Economics

This new port development, lauded as a part of a Canadian strategy to open up a Gateway to the Asia Pacific, is all a part of the new plans to make northern BC-- in Prince Rupert and further into the shoreline at what is commonly called Kitimat-- a major hub for bringing in diluent fuels from Russia while shipping Tarsand mock oil to China and California.

TransCanada considers Alberta nuclear source
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/208153
Apr 27, 2007 07:02 PM
Dina O'Meara
Canadian press

CALGARY–Pipeline and power giant TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) said today coal is still king in Alberta, but that building a nuclear power plant in Western Canada could be an option in the future.

"The way we look at it, nuclear is primarily an option for supplying electricity demand in Alberta, long-term" Hal Kvisle, president and chief executive said, following the company's annual meeting.

Yet another great example of how impossible it is for a democratic discussion for the people of all of North America to be commenced without a realistic environmental impacts assessment from the tarsands-- an assessment that must take place for the entire continent, necessary components therein, and all of the "natural extensions" that will "guarantee the lifetime" of this or that pipeline (For example in the Mackenzie Valley-- stage one of the pipeline would ultimately lead to a decimation of the Colville Lake/Sahtu region through a gazillion and one gas pads).

[Tarsand Mock] Oiling up the Coast
Proposed tanker route into Kitimat.
Harper shrugs off 35-year ban on risky tanker traffic.
By David Beers April 30, 2007
TheTyee.ca

People on British Columbia's north coast have come to rely on a couple of assumptions.

One, oil tankers are forbidden to sail close to their jagged shore. Too risky.

Two, Albertans and their oil schemes are a safe, comfortable distance away.

It is going to be incredibly illustrative how Canadian elites treat this-- if it gets a mention in more than stating-the-facts ways such as this announcement below. Silence would be every bit as loud. A major, non-private oil corporation for a 'foreign' country (that is, not the United States or Canada) has purchased Calgary based North American Oil Sands. Will the same level of fear mongering that accompanied Chinese investments be unleashed, along with a 'white peril' thinly veiled reference to base reactions towards Norway?

I seriously doubt it.

--M

Published on 24 Apr 2007 by Energy Bulletin / Whiskey & Gunpowder. Archived on 25 Apr 2007.
Ali Samsam Bakhtiari and Peak Oil
http://www.energybulletin.net/29162.html
by Byron King

I HAVE RECEIVED more correspondence from Ali Samsam Bakhtiari of Tehran, Iran. I want to bring Dr. Bakhtiari's important work to the attention of the readers of Whiskey & Gunpowder.

When we are able to chart where the tar sands are going, and by adding up the component plans that are already announced we can, the sheer size and scope makes ignoring them or allowing -- as the article says-- for "business as usual" a complete, total surrender to being decimated by climate change. Mr Harper has already had private meetings with the US Dep't of Energy and Natural Resources Canada, along with the oil executives.

The tactic being assumed by all the major players in the tarsands as of late is to pretend to love the earth too, but just that they have a different idea of what it will take to save the atmosphere and, well, life. This is right up the alley of the Democratic Party, who have a long history of pretending to care about green causes while assassinating all legislative and participatory attempts to make them back it up.

Nor is it at all surprising that Sunoco would be involved today. The story of Sunoco in tarsands?

Public to pay for green policy: Lau
Husky CEO blunt about passing on government-mandated higher costs
Jon Harding, Financial Post
April 20, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=3ba6045c-...

CALGARY - John Lau, president and chief executive of Husky Energy Inc., fired off a warning yesterday to Alberta and Canadian legislators circling the oilsands: Consumers, not oil companies, will bear the brunt of government policies that add costs to the massive energy developments.

Earth Day rallies target politicians
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/206092
Apr 23, 2007 04:30 AM

Earth Day celebrations across the country yesterday turned the heat on politicians as environmentalists await the launch of a made-in-Canada global warming plan.

In Toronto, hundreds of people, carrying signs with slogans like "Earth to Harper – get your head out of the tar sands," paraded in the streets.