Economics

July 1, 2008, 2:56 pm
Peak Oil: IEA Inches Toward the Pessimists’ Camp
Posted by Keith Johnson

What’s up with oil prices? Well, it’s not speculators, and there’s no relief in sight, meaning at least five more years of high prices with no easy fixes. The ugly truth? Peak oil isn’t fringe anymore—it’s going mainstream.

That’s the reading from the latest oil market report from the International Energy Agency, the rich-country energy watchdog. The IEA’s latest x-ray of the oil market includes plenty of disturbing nuggets.

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion
Fri Jul 4, 2008 10:53am EDT
By Yoko Kubota

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Indigenous communities from around the world urged G8 rich nations on Friday to help them participate in global climate change talks, saying they contributed least to but are most affected by global warming.

Clad in colorful traditional robes, 26 representatives from countries including the United States, Canada, and Japan, along with some 400 students, activists, and academics, met on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

Despite what they write below, CLAC is not a "union", but an anti-union bosses association of workers. Nonetheless, this article is the first time that the two killed Temporary foreign workers names have been released to my knowledge. Their widows had recently made it known that only 12 percent of their husbands wages have ever reached them, long after their deaths at the hands of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's speed ups in construction. Take the following "labour" press release with a major grain of salt.

--M

Widow of worker killed in Alberta finally gets compensation

This seems to be good news, but the underlying keys here are: Rising costs, costs due to the rising price of crude; these rises are directly linked to the *drive* to construct the pipelines that are ultimately needed for the continued growth of the Athabasca Tar Sands region. Two, as indicated, part of the reasoning against the MGP is the region of BC's Northeast corner perhaps containing vast reserves previously unknown.

This is rather, ahem, self explanatory...
Especially when you read the bio of the author, on a site with several ex-Fox writers.

--M

Alberta Heavy Crude to be World’s cleanest production
By Mark Smyth Monday, June 30, 2008

For those who were not aware of the joint statement from the 76TH ANNUAL U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS in Miami this past week, to boycott Canadian gasoline made from oil sands heavy crude, pay very close attention.

Workers are suddenly leaving Alberta, heading to Atlantic Canada, but will it last?
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff // Saturday July 5th, 2008

A new report shows an exodus of people from Alberta and an influx into Atlantic Canada, the reverse of a long-standing trend that has troubled New Brunswick for a decade.

Many Maritimers are heading home from Alberta as they find that the quality of life in the Atlantic region and Metro Moncton is top notch. Here some Metro Moncton residents enjoy the water feature in front of Moncton City Hall.

Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
by Naomi Klein
July 3, 2008
The Nation

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly right-wing media hosts had to prove their populist cred by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: “disaster capitalism.” It usually goes well–until it doesn’t.

Issues - New ERCB directive on toxic tailings is a huge step in the wrong direction

RICARDO ACUÑA / ualberta.ca/parkland

The Alberta Government, along with their friends in the oil industry, have recently embarked on a major campaign to educate Canadians and Americans about the fact that extraction of oil from Northern Alberta’s bituminous sands is actually an environmentally friendly and ecologically sound process.

"Clarity", meaning an assurance that no changes will be made to the regulatory approval process or environmental requirements, is demanded by major corporations who wish to be able to produce in the tar sands without oversight-- i.e., they "demand" the maintenance of the status quo. Nexen is one of the "partners" of the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI), a grouping that partners with many of the largest corporations that exist, receiving most of their funding through Ducks Unlimited Canada through Ducks Unlimited in the United States-- where the money originates with the Pew Foundation.

Government records show close to no environmental regulation enforcement in Alberta's Tar Sands

LIBRARY LATE FEES IN CALGARY AND EDMONTON TOTAL 16 TIMES MORE THAN
ENVIRONMENTAL FINES LEVIED AT TAR SANDS COMPANIES

TORONTO, July 2 /CNW/ - After a recent spate of 'greening' campaigns by
government and industry for the Tar Sands, information obtained by
ForestEthics shows government is failing to enforce environmental regulations,
giving oil sands companies a free ride.
Oil companies operating in the Tar Sands were fined only $249,000 in