Peak Oil is starting to be understood across a broad spectrum, but the direct connection between peak oil, climate change and the American market-led attempt to squeeze all energy out of Alberta cannot be overstated. The smaller the global supply of oil gets, the more CO2 has been emitted and the more climate change will have advanced. This leads to more interest in the tar sands—because the profit margin goes ever higher the fewer alternatives there are for petroleum. Without Peak Oil bearing down on humanity, no economical reason would exist to produce this energy intensive, low-output petrol.
Ontario, Quebec say they won’t shoulder oilsands burden
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
December 13, 2009
COPENHAGEN — Delegations from Ontario and Quebec wasted no time before differentiating their position from the federal government’s after arriving Sunday at the climate change conference in Copenhagen — declaring they weren’t going to carry higher emission-reduction burdens for the sake of oilsands expansion in the Western provinces.
Burn a Tree to Save the Planet? The Crazy Logic Behind Biomass
By Joshua Frank, AlterNet. Posted December 8, 2009.
It might seem crazy that anyone would think the incineration of wood and its byproducts are a green substitute for toxic fuels such as coal. Think again.
Fire up your chainsaw and cut down a tree. Not so you can decorate it for the Christmas holiday; so you can set it on fire to help combat global warming. That's right, burn a tree to save the planet. That's the notion behind biomass, the new (yet ancient) technology of burning wood to produce energy.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
* John Vidal in Copenhagen
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009
COP15: A Haitian delegation during second-day session at the Bella center in Copenhagen
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north
August 17, 2008
The Buffalo News, Jerry Zremski
Beneath the forests of Alberta, 2,300 miles miles northwest of Buffalo, you’ll find the latest black gold: a mix of sand and oil being mined as a new kind of gusher.
And Alberta’s Athabasca Oil Sands are just part of a petroleum boom that has made Canada the world’s top supplier of oil to the United States.
The boom could make its way to Buffalo through two proposed pipelines that would carry Canadian oil through Western New York to refineries in the Philadelphia area.
Suncor planning to grow oilsands business
By MARKUS ERMISCH, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 3rd December 2009
Investors need not fear Suncor Energy is moving away from being an oilsands-dominated company after merging with Petro-Canada, an executive told an energy conference in Miami yesterday.
Prior to its merger with Petro-Canada, Suncor's business consisted of 80% oilsands and 20% of what John Rogers called "other stuff," such as natural gas and downstream operations.
Lars Christian Bacher: Statoil's oil sands pragmatist
Statoil chief discusses priorities in his first Canadian interview
Nathan Vanderklippe
CALGARY —
Globe and Mail
Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009
When Statoil ASA brought Lars Christian Bacher to Calgary, the company named him president of its Canadian operations and gave him a mandate to get bitumen out of the oil sands - and, when that's done, think about getting more of the land around Fort McMurray into the portfolio.
Climate talks target Alberta's oilsands
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
December 6, 2009
As the world works toward the most important climate change agreement since Kyoto in 1997, the Canadian delegation will walk into the Copenhagen conference with a big, black bull's-eye on its back.
The sore spot--the increasing greenhouse gas emissions from Alberta's oilsands--will be as inescapable as Danish pastries when 192 countries gather in Copenhagen for 12 days beginning Monday.
Suncor to sell Shell gas in Colorado
April 09, 2009 - DENVER -- Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. reached a marketing agreement with Shell Oil Products U.S., allowing Suncor to sell Shell-branded gasoline in Colorado, the Denver Business Journal reported.
Suncor Energy (U.S.A.)—the Denver-based U.S. unit of Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor Energy Inc., which recently agreed to merge with
Petro-Canada—currently has an agreement to sell Phillips 66-brand gas in Colorado, which expires in July 2013, according to the report. Terms of the deal were not announced.
Jim Hansen Takes on NRDC and Bank of America
November 30th, 2009
Will the media and policy makers finally wake up and pay attention after the world’s leading global warming scientists takes the extraordinary and unprecedented step to publicly criticize US national environmental groups for their lax posture on global warming?
Or will the mighty Obama Administration, Democratic Washington DC beltway, and corporate PR Wurlitzer continue to dominate US public opinion?
Full article, with important and informative photos:
The Most Urgent Threat to World Peace Is … Canada
By George Monbiot, Monbiot.com. Posted December 2, 2009.
The harm this country could do in the next two weeks will outweigh all the good it has done in a century.
