Alberta Tar Sands is a category limited to the location and production of tar sand bitumen, an area the size of the state of Florida in northern Alberta province. The giant processing plants near Fort McMurray where the land itself is strip mined as well as the primarily "in situ" in-ground steam separation/production and extraction plants in the Peace and Cold Lake Regions, all in Alberta, are the "Ground Zero" of the single largest industrial gigaproject ever proposed in human history.
The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities.
To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.
Awed by oil sands, Mulcair calls for more environmental oversight
JOSH WINGROVE
EDMONTON — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, May. 31 2012
Precisely one thing surprised Thomas Mulcair on his visit to Alberta: the scale of the oil sands.
During his first visit, including a helicopter flight over several oil sands mines, to a region he has criticized, Mr. Mulcair was overwhelmed by the “awe-inspiring” display.
He stopped short, however, of calling the mines dirty.
Iran row fuels hunt for new oil sources
Indrani Bagchi, TNN | May 13, 2012
NEW DELHI: An unstable Persian Gulf and West Asia, coupled with the US pressure on India to cut oil imports from Iran, is driving New Delhi to make diversification a major plank of its energy policy. Now, India is looking at Canada, Nigeria, Venezuela and even Brazil as new sources of oil and gas.
Majority of oil sands ownership and profits are foreign, says analysis
By Mike De Souza, Postmedia News May 10, 2012
OTTAWA — More than two-thirds of all oil sands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry’s profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group.
*Can T&T Survive Extreme Extraction?*
April 22nd, 2012
In late March 2012, I was introduced to Mr. Macdonald Stainsby.
I had been looking forward to meeting Mr. Stainsby after having been informed of his intent to visit Trinidad by Miss. Monique Walker of Green TNT.
Mr. Stainsby is from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, but for the past 5 years or so, he has been living in Alberta, home of the third largest oil reserve in the world, behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
Environmentalists sound warning: Tar sand extraction a danger to T&T
Saturday, April 28, 2012
SHASTRI BOODAN
The Guardian (T&T)
Serious environmental issues which may affect southwest Trinidad are on the front burner once again. Environmentalists are now concerned about the Government’s plans to extract oil from tar sands in the La Brea area.
Term 'oilsands' can't hide that bitumen is tar
By Steven Hill, The Daily News March 29, 2012
Here's an illustration of the "la-la world" of the Stephen Harper government, where lies, if spoken often enough and loudly enough, eventually acquire an aura of truth.
It is now politically incorrect to refer to the "Alberta Tar Sands." They have somehow, perhaps magically, become the "Alberta Oil Sands."
However, both the Keystone XL and the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines are designed to transport bitumen, which is colloquially referred to as tar.
Canada threatens trade war with EU over tar sands
The row over the EU's plan to label tar sands oil as highly polluting escalates as Canada says it 'will not hesitate to defend its interests'
Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 February 2012
Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February.
Eastward No! Enviros Warn of Tar Sands Heading to Maine Coast
- Common Dreams staff
Big 2011 profits for Cenovus
February 16, 2012 | PEU160212
Cenovus Energy, one of Canada’s largest in situ oil-sands producers, posted 241% higher fourth-quarter profits as a result of higher production and prices. The company, which was spun off from Encana in late 2009, made net profit of C$266 million ($266 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with $78 million the year before. Production climbed to 144,273 barrels a day (b/d) from 129,593 b/d in the same period in 2010. Net in situ oil-sands output rose by 23%, to 74,596 b/d, from 60,789 b/d in fourth-quarter.
Camp Oil Sands: Alberta’s new economic boom
nathan vanderklippe
CALGARY— From Friday's Globe and Mail
Feb. 09, 2012
The floor of the Atco Ltd. (ACO.X-T62.971.111.79%)manufacturing plant sprawls out across 250,000 square feet of concrete covered with stacks of drywall, boxes of spiced ash mouldings and bags of insulation batting. Next to them is the assembly line, where dozens of 18-metre-long mobile housing units are rapidly taking shape, with workers using overhead cranes to raise completed walls and roofs into place.
