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.
[This same Boak is shilling as well for the Israeli plan to decimate parts of the Elah Valley to turn rock into oil using heat, damn the energy input. They are not to be trusted and have no previous record of success, but this is reprinted here as an FYI as to what should come out of the ground vis-a-vis their "ideas". --M]
Oil shale development requires thoughtful, careful dialogue
December 12, 2011 7:56 PM
JEREMY BOAK
GUEST COLUMNIST
The Oil That Comes in from the Cold
By Humberto Márquez
IPSNews
December 31 2011
CARACAS, Dec 30, 2011 (IPS) - Thanks to soaring oil prices and new technology, oil producers in the hot sands of Arabia, the torrid Niger delta or the humid plains of the Orinoco are facing new competition from rivals in the frozen North.
The Anglo-Dutch Shell group was given the green light by the U.S. environmental agency to drill for oil off the coast of the northern edge of Alaska from July 2012, a project in which the company has already invested 3.5 billion dollars.
The politics of pipe: Keystone's troubled route
nathan vanderklippe
CALGARY
Globe and Mail
Dec. 24, 2011
Half-a-decade before TransCanada Corp.’s (TRP-T44.45----%) Keystone XL ran into a wall of political and environmental resistance, a key stretch of the route linking Canada’s oil sands to refineries in the southern U.S. emerged as a tricky, though seemingly surmountable, problem.
The route crossed a landscape of prairie and farmland, far from mountains, tundra, permafrost and other features that make it tough to dig trenches and lay pipe. But there was one obstacle.
The circular logic of energy independence
High Country News
Jonathan Thompson | Dec 27, 2011
“From its beginning 200 years ago, throughout its history, America has made great sacrifices of blood and also of treasure to achieve and maintain its independence. In the last third of this century, our independence will depend on maintaining and achieving self-sufficiency in energy.”
Politics Stamps Out Oil Sands Pipeline, Yet It Seems Likely to Endure
By JOHN M. BRODER and DAN FROSCH
Published: December 23, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration confirmed this week that a provision in the payroll tax bill requiring a quick decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf Coast will probably lead to cancellation of the project.
Reflections on Apartheid Oil
by Media Co-op
December 21, 2011
The Apartheid Oil series, which was originally published here on the Media Co-op, has created waves of discussion throughout the activist community and beyond. As a follow up to the five pieces that were part of the Apartheid Oil project, the Media Co-op did a follow-up interview with author Macdonald Stainsby.
Media Co-op: Is there a religious element to arguments in favour of developing these oil shale deposits?
Stephen Harper has doubts on Keystone pipeline approval, sees markets in Asia
By Jordan Press, Postmedia News December 20, 2011
Canada could sell its oil to China and other overseas markets with or without approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the United States, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In a year-end television interview, Harper indicated he had doubts the $7-billion pipeline would receive political approval from U.S. President Barack Obama, and that Canada should be looking outside the United States for markets.
The Estonian connection: Or how I started worrying about oil shale
High Country News
Jonathan Thompson | Dec 06, 2011 05:00 AM
The last big oil shale* boom in the West busted on “Black Sunday” 1982. I was 11 years old, then, living in Western Colorado, and I can still remember my dad explaining the boom, the bust and the process necessary to get the "oil" out of the shale.
Extreme Extraction
Oil production plans could reshape Morocco's economy and environment
by Macdonald Stainsby
November 17, 2011
Mediacoop.ca
RABAT, MOROCCO-- Many well-known voices trying to address the climate crisis on a global scale have posited that less developed countries without a full-blown industrial base can skip industrialization all together and transition away from fossil fuels. Ideally, the development that will take place in this scenario would result in the construction of infrastructure for a post-fossil fuel society.
Oil in the Desert
Will water be sacrificed to oil in Jordan?
by Macdonald Stainsby
The Dominion
December 7, 2011
