Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
Deh Cho Process Talks Halted
Dehcho Process talks on hold
Last Updated: Monday, March 19, 2007 | 6:39 PM CT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/03/19/nwt-dehcho.html
Dehcho land-claim negotiations remained in limbo on Monday with the cancellation of the latest round of negotiations this week.
As well, the Dehcho First Nation announced it will not nominate any members to the two boards looking at Mackenzie Valley resource management. In the past, Grand Chief Herb Norwegian has claimed the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act does not apply to the Dehcho.
Tar Sand Oil to be Refined in Ontario?
Tar sand proposal for locals at Shell Open House
Thu, March 29, 2007
The curious and the committed came to learn details of a proposed refinery.
By JOE MATYAS, SUN MEDIA
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/03/29/3861392-sun.html
WALLACEBURG -- Shell Canada officials were anything but lonely here yesterday as they gave the public its first look at a proposed refinery that could cost between $6 billion and $8 billion.
Tree huggers, job seekers, property owners, politicians, the media and the just plain curious came to the Oaks Inn for a five-hour, show-and-tell.
Utah: Four Enviro Groups suing over Tar Sands Project
Potential tar sands project sparks suit
By BOBBY MAGILL
The Daily Sentinel (Colorado)
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_1a_T...
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Four environmental groups are accusing the Bureau of Land Management of violating various federal laws in order to allow tar sands development near Canyonlands National Park’s Maze District in Utah and within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
No Deal: Lubicon Battle for Basic Needs while Tar Sands make Energy Companies Rich
The following article from Alberta Views Magazine also received an important letter to the editor follow up from Reinie Jobin, the Elder mentioned at the outset of the piece. His response is attached and appended at the conclusion of the original article below, on this same posting.
Thanks to the Ontario based solidarity organization, Friends of the Lubicon for providing these two articles:
http://www.tao.ca/~fol
ALBERTA VIEWS MAGAZINE
MARCH 2007
FEATURE REPORT
NO DEAL
"...[I]s there enough labour force that can fly in from other provinces...?"
Oil sands boom adds to worker shortage woes
BRIAN BAKER
staff writer
http://dcnonl.com/article/20070402300
In labour hungry Alberta, more oil sands production is predicted through to the year 2020, a portent that may compound the province’s construction industry woes.
A Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) study predicts the oil sands in Fort McMurray will triple production, pushing spending over $7.5 billion mark.
Limited time for training and demand in ICI sector construction will be pushed to the limits when the bitumen boom hits its full potential.
Nukes as Best Alternative: UPI
Does anyone remember when nuclear power was considered dangerous and of grave, permanent risk for millions of years at a time to all the lands in and around any nuclear plant?
Analysis: Nuclear-powered oil sands
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent
http://www.upi.com/Energy/analysis_nuclearpowered_oil_sands/20070330-063...
WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- Nuclear companies and those mining Canada's oil sands are poised to team up to separate crude from deep Earth and pump it to the surface.
Enbridge extends open season on Spearhead pipeline construction
On the homepage of Enbridge, you can find this declaration about the Spearhead Pipeline:
"Enbridge intends to reverse the flow of the pipeline to transport
Canadian crude oil south from the company's mainline system at Chicago
to the storage and refining hub at Cushing, Oklahoma."
Yet another pipeline project that is absolutely dependent on the existence of the tar sands expansion.
-Macdonald
--
Open season extended for Enbridge expansion
Sat, March 31, 2007
http://calsun.canoe.ca/Business/2007/03/31/3879325-sun.html
By CP
Alberta Clipper Project Vs. Saskatchewan Farmers
Like the bulk of the proposed pipelines to head south after leaving the Tarsands, this pipeline project run by Enbridge is actually taking heavy bitumen to be refined in the southern 48. That isn't merely to keep the corporations in the southern US functioning, but as the rest of the world's capacity shrinks while demand grows, as it is wont to do, this is the only feasible way that the US Dep't of Energy's strategy of bleeding the Albertan tarsands as fast as possible can actually get refined, for there would be no way to construct the needed infrastructure fast enough.
The Tar Sands come to Kitimat
The Tar Sands come to Kitimat
Charles Campbell//Mar 22, 2007
http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org/bulletins/tarsandstokitimat
Keystone Pipeline Set to Run Through Nebraska
This pipeline is being challenged by the Alberta Federation of Labour and is now approved to help offset the increased capacity needed for the Tar Sands to continue to grow, such as the recently approved Kearl Project-- now Federally litigated against by groups such as the Pembina Institute and Sierra Legal. Stop these pipelines and stop the tar sands; Stop the tar sands and stop the Keystone pipeline. Imperial Oil is also pushing for the Mackenzie Gas Project, where the energy would help this Kearl Project send oil into the Keystone pipeline. Break the chain and stop them all.
-M
