Economics

Oil Sands Gaining Ground With Rising Costs Of Crude Oil
5/21/2007
http://www.oilandgasonline.com/content/news/article.asp?DocID=%7B3902492...

Palo Alto, CA - As prices and global demand for crude oil continue to increase, the North American oil sands market is poised for remarkable growth. Recent technological developments have considerably reduced the extraction and upgrading costs of bitumen. This, along with high crude oil prices, has made oil sands an attractive proposition for oil companies.

Canadians need to "reel in" Big Oil: The Need for Law Reform
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20070526122247132
by PatriotPete/bcpolitics.ca Peter Dimitrov, May 26, 2007

Sun, May 27, 2007
U.S. scores points with new immigration bill
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/05/27/4211962-sun.html
By DONNA MARIE ARTUSO

WASHINGTON -- A colossal immigration bill, backed by a bipartisan coalition, is lurching its way through the U.S. Senate -- amendment by cumbersome amendment -- in an attempt to comprehensively reform a system that has been in place for more than 40 years.

Move over Fort Mac, a new boomtown is born
On the surface Grande Prairie looks unremarkable, but its riches of oil and gas have brought roaring growth
DAVID EBNER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070521.RGRANDEPRAIRIE...
May 21, 2007

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. -- On the surface, Grande Prairie, with a population nearing 50,000, looks unremarkable. Most buildings are a couple of storeys high, and the only striking feature of the richest neighbourhood in town - called Wedgewood - is the number of three-vehicle garages.

Shell eyes nuclear power in oil sands
New technology that extracts bitumen from limestone demands huge quantities of electricity
DAVID EBNER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070521.wxrnuclear22...
Globe and Mail
May 21, 2007

Calgary — — Royal Dutch Shell PLC [RDS.B-N]is looking at nuclear power to support its experimental oil sands ambitions, on which it has already placed a bet of more than half a billion dollars.

GLOBE & MAIL, MAY 19th by Andrew Nikiforuk

THE ENVIRONMENT: HEALTH AND SAFETY
Backlash against a whistle-blower
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070519.DOCTOR19/TPSto... nvironment

For years, Dr. John O'Connor has made headlines by continually asking why natives near the oil sands have so much cancer.
But that's not the only reason he's in such hot water now. Andrew Nikiforuk reports ANDREW NIKIFORUK May 19, 2007.
The Globe and Mail.

It should come as no surprise that this move is "welcomed" in such reactionary fashion; radicals act, reactionary anti-movements react. Here is just such an ideological reaction below.

Orinoco Seizure by Hugo Chavez Threatens Global Oil Stability
Martin Hutchinson on May 18th, 2007
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/orinoco/2007/05/18/

Whitecourt is a small town near massive (mock) oil development. It's also a town known for helping establish the "precedent" of industrial development. If the nuclear proponents get one reactor approved somewhere to feed their insatiable drive for (tar sands mock) oil, then it will grow politically available ten thousand times higher, and our job gets worse.

What shall we do?

--M

Energy Alberta talks nuclear power with Whitecourt residents

This article is quite notable in that it comes from Qatar, and it is basically a Middle Eastern tip of the hat to peak oil. As the world continues to search for new sources of bitumen to make [mock] oil from the tarsands, this description of the mini rush for nation-states and companies to diversify their portfolios to include tarsands oil is yet more indication less and less people in positions to know about it believe that oil prices will drop below "economical levels" for the tarsands. That is roughly $30 barrels.

--M

More firms moving into costly oil sands

PUC To Hear Oil Pipeline Proposal
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,56895
05/09/2007

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission has scheduled four public hearings in June along the route of a proposed oil pipeline that would run through the eastern part of the state.

The TransCanada Keystone Pipeline would carry oil from a terminal at Hardisty, Alberta, to Illinois to supply US refineries. The 1,800-mile pipeline would enter the United States in North Dakota and also cross South Dakota, Nebraska, a corner of Kansas, and Missouri before reaching Illinois.