Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Social Impacts

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.

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Enbridge’s Expansion: The Flanagan South Pipeline

flanagan south

Enbridge’s Expansion: The Flanagan South Pipeline

The Cause:

To resist the construction of the KXL and the expansion of tar sands infrastructure and dedicated to stopping Tar Sands transportation and extraction infrastructure in the beautiful heartland of North America.

1: Opposition to all forms of Tar Sands exploitation
2. Opposition to Infrastructure Which Supports Further Tar Sands Exploitation
3: Explicit Support for Indigenous Peoples
4: Acknowledgement of Direct Action as A Legitimate and Necessary Tactic
5: No Condemnation of Resistance

A rant on the Federal attempted approval of Enbridge Gateway

(This was written in the hours after the Federal announcement of 209 conditions on Gateway approval, essentially a 'yes'.)

If anyone is surprised or disheartened by today's announcement about Gateway, you haven't been paying attention.

This government is the most rancidly reactionary, anti-democratic and pro-industry ever seen in Canada. That is not to let anyone else off the hook for their crimes, either.

It means you forgot the basic fact of how this works: They cannot be negotiated with. They must be stopped.

Imperial Oil's Mackenzie Valley pipeline still on ice

Imperial Oil's Mackenzie Valley pipeline still on ice
Cost of gas project now expected to be around $20B

CBC News Posted: Dec 19, 2013

Imperial Oil has announced it will not go ahead with the Mackenzie Gas Project, as the market conditions are just not good right now, says a company spokesman.

Imperial Oil had to give its decision on the construction of the pipeline to the National Energy Board by the end of 2013. The company was also required to provide an updated cost estimate.

Business Page rantings about Gateway and Keystone

Enbridge Gateway Win Shows Stopping Keystone Won’t Halt Oil (1)
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Rebecca Penty December 20, 2013

Keystone XL backers say the proliferation of alternative projects, such as one to carry oil-sands crude to a Canadian seaport that advanced yesterday, undercuts opponents who claim blocking the pipeline will keep the high-carbon fossil fuel in the ground.

Construction Advances on Flanagan South Pipeline Project

Construction Advances on Flanagan South Pipeline Project | Not first pipeline for area
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Charles Dunlap/Staff Writer

Enbridge Energy Company Inc. of Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, work on the Flanagan South Pipeline Project has advanced in Lafayette County over the recent weeks. Pipeline trenches, welding and laying of pipeline work has increased. Driving to the west or north of Concordia will find its pathway.

Piles of tar-sands waste in Chicago are pissing people off

By John Upton
Grist
Nov 19, 2013

Clouds of coal dust and petroleum coke, a waste product from the refining of tar-sands oil, have been enveloping neighborhoods on Chicago’s southeast side. Federal, state, and city officials are finally moving to temper the dangerous air pollution.

The villains: KCBX Terminals (a division of Koch Industries) and Beemsterboer Slag Co.

Enbridge to keep seeking public approval for Northern Gateway pipeline

Jeffrey Jones

Lake Louise, Alta. — The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Nov. 29 2013

Enbridge Inc. will keep trying to win public approval for its Northern Gateway oil pipeline to the Pacific coast from Alberta even with the clock winding down to a crucial regulatory decision for the contentious project in the coming weeks, its chief executive officer said on Friday.

Energy East, Line 9 pipelines would be boost for Quebec refinery sector: Suncor

Jeff Lewis | 12/11/13

CALGARY – Rival plans to pipe Alberta crude east would safeguard jobs and encourage investment in Quebec’s struggling refinery sector, the president and chief executive of Suncor Energy Inc. said Tuesday.

Corroding Our Democracy

October 14, 2013
Tzeporah Berman Silences Environmentalists, Targets Corporate Deal in Tar Sands Push
Corroding Our Democracy
by MACDONALD STAINSBY
Counterpunch.org

On September 23, 2013 Democracy Now and Amy Goodman conducted an interview with Tzeporah Berman on the issue of Canada’s government and their extreme over-reach in attacks on science and all manner of environmentalists. Focusing intently on the tar sands, the interview did well to highlight the more than dubious moves of the current Conservative government to promote tar sands in particular at all costs.

Are green groups ready for tarsands deal?

Are green groups ready for tarsands deal?
by Dawn Paley on Nov 20, 2013
The Georgia Straight

Gone are the days when the tarsands were an obscure experiment in making oil from tar. Today, the bitumen deposits in central and northern Alberta have become a political hot potato, an issue forced onto the world stage by coordinated protests and direct actions.
Photos

But a look at the history of the environmental groups that have signed on to the tarsands protests raises the question of whether or not an agreement between green groups and tarsands operators is on the horizon.