Water

Fargo mayor: Don't allow Canadian oil pipeline
Oct 07, 2007
By DALE WETZEL
Associated Press Writer

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker says the huge new Keystone oil pipeline is a potential threat to his city's water supply, and he's asking the state Public Service Commission to deny a permit for the project.

Walaker suggested Friday that the pipeline's route should be forced outside North Dakota until Canadian officials halt what he considers to be unreasonable opposition to a project that would bring Missouri River water to Fargo.

Inuit across Canada's Arctic are worried about global warming
Friday, September 28, 2007 07:17AM
CBC Labrador

CINDY WALL: Inuit across Canada's Arctic are worried about global warming but the effort to help solve the problem is giving them something else to worry about. Efforts to find alternative cleaner energy sources have driven up the price of uranium, the fuel used in nuclear reactors. Developers want to build new uranium mines on Inuit land in Labrador. As Reporter Paul Pigott reports, some people in Labrador wonder if they won't be trading off one problem for another.

Refinery touted to boost Peace oilsands
Proposed bitumen-processing plant would make development worthwhile, says company
Gordon Jaremko, edmontonjournal.com
Published: 11:56 am

EDMONTON - A proposed $2.5-billion refinery in northwestern Alberta will kick-start development in the largely overlooked oilsands around Peace River, the project's sponsor predicts.

The plant will fill in a missing economic link by creating a large new market for bitumen, said Gary Brierley, chief operating officer and a partner in privately owned Bluesky Refining Inc.

North Dakota: Questions raised about Keystone Pipeline

State regulators are considering whether to grant a permit for a proposed oil pipeline from Canada. Eastern North Dakota landowners and others along the proposed route have been raising questions about what it will do to their land.

Terry Borgeson says a ten-mile stretch of the route is too close to the Forest River. He worries that an oil spill would contaminate the Fordville Aquifer, which provides water for about 10,000 people.

NEB head pleased with process
DAVID EBNER // October 1, 2007

CALGARY -- The epic regulatory review of the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline has been a success in terms of collecting and assessing the many views on the controversial project, according to the new chairman of the National Energy Board.

"I feel we've done a superb job listening to everybody, carefully," said Gaétan Caron, in his first formal interview. "We haven't cut any corners. We've taken into account all the views people have about the project and we will finish the task of hearing the evidence in October."

Greenpeace wraps up Action Camp
By CARY CASTAGNA, SUN MEDIA

It's been nearly two months since Greenpeace set up shop in Edmonton with the lofty goal of shutting down Alberta's oilsands, but don't expect to see any high-profile demonstrations anytime soon, says a local member of the international environmental group.

"We haven't made any concrete plans to chain ourselves to trees," said a chuckling Geeta Sehgal, one of two campaign organizers working out of the Greenpeace office at Calgary Trail and Argyll Road.

Canada: Losing Water Through NAFTA
by Stephen Leahy
Global Research, September 23, 2007

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada lost control over its energy resources. Now, with “NAFTA-plus”, it could also lose control over its freshwater resources, say experts.

Canada’s water is on the trade negotiating table despite widespread public opposition and assurances by Canadian political leaders, said Adèle Hurley, director of the University of Toronto’s Programme on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies.

Energy Alberta boss says nuclear energy will protect province from carbon tax
September 18, 2007

CALGARY (CP) — A businessman who wants to build Western Canada's first nuclear power plant says nuclear energy would help protect Alberta from a carbon tax.

Wayne Henuset, president of Energy Alberta, told a Calgary business audience that with Ontario and Quebec relying heavily on nuclear and hydro electricity, there will be a move to apply the tax and come after Alberta's oil and gas resources.

Tar sands are the enemy of the planet
Posted by Jon Rynn at 12:35 PM on 14 Sep 2007

Our civilization's addiction to oil is being displayed in all its nefarious glory in the tar sands of Canada. According to Chris Nelder:

Is it too late to stop the ethanol con job?
ERIC REGULY
September 14, 2007 at 6:27 AM EDT

ROME — Not so long ago, you could feel complacent - smug even - about your little greenish exertions. You traded your SUV for a smaller set of wheels. You bought compact florescent bulbs and dragged the old push mower out of storage. You approved of ethanol and other biofuels and vowed to buy them whenever possible. Okay, there wasn't a lot of sacrifice involved. But you could feel a tad superior to your fossil-fuel-slurping neighbours.