Water is needed in huge amounts in tarsands production and in all other construction stages of tarsands infrastructure across the continent. It takes five litres of water to produce one of usable petrol. There is also water used to move gas, build new tar pits or that water which becomes polluted in the outlying areas. Waste tailings ponds are so vast as to be visible from outer space at this early point in production. Water is now being privatized in slow motion, as “access rights” are available in Alberta. As production grows and climate change continues to parch southern Albertan land, more and more water will be needed to help supply fuel for the American market. This water will ultimately be diverted from rivers, lakes, farms and cities throughout Canada; the water levels in the Athabasca River have already dropped several meters. The Deh Cho/Mackenzie River is already threatened, both from development along its valley and it is downstream from tar sands operations. A generation ago, the Athabasca River was clear and drinking was common. Now, those that live with the river consider it poison and off-limits.
Battlefield Nebraska: A pipeline plan stirs emotions
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE - The Globe and Mail
October 1 2011
Next to a sun-stained red flag that marks the planned route of the Keystone XL pipeline, Leon Weichman kneels on his Nebraska hay field. Moisture spots his jeans. It has barely rained in 30 days in this arid part of the central U.S., yet the grasses are thick and green. The soil is black and damp.
Canada’s oil industry
The other Keystone debate
The Economist
Oct 1st 2011
Keystone XL Pipeline Safety Standards Not as Rigorous as They Seem
Monday 19 September 2011
by: Elizabeth McGowan, Truthout
Research by NRDC shows that only 12 of the 57 conditions set by federal regulators differ from the minimum standards already required for pipeline safety.
Washington - TransCanada and the U.S. State Department have repeatedly touted safety standards for the proposed Keystone XL heavy crude pipeline as robust and unparalleled. As proof, they point to 57 "special conditions" that the Alberta-based pipeline operator has agreed to follow.
Activists, company spar over controversial international oil pipeline
By the CNN Wire Staff
Mon September 19, 2011
(CNN) -- As the decision deadline on the controversial proposal to build a giant oil pipeline between Alberta, Canada, and Texas draws closer, activists and the company behind the project are ratcheting up their war of words.
Known as Keystone XL, the 1,700-mile pipeline has drawn fierce criticism from activists like Daryl Hannah, who spoke to CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Monday.
Maurice Picow
Can Israeli Oil Shale Outsize Saudi Arabia?
Maurice Picow | July 7th, 2011
Does Israel want its Negev and Galilee regions torn up for “black gold”?
Anemic U.S. job growth continues
Northern Gateway quietly gathers momentum amid stalled U.S. economy
By Jeff Lewis
September 04, 2011
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Keep an eye on U.S. President Barack Obama this week. The embattled president is set to announce his jobs package in a joint session of Congress Thursday against a backdrop of anemic U.S. job creation. A Labor Department report on Friday showed the American economy had failed to create jobs in August, putting an end to nearly a year of increases.
Backlash against Alta., Oil pipeline
Sat Sep. 03 2011 17:43:19
Nahreman Issa, ctvedmonton.ca
It's being called the largest act of civil disobedience in the US-environmental movement and it's directed at Alberta.
A two week "sit-in" outside the White House has come to an end Saturday, resulting in the arrests of more than 1200 people. They're calling on the government to quash the construction of an oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas.
They say despite the arrests, they are more demonstrations on the way.
Saying no to oil sands pipelines
Rex Weyler says the pipeline expansion will "change the entire channel".
comments Comments (2) [ this page]
By Lindsay O’Donnell, August 30, 2011
The marchers chanted "No tar sands, no pipeline".
Pipeline plan back on tap: opponents
By MICHELLE LALONDE,
The Gazette,
August 26, 2011
Enbridge seeks transit to Maine
Enbridge Pipelines Inc. is quietly trying to make an end run around a proper
assessment of its controversial Trailbreaker project to pipe tarsands oil across Canada to Montreal and then on to the United States, according to three Canadian and two U.S. environmental groups.
Enbridge Trailbreaker Project
The groups are filing a complaint with the National Energy Board on Friday
A Tar Sands Partnership Agreement in the Making?
Macdonald Stainsby | August 1st 2011
Campaigns against tar sands production have grown rapidly over the last four years. From the relative obscurity in Alberta to an international lightning rod for people trying to address all manner of concerns from indigenous and community self-determination to peak oil and climate change – criticisms of the largest industrial project in human history have gained a major voice. The voices are certainly not homogenous, but a large contingent of these voices call for a shut down of tar sands production and a move away from fossil fuels – if not an outright move away from market-led growth of any sort. But, in the language of the environmental elite, what are the “decision makers” preparing to do with all this anti-tar sands resistance?
