Water

Former oilsands exec named head of climate working group

By Glen McGregor , The Ottawa Citizen
April 7, 2009

OTTAWA — The Harper government has named a former oil and gas industry executive who led a company active in the Alberta oilsands as a representative on a U.S.-Canada working group on clean energy.

Charlie Fischer, who until recently served as president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Nexen Inc., will head up one of three working groups with American counterparts as part of the Clean Energy Dialogue, Environment Minister Jim Prentice has confirmed.

Energy giants lose interest in Alberta carbon capture fund
Last Updated: Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Canadian Press

Some of the biggest players in Alberta's oilsands have dropped out of the running to be part of the province's $2 billion carbon capture and storage fund.

Nine companies, including Suncor Energy, Syncrude Canada Ltd., and ConocoPhillips Canada, are no longer interested in sending the province proposals for carbon capture and storage projects. A total of 20 companies were chosen by the province in November to apply for the fund.

Province hires Washington lobbyists
Updated: Sat Apr. 04 2009
ctvcalgary.ca

The province has hired Washington lobbyists to pitch the oil patch to Alberta's biggest customer.

"There is so much at stake for Alberta and we will be applying the full-court press. Not only on elected officials but also on the U.S. administration," says Premier Ed Stelmach.

The move comes as the American government is under increasing pressure to invest in and purchase green energy.

Stelmach says many don't realize how clean Alberta's oil sands are and that's why he's enlisting the help of lobbyists.

Alberta government on hot seat after Syncrude duck death toll hits 1,606
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
April 1, 2009

Oilsands giant Syncrude revealed Tuesday that 1,600 waterfowl drowned in a tailings pond near Fort McMurray last April -- more than three times the original estimate of dead birds.

Environmental critics such as the Sierra Club of Canada, Greenpeace and Ecojustice immediately jumped on the fact the real figure has been hidden from the public for months.

Wed, April 1, 2009
Fowl fatal figure flap
Syncrude reveals duck tragedy triple initial toll - which it and province knew in July
By KERRY DIOTTE, LEGISLATURE BUREAU CHIEF

Province knew in July the real toll at the tailings pond.

Syncrude and the Alberta government knew nine months ago that three times as many ducks died in an oilsands tailings pond than initially reported - but officials didn't make the higher death toll public until yesterday.

Investor urges Enbridge to assess risk of delay
DAVID EBNER
Globe and Mail
March 30, 2009

VANCOUVER — — The prospect that Enbridge Inc. [ENB-T]'s $4-billion Gateway pipeline project, which would connect Alberta's oil sands with lucrative Asian markets, could become mired in disputes with first nations groups has at least one major shareholder demanding a reckoning.

The company is set to bring its Gateway proposal, which has $100-million in backing from 10 companies, oil sands producers in Canada and refiners in Asia, before the National Energy Board in the next three months.

March 24, 2009
30 Years and Counting
People Died at Three Mile Island

By HARVEY WASSERMAN

People died--and are still dying--at Three Mile Island.

As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history.

As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.

That quickly proved to be false.

Separating Deh cho politics from business

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, March 26, 2009

LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - A recent forum held in Fort Simpson is being hailed as the first step in a new chapter of economic and business development in the Deh Cho.

The goal of the forum was to discuss economic development in the Deh Cho and the separation of politics and business within the Dehcho First Nations (DFN), said Cynthia Cardinal James, the chairperson of the Dehcho Economic Corporation.

"It's just in the interest of better business," she said.

Take a stand against the sands
Canada’s disaster
By Graeme Bousada

City councillor wants tar sands halted

Tim Edwards
Northern News Services
Published Friday, March 27, 2009

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City council appears set to vote in favour of a motion calling on Alberta's government to halt new tar sands development south of the NWT border.

City council will vote on a motion next month which calls on the Alberta government to halt tar sands development until a number of environmental measures have been met.

Tar Sand Demands:

1. Public contingency plans for catastrophic breaches of oil sands tailing ponds.