Climate Change / Emissions

‘Oil shale: A sound way to achieve energy independence'
By SHARON UDASIN
Jerusalem Post
01/03/2012

Private initiative releases its final assessment on environmental impact to pave way for pilot drilling and production.

After completing operations at its six oil shale experimental drilling sites, Israel Energy Initiatives has submitted a final assessment of its project’s environmental impacts to the Environmental Protection Ministry.

IEI hopes to get the project’s official pilot phase under way in the coming months.

PetroChina to take full control of MacKay River oilsands project from Athabasca
By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press
January 03, 2012

CALGARY - Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. has decided to sell its 40 per cent stake in the MacKay River oilsands project to joint-venture partner PetroChina, giving a Chinese oil giant full control of an oilsands asset for the first time.

Obama, Congress begin 2012 in oil pipeline dispute

By Matthew Daly

Associated Press

Monday, January 2, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Congress are starting the election year locked in a tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that will force the White House to make a politically risky choice between two key Democratic constituencies.

Some unions say the Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of jobs. Environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster.

China Digs Deeper Into Canadian Tar Sands During Durban Talks
Think Progress
By Brad Johnson on Dec 3, 2011

Although China boasts of its green progress, the booming nation is also making major bets on North and South American tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet. This play for civilization-threatening energy comes even as the world’s nations jockey over the fragile international climate accords in Durban, South Africa:

EVERYONE IS DOWNSTREAM: Tar Sands in Madagascar
Jean Pierre Ratsimbazafy of Madagascar speaks in Durban, South Africa

by Lia Tarachansky →Durban 2011

Utah’s Oil Sands a Resource for Domestic Energy and Jobs
December 4, 2011
Utah Pulse

One of the nation’s largest potential hydrocarbon resources is contained in oil sands in Utah. The oil sands at PR Spring are located on Utah’s remote East Tavaputs Plateau, and they are estimated to contain the equivalent of over 4.5 billion barrels of oil. As oil prices hover around $100 a barrel and we look to domestic fuel sources, unconventional options are moving into the spotlight. Oil sands are important for applications such as transportation fuel and native asphalt.

Shell's Bonga Bongo (and other beats)
Nnimmo Bassey

Although the oil company Shell has pronounced the cause and source of its oil spill of 20 or so December 2011 this has remained nothing other than a company statement. Since that spill the company has writhed and contorted in efforts to prove to the world that it is responsive to concerns surrounding its notorious despoliation of the Niger Delta environment.

Energy sector brings wealth, immigrants to Alberta

Jeremy van Loon, Bloomberg News

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Alberta Premier Alison Redford says oil is opening Canada's fastest-growing province to the world for the first time.

The population of Canada's main oil-producing region has soared by 37 percent to about 3.7 million in the past decade as companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Statoil ASA attracted workers from China, Venezuela and the Philippines to develop the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

Still waiting for word from WH on Keystone pipeline
Chris Woodward - OneNewsNow - 12/29/2011

The clock is ticking for President Barack Obama to either make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline -- or explain why the plan is not in the nation's best interest.

Dan Simmons, director of state and regulatory affairs at the Institute for Energy Research (IER), thinks it is easy to see why the pipeline should be approved.

Imperial Oil approves US$8.6 billion expansion to Kearl oil sands mine

By Associated Press
December 21

CALGARY, Alberta — Imperial Oil Ltd. said Wednesday it will go ahead with an $8.9 billion Canadian (US$8.6 billion) expansion to its Kearl oil sands mine in Alberta.

The Calgary-based oil producer and refiner said the second phase of the project is slated to begin producing 110,000 barrels of oil per day by late 2015.