Forests

Fri, February 22, 2008
Gateway pipeline back on track
UPDATED: 2008-02-22 01:25:47 MST

Enbridge will transport product from Alberta oilsands to B.C. coast

By MARKUS ERMISCH, SUN MEDIA

Pipeline company Enbridge Inc. has picked up construction pace on the Gateway Pipeline after slowing down the project in late 2006.

Construction is expected to finish between 2012 and 2014, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Varey, noting that construction costs will most likely come in above the original $4 billion.

Cost pressures primarily stem from higher labour prices and materials costs.

Enbridge rekindles oilsands pipeline plan

Jeffrey Jones, Reuters Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008

CALGARY -- Enbridge Inc. has rekindled plans for a $4-billion pipeline to Canada's West Coast in response to demand from producers and refiners wanting oilsands-derived crude shipped to Asia, Enbridge's chief executive said Thursday.

Enbridge, the country's second-largest pipeline operator, has convinced enough potential customers to fund the remaining costs to get the Gateway pipeline project to the regulatory approval stage, CEO Pat Daniel said.

Stelmach denies governments ignoring oilsands health woes
PC leader listens to concerns from native spokesman
Darcy Henton, with files from Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service, Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008

Just after Tory Leader Ed Stelmach derided a new report that calls Alberta's oilsands "the most destructive development on earth," he was confronted by a Mikisew Cree who's worried the megaprojects are poisoning his people.

Mankind can't afford more oil drilling-ex-BP exec
By Gerard Wynn

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Known oil, gas and coal reserves may already contain a quarter more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change, putting the value of new oil exploration in doubt, said a former oil major executive.
The oil industry may be wasting $50 billion annually searching for new fields, said Jan-Peter Onstwedder, formerly BP's most senior risk manager. He left BP in December.

Environmentalists' report to call for Ottawa to act on tar sands

BILL CURRY
From Friday's Globe and Mail

February 15, 2008

OTTAWA - Alberta's oil sands are the most destructive project on Earth,
causing environmental damage well beyond provincial borders, a new report
says.

>From acid rain falling in Saskatchewan to toxic pollution spewing from
Ontario oil refineries, a report to be released this morning by
Toronto-based Environmental Defence calls on Ottawa to act where Alberta
will not.

The environmentalists will be joined by two Alberta native leaders, who will

Don't fight the Environmental movement-- Buy your own.

Northern pipelines at mercy of global energy prices, experts say
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 | 3:05 PM CT
CBC News

Natural gas pipelines being proposed in the North may never be built at this point if global energy consumers can instead import liquefied natural gas from other sources around the world at cheaper prices, experts say.

Projects like the Mackenzie pipeline in the Northwest Territories and the North Slope pipeline down the Alaska Highway have been in the planning stages for decades, with Mackenzie pipeline proponents waiting for regulatory approvals.

Dirty oil tricks
Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008

So much for any suggestion that press baron Rupert Murdoch is a right-wing dinosaur, or that his media empire is out of step with the eco-zeitgeist. First he announces that News Corp. will become "carbon neutral" by 2010. Now his flagship British organ, The Times of London, has started crusading against Alberta 's oilsands.

We'll pay for Suncor expansion
Feb 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Cameron Smith

Turning a blind eye is supposed to be a bad thing, because you live a lie. You act as if you didn't know.

In Canada, we do this every day. Some make a lot of money at it. Others believe – in a mad, schizophrenic way – that it's a formula for prosperity.

Last week there was a prime example of turning a blind eye. The business press carried stories that Suncor Energy Inc. is planning to expand its oil sands operations in northern Alberta, at a cost of $20 billion.