Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Indigenous

Indigenous nations have protected the earth on their territories for thousands of years. With the government of Canada ignoring their sovereignty, nations not only see massive theft of resources that could help alleviate social problems, but their exacerbation through their further alienation from their own lands, often accompanying being overrun by development and southern workers, while having no self-determination during this process. In the south of Canada industrial farming displaced many nations with often genocidal results. In the north, a modern equivalent of that fate is only just beginning, wrought on by industrial oil and gas drilling schemes (among many industrial plans) that are condemning entire societies, languages and cultures to a precarious future, becoming minorities in their lands for the first time.

San Francisco State University votes to divest investment in coal, tar sands

Associated Press // SJ Mercury News
06/12/2013

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco State University will stop investing its endowment in coal and tar sands companies, joining a growing list of universities that are avoiding investments in fossil fuels, the school said Tuesday.

The university's foundation, which oversees a $51.2 million endowment, also voted in May to look into removing all future investments in fossil fuels companies.

B.C. officially opposes Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline

B.C. officially opposes Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline
'Our questions were not satisfactorily answered,' environment minister says
CBC News
May 31, 2013

The B.C. government has officially expressed its opposition to a proposal for the Northern Gateway pipeline project, saying it fails to address the province's environmental concerns.

The province made the announcement in its final written submission to the Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel.

Northwest Territories Looking to Bid for Pipelines

Lynsey Kitching
May 27, 2013
Tumbler Ridge News

The enormous opposition to the potential pipelines (Enbridge and Trans-Canada) in BC has spurred the Northwest Territories (NWT) to speak up and offer a solution to Alberta’s dilemma of getting their resources to market.

David Ramsay, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment for the NWT says, “If those opportunities don’t come for Alberta to the west coast, through a province like BC, we want to be seen as an option.”

First 100,000 Keystone comments reveal intensity of fight

First 100,000 Keystone comments reveal intensity of fight over oil sands pipeline
By Ben Geman - 05/24/13

Inside Climate News/The Hill

The State Department has begun making available over 1.2 million public comments received on its analysis of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, providing a glimpse into the intense political and organizing battle around the project.

The department announced late Thursday night that it had posted, on Regulations.gov, roughly 100,000 of the comments received on its March 1 draft environmental review. More will surface on the site weekly.

Enbridge to meet re-elected B.C. Liberals on Northern Gateway

Rebecca Penty, Bloomberg News | 13/05/24

Enbridge Inc. is moving ahead with plans to meet five conditions for the British Columbia government to support its proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline, after a Liberal re-election made clear terms needed to satisfy officials in the Pacific Coast province.

Nunavut sees devolution light after long Arctic winter

Yadullah Hussain | Jul 20, 2012
Financial Post

Nunavut would like nothing more than be the master of its own destiny and has begun negotiations with the federal government to transfer land rights and royalties as it seeks to explore its fossil fuel riches, says Peter Taptuna, Nunavut’s Minister of Economic Development and Transportation. Excerpts from the interview:

Q The Arctic has become a focus area for many jurisdictions. Has Nunavut also noticed a surge in interest in its petroleum resources?

Unistoten Action Camp

by Noah Ross
Media Coop, August 8, 2012

Beginning on August 5th, the Unistoten, a clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, have established a checkpoint located on the bridge over the Morice River.

The checkpoint is in the path of the proposed Pacific Trails Pipeline south of Smithers in Northern British Columbia. It is being implemented in conjunction with the 3rd annual Unistoten Action Camp, which has attracted over 150 participants and is intended to build support for resistance to the Pacific Trails Pipeline.

Tensions Boil as Israeli Oil Riches Grow

Tensions Boil as Israeli Oil Riches Grow
News From Around the World
Monday, June 25, 2012
Ed DeShields

Israel’s once hidden oil riches are now certain to be so large its treasures could make it the richest oil country in the world. And, its neighbors are not only noticing, they’re boiling mad.

It was just forty years ago when Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel once famously quipped, “Why did Moses lead us to the one place in the Middle East without oil?”

Well Prime Minister, Moses turned out to have a pretty good eye for what a promised land might look like.

Alberta Premier Says No Money For BC

Alberta Premier Says No Money For BC
By Ben Meisner
Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Alberta Premier Redford has made it clear, once again, that her government is not prepared to hand over any royalties to the province of BC for the movement of oil from the tar sands for shipment offshore.
Redford made the comments yesterday in Vancouver. At the same time she suggested that there is little point in her meeting with Christy Clark, her BC counterpart, to discuss the issue further.

B.C. newspaper tycoon proposing $13-billion oil refinery for Northern Gateway oil

By GORDON HOEKSTRA,
VANCOUVER SUN
August 17, 2012

VANCOUVER - B.C. community newspaper tycoon David Black proposed today building a $13-billion oil refinery near Kitimat to use all of the crude from Enbridge's controversial Northern Gateway pipeline.

It would mean tankers would ship refined fuels like gasoline off of B.C. northwest coast, not heavy oil from Alberta, reducing environmental risks, says Black.

A refinery also promises 10 times as many jobs as an export pipeline.