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.
BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lakes?
By Steve Horn
Global Research, March 28, 2014
Is it conventional crude or tar sands? That is the question. And it’s one with high stakes, to boot.
The BP Whiting refinery in Indiana spilled between 470 and 1228 gallons of oil (or is it tar sands?) into Lake Michigan on March 24 and four days later no one really knows for sure what type of crude it was. Most signs, however, point to tar sands.
New York Times writer credits Vancouver Observer investigation into oil sands spying
In an op/ed piece "Is Canada Tarring Itself?" - a famed US author links to Vancouver Observer's work exposing the Harper government's extensive spying of groups opposed to the oil sands.
Mychaylo Prystupa
Posted: Apr 1st, 2014
The global Transition tipping point has arrived - vive la révolution
Nafeez Ahmed, The Guardian, Mar 18, 2014
A new post-carbon era dawns as the old fossil fuel system dies. It's time to step up.
Last Friday, I posted an exclusive report about a new NASA-backed scientific research project at the US National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (Sesync) to model the risks of civilisational collapse, based on analysis of the key factors involved in the rise and fall of past civilisations.
Energy East no boon for refiners: report
By Lauren Krugel — CP — Mar 18 2014
CALGARY - The proposed Energy East pipeline won't be the boon to Eastern Canadian refineries that supporters claim because the vast majority of the oil in it would be bound for export markets, environmental groups argued in a report released Tuesday.
TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline for Export, With Little Return for Canadians
OTTAWA, March 18, 2014 /CNW/ - A new report shows that nearly all of the 1.1 million barrels a day of crude oil the proposed Energy East pipeline would carry would be exported unrefined. The report, TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: For Export, Not Domestic Gain, shows eastern Canadian refineries would process only a small amount of crude from Energy East, given that they already rely substantially on two other North American sources, with a third source imminent.
Tar sands threat moves closer
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 14, 2014
In the wake of a troubling decision by Canadian officials, anti-tar-sands activists are urging US Senator Susan Collins to join the rest of Maine’s Congressional delegation in calling for a new Presidential Permit should the Portland Pipe Line Corporation seek to reverse the flow in its own pipeline, which would open the valve to pump tar sands all the way from Canada to Casco Bay.
Oil Sands Pipeline Coming to North Dakota
March 18, 2014 by Alisha Mims •
The largest crude oil pipeline project in the state of North Dakota is getting closer to becoming a reality. Enbridge Energy’s Sandpiper Pipeline Project, also called the Northern Gateway project, would carry oil sands bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s Bakken Shale to the British Columbia coast. Enbridge recently announced plans to make the pipeline operational by 2016.
Alberta Regulator Quietly Halts Steam Bitumen Mining Near Fort Mac
by Andrew Nikiforuk, originally published by The Tyee | March 13, 2014
The Alberta energy regulator has suspended the fastest-growing source of bitumen production around Fort McMurray due to concerns about fracturing the region’s cap rock.
Keystone pipeline may be headed for further delay
By Tom Cohen, CNN
Wed February 26, 2014
Washington (CNN) -- A debate of more than five years could stretch even longer with Wednesday's call for a health study on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Two Democratic senators -- Barbara Boxer of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- urged Secretary of State John Kerry to examine higher rates of cancer and other illness reported in places impacted by the "tar sands" oil from northern Alberta.
Keystone Protest Held; URI Divestment Possible
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
