Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Water

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.

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Proposed oil refinery the center of political debate

Proposed oil refinery the center of political debate
Iowa politicians weigh environmental risks against potential economic gains
By Matt Vasilogambros 10/6/10
The Iowa Independent

A proposed 400,000-barrel-per-day tar sands oil refinery along the South Dakota-Iowa border is stirring an increasingly polarizing debate, bringing both environmental and economic concerns to the forefront. The refinery is even becoming an issue in the gubernatorial campaign between Republican Terry Branstad and Democrat Chet Culver.

Minnesota and Alberta Tar Sands

By Kevin Karner, TC Daily Planet

October 11, 2010

A September 22 forum at St. Thomas University, Alberta Tar Sands: Minnesota's Dirty Oil Secret explored Minnesota's dependence on the oil sands of Alberta.

Some Nebraska Landowners Won't Make Way for Keystone XL Pipeline

By Elizabeth McGowan at SolveClimate

Tue Oct 12, 2010

Editor's Note: In late September, SolveClimate News reporter Elizabeth McGowan traveled to Nebraska to find out more about the Keystone XL pipeline that TransCanada plans to build to carry crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas. This is the sixth in a series. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 here.

Shell Cancels Tar Sands Upgrader

Shell ditches oilsands project
Energy giant cancels $30B upgrader plan

By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald
October 9, 2010

Shell Canada has withdrawn its regulatory application to build a 400,000-barrel-per-day oilsands upgrader, a four-phase project estimated by analysts to have a price tag of around $30 billion.

Enbridge Investors Pipelines Feed Fossil Fuel Addictions

Enbridge Investors Pipelines Feed Fossil Fuel Addictions
October 5th, 2010

Written by Cameron Fenton and Maryam Adrangi

As Enbridge holds its investors meeting in Toronto’s financial district, Environmental Justice Toronto sent them a message about their dirty investments in fossil fuels. Grassroots organizers sent up a banner attached to helium balloons that read “Enbridge Invests in Oil Addiction.” The banner was visible through the glass front of the building, outside of which activists held up another banner that read “Community Resistance is the Cure.”

Vancouver targeted as Tar Sands shipping port

Vancouver targeted as Tar Sands shipping port
by Rod Marining
Common Ground
October 2010

According to Statistics Canada, in 2007, without any public process, Canada and China began shipping Tar Sands crude oil through Vancouver Harbour. Currently, two oil tankers per week carry up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil through Burrard Inlet and the dangerous Second Narrows, past our beaches and parks and into Georgia Strait. The oil companies have plans to expand this capacity to 10 tankers per week.

It can’t happen here

NASA Scientist Urges Canada Not To Touch Tar Sands

NASA Scientist Urges Canada Not To Touch Oil Sands
October 6, 2010

AHN News Staff

Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada (AHN) - Another nail was driven into Alberta’s oil sands industry on Tuesday after a top NASA scientist advised the province to leave the tar fields alone. James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies gave the advice to a panel reviewing the proposed Total E&P $9-billion plan to build the Joslyn North Mine.

Alberta will act if panel finds tar sands monitoring 'unacceptable': Renner

Alberta will act if panel finds oilsands monitoring 'unacceptable': Renner

Province appoints six scientists to independently assess water-monitoring data

By Karen Kleiss, edmontonjournal.com October 8, 2010

EDMONTON — Alberta's environment minister says the province is prepared to act if scientists reviewing monitoring programs find "unacceptable" environmental impacts in the oilsands region.

North America's risky race to exploit bitumen, oil shales

North America's risky race to exploit oil sands and shales
* Keith Schneider for Yale Environment 360
* guardian.co.uk,
1 October 2010

Yale Environment 360: Energy companies are rushing to exploit new sources of oil in Canada and the western US - but government officials don't seem concerned about the environmental consequences

The most direct path to America's newest big oil and gas fields is U.S. Highway 12, two lanes of blacktop that unfold from Grays Harbor in Washington State and head east across the top of the country to Detroit.

Utahns tar the tar sands

Utahns tar the tar sands
Denver Nicks | Oct 01, 2010 03:45 PM
High Country News

Mining of tar sands in Alberta Canada has left a landscape of razed boreal forest dotted with pools of toxic wastewater. It also produced 1.49 million barrels of crude oil last year – every day. Now, the first-ever commercial tar sands mine proposed in the United States is facing its second legal challenge from Western environmentalists.