Economics drive tar sands operations. Record highs in oil prices, though still fluctuating, will make tar sand oil ‘economical’ (read: profitable) well into the future. Government subsidies to this environmentally disastrous process remain in place from a time when the federal government was sponsoring research into the possibility of recovering this oil. Stock prices of tar sands developers grow the more conventional oil is scarce.
South Africa: Enter the Four Degrees Celsius World - the Failings of Climate Negotiations
By Saliem Fakir
12 December 2011
All Africa
Fourteen days of climate change negotiations started off with much scepticism and ended with a sense of despair despite the COP 17 outcome being declared "landmark" and "historic". COP 17 was painted, at once, as a victory for the world -- but such statements belie the real truth.
A 'mammoth project' with India?
By David Renwick
Trinidad Express
Jan 31, 2012
It may not be generally recognised but the upgrader project that Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Christian Ramnarine pursued with Reliance Industries during the Trinidad and Tobago delegation's visit to India last month, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has enormous game-changing (sorry to use a now popular cliché) implications for this country's energy sector.
Factbox: Enbridge pipeline to the Pacific: facts and issues
Reuters
Mon Jan 30, 2012
(Reuters) - Enbridge Inc's Northern Gateway pipeline is aimed at opening up lucrative overseas markets for surging Canadian oil sands production, but it has become highly contentious as Ottawa and the oil companies that support the project seek to fend off opposition from environmental and aboriginal groups.
House GOP Pushing Dirtiest Fuel on Planet, Oil Shale (Much Worse than Tar Sands)
By Zachary Shahan On February 3, 2012
Oh my, they just can’t stop. The House GOP seems dead set on destroying the country and destroying the planet. Here’s the latest, via Climate Progress, on its push to develop the dirtiest fuel on the planet (you thought tar sands were bad?!):
by Joe Romm
Imperial launches $2 billion oil sands expansion
REUTERS February 3, 2012
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd said on Friday it will go ahead with a C$2 billion ($2 billion) expansion of its Cold Lake oil sands project, adding 40,000 barrels per day of new production to Canada's largest thermal oil sands development.
US proposes scaling back onshore leasing for oil shale, oil sands
Washington (Platts)--
3 Feb 2012
The US is proposing to dramatically scale back the acreage set aside for oil shale and oil sands development in three western states, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management said Friday.
The BLM said it had reconsidered a Bush-era plan that made 2 million acres available for commercial leasing for the still experimental techniques for extracting kerogen, a precursor to crude oil, and to develop oil sands containing bitumen.
Nardone: Keystone pipeline: A bad idea
By Julie Nardone/Local columnist
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jan 29, 2012
President Obama may not have killed the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline project for all the following reasons, but he should have.
America’s #1 export in 2011 was refined fuel.
Shocked? Don’t be. Despite the staggering price of gas at the pump, the US ships gas, diesel and jet fuel off to developing countries like China.
How First Nations Are Gearing Up for Legal Battle Against Gateway
Native groups likely to cite evidence they weren't consulted as required by Supreme Court decisions.
By Geoff Dembicki, Jan 30 2012
TheTyee.ca
On Sept. 28, 2011, Enbridge appears to have made an extraordinary offer of peace to several of its most dedicated opponents.
Federal documents spark outcry by oil sands critics
nathan vanderklippe
Globe and Mail
Jan. 27, 2012
Critics are attacking Ottawa’s energy strategy after internal documents shed new light on the extent of federal efforts to advocate for the oil sands industry.
![Map shows Trans Mountain's existing pipe and possible twinning expansion. The Anchor project (red) was completed three years ago, while twinning from Darfield to Kamloops and from Hinton to Edson was done many years before that. [Kinder Morgan graphic]](http://oilsandstruth.org/sites/oilsandstruth.org/files/78996clearwaterTransMtnMap.jpg "Map shows Trans Mountain's existing pipe and possible twinning expansion. The Anchor project (red) was completed three years ago, while twinning from Darfield to Kamloops and from Hinton to Edson was done many years before that. [Kinder Morgan graphic]")
Kinder Morgan investigates twinning Trans Mountain pipeline
By Keith McNeill - Clearwater Times
Published: January 23, 2012 10:00 AM
Many local residents have been following the hearings that recently began to look into the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.
