Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present. However transient the individuals may be, the populations will not leave, as “development” takes on a logic all its own. All levels of run away development are subordinate to that development, not social need.
Imperial launches $2 billion oil sands expansion
REUTERS February 3, 2012
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd said on Friday it will go ahead with a C$2 billion ($2 billion) expansion of its Cold Lake oil sands project, adding 40,000 barrels per day of new production to Canada's largest thermal oil sands development.
US proposes scaling back onshore leasing for oil shale, oil sands
Washington (Platts)--
3 Feb 2012
The US is proposing to dramatically scale back the acreage set aside for oil shale and oil sands development in three western states, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management said Friday.
The BLM said it had reconsidered a Bush-era plan that made 2 million acres available for commercial leasing for the still experimental techniques for extracting kerogen, a precursor to crude oil, and to develop oil sands containing bitumen.
Federal documents spark outcry by oil sands critics
nathan vanderklippe
Globe and Mail
Jan. 27, 2012
Critics are attacking Ottawa’s energy strategy after internal documents shed new light on the extent of federal efforts to advocate for the oil sands industry.
University of Utah professor warns tar sands process could taint water
By brandon loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Jan 23 2012
The citrus-based chemical that a Canadian company plans to use to strip oil from eastern Utah tar sands will leave tailings that could leach cancer-causing compounds into the groundwater, a University of Utah scientist warns.
![Map shows Trans Mountain's existing pipe and possible twinning expansion. The Anchor project (red) was completed three years ago, while twinning from Darfield to Kamloops and from Hinton to Edson was done many years before that. [Kinder Morgan graphic]](http://oilsandstruth.org/sites/oilsandstruth.org/files/78996clearwaterTransMtnMap.jpg "Map shows Trans Mountain's existing pipe and possible twinning expansion. The Anchor project (red) was completed three years ago, while twinning from Darfield to Kamloops and from Hinton to Edson was done many years before that. [Kinder Morgan graphic]")
Kinder Morgan investigates twinning Trans Mountain pipeline
By Keith McNeill - Clearwater Times
Published: January 23, 2012 10:00 AM
Many local residents have been following the hearings that recently began to look into the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.
Tar sands battle continues in California courts
InsideClimateNews | Jan 25, 2012
By Maria Gallucci
A high-stakes legal battle is underway in California over whether the state's clean air agency can enforce a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in transportation fuels. The fight is being closely watched because the rule could choke global market demand for Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands at a very precarious time for the industry.
Ottawa plays down oil sands document
David Ljunggren - The Globe and Mail
January 26, 2012
The federal government disassociated itself on Thursday from an embarrassing official policy paper that said the country’s independent energy regulator, now studying a controversial oil pipeline, is in fact a government ally.
Critics have long charged the right-of-centre Conservative government is trying to pressure the regulator – the National Energy Board (NEB) – to approve Enbridge Inc. ’s plan to build a pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast.
Andrew Frank's whistle-blowing letter about Tides Canada reveals need for charities commission
By Charlie Smith, January 25, 2012
Environmental whistle blower Andrew Frank's allegations about threats by the Conservative government warrant more than a one-day story in the news.
In an open letter issued this week, the former ForestEthics communications staffer alleged that the Prime Minister's Office tried to silence critics of the proposed Enbridge pipeline by crushing Tides Canada Foundation's ability to fund environmental groups.
Saudi Arabia. Nigeria. Venezuela. Canada?
Is our neighbor to the north becoming a jingoistic petro-state?
By Will Oremus|Posted Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
Slate.com
How Enbridge Sawed Off Good Relations with BC First Nations
Killing Haisla's sacred trees just one way firm has undercut dealings with aboriginals on Pacific Gateway route.
By Geoff Dembicki, 16 Jan 2012, TheTyee.ca
More than five years ago, in a patch of coastal rainforest not far from the mouth of the Kitimat River, what was supposed to have been a quiet land survey turned into a public relations nightmare.
