Forests

Shell wants out of Mackenzie pipeline project
CBC News
Jul 15, 2011

Shell Canada is planning to pull out of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project and sell its assets in the region.

The company is trying to sell its share in the $16.2 billion natural gas project in the Northwest Territories, according to company documents obtained by CBC News.

Shell is part of a corporate consortium, led by Imperial Oil, that is backing the proposed pipeline. Other members of the consortium are Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

Opti, partner in Nexen's Long Lake plant and originally spawned by Iraeli company Ormat in order to export "cogeneration" technology (burning waste gunk in house for power, regardless of climate impacts), has filed for bankruptcy protection. Rather than be good news for anti-tar sands campaigners in Alberta, this will provide Nexen with less questions as they try to jump start a flawed project.

"Anonymous" Hackers Attack Monsanto, Tar Sands Oil Companies
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 07.14.11
Treehugger

The notorious activist hacking group "Anonymous" has launched two new campaigns championing a pair of green causes -- helping U.S. farmers earn the right to label their food as "GMO-free" and working to obstruct the expansion of the devastating tar sands oil project in Alberta, Canada. Monsanto, the giant biotech firm, has confirmed it was the victim of a large-scale hacking attack. And the oil companies are next, Anonymous says.

Anonymous Versus Monsanto

UPDATE 3-Denali exits; TransCanada alone on Alaska pipeline
Tue, 17th May 2011 2

By Jeffrey Jones and Yereth Rosen

CALGARY/ANCHORAGE, May 17 (Reuters) - BP Plc and Conoco Phillips dropped efforts on Tuesday to build a $35 billion gas pipeline from Alaska, blaming chronically low prices as well as a technological revolution that has opened up huge supplies of natural gas much closer to big U.S. markets.

Oil giant Total pauses Madagascar tar sands plans – for now

7 July 2011

This Monday WDM campaigners came to the office with big smiles on their faces. Over the weekend, we’d heard that French Oil giant Total, subject to one of our latest online actions, had apparently cancelled its plans to mine tar sands in Madagascar.

High fives all around. Or?

Madagascar Oil and Total drop Africa’s biggest oil sands project
Frik Els | July 1, 2011

Madagascar Oil’s annual report released on Thursday shows the company is scuttling its project with French giant Total to develop a massive oil sand deposit on the island estimated to contain 1.2bn barrels of oil after three years of extensive work. The Bemolanga bitumen deposit adjacent the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve (pictured) was first drilled in the late 1800s and would have cost upwards of $8bn to bring into operation.

Climate Change: It's bad and getting worse
Severe weather events are wracking the planet, and experts warn of even greater consequences to come.
Dahr Jamail
Al Jazeera, June 23, 2011

The rate of ice loss in two of Greenland's largest glaciers has increased so much in the last 10 years that the amount of melted water would be enough to completely fill Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes in North America.

Oil sands activity, not wolves, threatens Canadian caribou
June 22, 2011

OilSandsLoader

Four years of research has found that exploration and mining of Canada's oil sands appear to pose a much greater threat to the remaining herds of Alberta's caribou than does being eaten by packs of wolves.

The findings, by a team of Canadian and U.S. researchers, caution Alberta authorities against pouncing on a proposed quick fix: killing off wolves to save the caribou from extinction.

The threat to Madagascar from tar sands; a first hand account

23 May, 2011 - 15:19

Environmental campaigner Holly Rakotondralambo from Madagascar is visiting the UK this week to highlight the threat to her country from proposals to mine tar sands there. Here she tells WDM about the concerns of the local communities around the mining areas that she has visited and what we can do to help stop the threat of tar sands mining in her country.

Holly Rakotondralambo talks to Liz Murray of WDM in Scotland

CNRL project to cut emissions
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, May. 17, 2011 7:12PM EDT

Canada’s oil sands companies are dramatically expanding an effort to link arms on efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the oil sands.