuke Jerk
http://counterpunch.org/wasserman06122007.html
By HARVEY WASSERMAN

Patrick Moore has called me a "jerk." He may not be Queen Elizabeth, but it feels like being made Knight of the Realm.

Moore is a supporter of nuclear power. He is also an advocate for clear-cutting forests, genetically modified foods and a wide range of other corporate eco-assaults. The companies behind them fund Moore's "consulting" agency, which appears to specialize in greenwashing.

Military experts say worldwide water scarcity could lead to future conflict
Sat Jul 7, 2:20 PM

By Michael Oliveira

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070707/national/great_lakes_water_wars

(CP) - Some of the world's most powerful nations are getting increasingly desperate
for fresh water and observers are concerned that a day will come when countries will
fight for the dwindling resource.

Countries in the Middle East and Africa have long dealt with water shortages but now
the likes of China, India and the United States are grappling with the problem.

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists

Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2656034.ece
By Daniel Howden
Published: 14 June 2007

Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.