Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Forests

Forests lose more trees and habitat to pipeline “right of way” cuts and tar pit building than to clearcuts. With minor variation, pipelines go the direct route. Through the strip mining of the land that contains tarsand petroleum and through pipeline construction to accomodate, only the Amazon Basin in Brazil would see larger rates of deforestation than the Boreal forest cover surrendered to the tarsands. Roads often accompany pipelines, as do various other developments. Hundreds of thousands of miles of forests, all combined, have been lost to infrastructure built to accommodate tarsands operations. Now the industry wants to build two approximately 1200 km long Mackenzie and Gateway pipelines as well as 2700 km's from Alaska's North Slope to accomodate tarsand oil production.

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B.C. may face unprecedented native unrest if rights ignored

TEX ENEMARK,
VANCOUVER SUN
MARCH 3, 2011

In an article in The Sun Feb. 14, ("The Skeetchestn say enough already"),
Rich Deneault, the Skeetchestn Band chief served notice that the way
business and governments ride roughshod over native rights in British
Columbia has to come to an end, or face the consequences, which may not be
pretty.

He says, very bluntly, "In the days ahead, those companies and agencies
that have not acted honourably will be receiving letters from us, advising

Why the BBC's 'impartial' stance on climate science is irresponsible

Sceptics too often go unchallenged when they make inaccurate and misleading statements on BBC programmes
Bob Ward
Thursday 3 March 2011
guardian.co.uk

A bizarre performance by former TV presenter Johnny Ball on Wednesday's edition of The Daily Politics show has once again highlighted the BBC's unsuccessful struggle to balance accuracy and impartiality when it comes to climate change.

Suncor, Syncrude face new regulations

Suncor, Syncrude face new regulations
CARRIE TAIT
CALGARY— Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Mar. 01, 2011

The Alberta government is on the verge of rewriting rules governing oil sands reclamation, changes that target the two largest players in northern Alberta as well as any new mines.

NDP says funding of tar sands land reclamation is too little for the job

Funds to reclaim oilsands land fall short: NDP
Not enough security, warns auditor general

By Jason Fekete, Calgary Herald March 1, 2011

Leaked documents show the Alberta government will collect $400 million less from energy producers over the next nine years for oilsands reclamation, the NDP charges, despite the auditor general warning the province is financially at risk.

Fracturing solidarity: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement in context

Fracturing solidarity: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement in context
February 22, 2011
By Dawn Paley
Briarpatch Magazine

Exporting [tar sands] energy [through Thunder Bay].

Exporting energy
2011-02-07
By Jodi Lundmark,
tbnewswatch.com

According to the president of the Oil Sands Developers Groups, Thunder Bay's port and rail lines make the city an important gateway for oil exports.

It might surprise people to know that more than 21 per cent of the United States’ crude oil comes from Canada, said the president of the Oil Sands Developers Group.

Energy regulator okays Alberta’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine (Joslyn Mine)

Energy regulator okays Alberta’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine
JOSH WINGROVE
Edmonton— Globe and Mail Update
Published Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011

Despite mounting criticism from academics and the federal government over Alberta’s patchwork environmental monitoring regime, a provincial energy regulator approved the province’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine last week.

The approval is based on data from the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, an industry-led body that has been the subject of extensive, pointed criticism from three separate reports over the past two months.

"Ditch oilsands monitoring group"

Ditch oilsands monitoring group

Edmonton Journal February 3, 2011

Imagine your boss gave you a job evaluation where you only passed one category out of nine. You would probably be packing up your desk or laying down your tools.

But not if your job was to monitor the impact of the oilsands on rivers and lakes. In that case, you'd be allowed to "adjust" your performance in the future.

Harper’s embrace of ‘ethical’ tar sands reignites 'dirty' arguments

Harper’s embrace of ‘ethical’ oil sands reignites 'dirty' arguments
STEVEN CHASE
OTTAWA— From Saturday's Globe and Mail (January 08, 2011)

Stephen Harper is embracing the notion that Canada’s controversial oil sands are an “ethical” source of energy, strengthening his support of the maligned resource and kicking off a new chapter in the debate over what critics call “dirty oil.”

The Prime Minister told reporters Friday that his government wants to “explain to the world” that petroleum from Western Canada’s oil sands is superior in respects to crude from other countries.