Energy and how it is captured and consumed is barely viable in tar sands production. While the amount of oil in places such as the tar sands in Alberta or the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela may have deposits of similar size to the reserves of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the return of new energy after expending energy in production is not even close. In Iraq, the process of using one barrel of oil generates 100 new barrels. In the tar sands, estimates of 3 to 1 and even as low as 1.5 to 1 have been made. Offsetting the net energy loss would require minimally 25-30 tar sands facilities for one Saudi plant operating at the same capacity.
Battlefield Nebraska: A pipeline plan stirs emotions
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE - The Globe and Mail
October 1 2011
Next to a sun-stained red flag that marks the planned route of the Keystone XL pipeline, Leon Weichman kneels on his Nebraska hay field. Moisture spots his jeans. It has barely rained in 30 days in this arid part of the central U.S., yet the grasses are thick and green. The soil is black and damp.
Canada’s oil industry
The other Keystone debate
The Economist
Oct 1st 2011
China's cash floods into Canadian energy sector
By Wenran Jiang
Asia Times
As China has become the world's second-largest economy, its demand for energy has caused it to become the world's biggest comprehensive energy consumer. Accompanying this process has been a sharp upward trend in Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) focused on energy and other resources.
Canada has become the latest addition to Beijing's FDI investment priority list with C$15 billion (US$15.2 billion) worth of Chinese capital pouring into the energy-rich province of Alberta in 2010. [1]
Keystone XL Pipeline Safety Standards Not as Rigorous as They Seem
Monday 19 September 2011
by: Elizabeth McGowan, Truthout
Research by NRDC shows that only 12 of the 57 conditions set by federal regulators differ from the minimum standards already required for pipeline safety.
Washington - TransCanada and the U.S. State Department have repeatedly touted safety standards for the proposed Keystone XL heavy crude pipeline as robust and unparalleled. As proof, they point to 57 "special conditions" that the Alberta-based pipeline operator has agreed to follow.
Activists, company spar over controversial international oil pipeline
By the CNN Wire Staff
Mon September 19, 2011
(CNN) -- As the decision deadline on the controversial proposal to build a giant oil pipeline between Alberta, Canada, and Texas draws closer, activists and the company behind the project are ratcheting up their war of words.
Known as Keystone XL, the 1,700-mile pipeline has drawn fierce criticism from activists like Daryl Hannah, who spoke to CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Monday.
EIA sees huge oil hike by 2035
Oil production is set to soar by nearly 27 million barrels a day to meet booming demand from mainly non-OECD countries by 2035, the US Energy Information Administration claimed on Monday.
Eoin O'Cinneide
19 September 2011
Upstream Online
Iran and Qatar are also set to take centre stage in a jump in natural gas production in the next quarter of a century with the Middle East and Australia weighing-in heavily with increased LNG supply.
Maurice Picow
Can Israeli Oil Shale Outsize Saudi Arabia?
Maurice Picow | July 7th, 2011
Does Israel want its Negev and Galilee regions torn up for “black gold”?
Anemic U.S. job growth continues
Northern Gateway quietly gathers momentum amid stalled U.S. economy
By Jeff Lewis
September 04, 2011
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Keep an eye on U.S. President Barack Obama this week. The embattled president is set to announce his jobs package in a joint session of Congress Thursday against a backdrop of anemic U.S. job creation. A Labor Department report on Friday showed the American economy had failed to create jobs in August, putting an end to nearly a year of increases.
Backlash against Alta., Oil pipeline
Sat Sep. 03 2011 17:43:19
Nahreman Issa, ctvedmonton.ca
It's being called the largest act of civil disobedience in the US-environmental movement and it's directed at Alberta.
A two week "sit-in" outside the White House has come to an end Saturday, resulting in the arrests of more than 1200 people. They're calling on the government to quash the construction of an oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas.
They say despite the arrests, they are more demonstrations on the way.
UPDATE 1-Enbridge pipe has 2nd China-related backer -report
Fri Sep 2, 2011 1:01pm EDT
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 2 (Reuters) - MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), a small oil sands developer partly owned by China's CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK), is among financial backers of a planned pipeline to Canada's West Coast from Alberta, a newspaper reported on Friday.
