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.
EnCana, ConocoPhillips proceed with refinery expansion
The Canadian Press
September 24, 2008 at 7:06 AM EDT
CALGARY — — EnCana Corp. [ECA-T]and partner ConocoPhillips [COP-N] said Wednesday they are starting construction this month on an expansion at the Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill.
The coker and refinery project is expected to cost $3.6-billion (U.S.) over three years, half from each company, to increase bitumen-based production for the U.S. Midwest market.
Alberta's oil was coveted long before it was extracted
Tue. September 23, 2008; Posted: 02:43 PM
Sep 21, 2008 (Billings Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- HBC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sep. 21--Although large-scale exploitation of northern Alberta's oil sands is a relatively recent phenomenon, people have known for nearly 300 years that the region was rich in an unconventional kind of oil.
County readies for Code Red, still seeing black
By Janet Morales
Moberly Monitor-Index
Fri Sep 19, 2008, Moberly, Mo.
The Randolph County Commission is working with the City of Moberly to implement a countywide Code Red program. In May 22, the Moberly City Council approved a contract with Emergency Communications Network, Inc. to provide Code Red service to the city. The high-speed notification system was purchased at a cost of $7,500 to make emergency and other critical community alerts to residents within the Moberly city limits.
Alberta's ‘dirty' oil a sticky problem for Charest
KONRAD YAKABUSKI // The Globe and Mail
September 18, 2008
If you had to choose between Alberta oil or crude from Algeria and Angola, which should you pick?
This is the decision Quebec Premier Jean Charest faces now that Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. has unveiled plans to pipe heavy crude from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Montreal for the first time.
Arctic key to economic future, Russia claims
Randy Boswell
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 18, 2008
OTTAWA -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directed his top Kremlin officials to develop a comprehensive and assertive strategy to exploit the region's vast Arctic frontier -- including the demarcation of boundaries and the exploiting of polar resources -- echoing a key message of the Conservative government's re-election campaign.
Issues - Dead forest standing
Greenwashing a tar sands sacrifice zone
MACDONALD STAINSBY / oilsandstruth.org
The famous Hollywood movie Dead Man Walking made common parlance of the term for a person on death row leaving his cell for the last time, heading for execution. The person about to be executed will walk towards where they will take their last breath, and “dead man walking” is a term about those last steps.
Mackenzie pipeline 'footprint' could threaten wildlife: report
Unique sanctuary established in 1961
ANDREW MAYEDA, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, August 19
The Harper government has been warned that the ecological "footprint" of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline on an Arctic bird sanctuary that protects migratory birds and at-risk species such as polar bears could exceed the threshold deemed acceptable by Environment Canada, newly released documents reveal.
Full Call Out Here:
http://lists.oilsandstruth.org/pipermail/ost-announce/2008-September/000...
No Games on Stolen Native Land! Panel on 2010, tar sands and call to disrupt the "Spirit Train" (September 27 & 29)
On September 29th, 2008 (Monday), the 2010 Olympic Winter Games "Spirit
Train" will be coming to Edmonton, Alberta. A call out has been issued
by the Olympics Resistance Network.
On September 27, 2008, several speakers from indigenous communities who
are being adversely effected on unceded territories in "British
Discussion Points on a Moratorium
No New Approvals-- of what?
July 29, 2008
Report calls for expanded nuclear industry in Alberta and Sask.
CBC News // 09/11/08
The fight over the possibility of building an Alberta nuclear reactor has erupted again following the release of a report from the Canada West Foundation.
The report suggests a reactor should be built in either Alberta or Saskatchewan in order to fight global warming and cash in on what the author calls a "nuclear revival" around the world.
