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.
Cenovus gets price boost with direct sale to China
carrie tait
CALGARY— From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE-T38.890.280.73%)sold its first drops of oil directly to China last week, fetching a higher price for its crude than if it sold its bounty in North America, and now plans to strike more export deals with Asian buyers.
EU 'Grandstanding' On Energy Imports, Says Federal Resources Minister Joe Oliver
02/16/2012
CALGARY - Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is calling a European effort to bar oil imports from Alberta's oilsands nothing more than grandstanding.
Proposed changes to the European Union's fuel quality directive would reduce emissions from transport fuels by 10 per cent in the next decade — a goal that would make it more difficult to import oilsands fuel.
Oliver says the European position is both unscientific and an attempt to single out Canadian crude.
Canadian Natural's oil sands plant off line-source
Factbox: Keystone XL dominates energy, environment agenda
Tue Feb 7, 2012
By Jeffrey Jones and Scott Haggett
CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's Horizon oil sands plant in northern Alberta is shut down for unplanned repairs and could be off line for two to three weeks, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.
The outage pushed up U.S. oil prices and pressured Canadian Natural shares, which fell as much as 5.2 percent. By early afternoon they were down C$1.69, or 4.2 percent, at C$38.59 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Tar Sands Destroying Wolf & Caribou Populations In Canada
by Beth Buczynski
February 7, 2012
Extracting oil from tar sands (aka oil sands) is detrimental to human health in a number of ways. It drastically increases greenhouse gas emissions, continues our society’s addiction to fossil fuels, and puts soil and water quality at risk.
But these aren’t the only threats posed by tar sands projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.
Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
'Energy Return on Investment' hard to justify says P.G.-based engineering
analyst.
By: By Geoff Dembicki 6 February
2012, TheTyee.ca
A B.C. engineering consulting firm claims it has hard numerical proof that
Enbridge's Northern Gateway proposal augurs poorly for the future of modern
society.
The Prince George-based C.J. Peter Associates
Engineeringcame to this conclusion after
performing an EROI analysis on the
$5.5-billion project.
Canada's tar sands emerging as an energy heavyweight
By SYED RASHID HUSAIN
Published: Feb 5, 2012
ARAB NEWS.
The energy world is in a transition. It is undergoing a major metamorphosis. New energy frontiers are cropping up and the global energy map is changing fast. Of these new emerging global energy centers, the landlocked province of Alberta in Canada, with its rich resource base, stands out in more than one ways. Many say Calgary, its most important city, is the Dhahran of tomorrow or at least the equivalent of it.
Op-Ed: Is Canada’s oil sands monitoring program a ‘PR stunt’?
By Kathleen Blanchard
Feb 5, 2012
Digital Journal
Environment Canada announces they are taking steps to monitor the effects of development of oil sands in the area. The plan is designed to gauge the cumulative effects on the environment from oil production from tar sands.
House GOP Pushing Dirtiest Fuel on Planet, Oil Shale (Much Worse than Tar Sands)
By Zachary Shahan On February 3, 2012
Oh my, they just can’t stop. The House GOP seems dead set on destroying the country and destroying the planet. Here’s the latest, via Climate Progress, on its push to develop the dirtiest fuel on the planet (you thought tar sands were bad?!):
by Joe Romm
Imperial launches $2 billion oil sands expansion
REUTERS February 3, 2012
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd said on Friday it will go ahead with a C$2 billion ($2 billion) expansion of its Cold Lake oil sands project, adding 40,000 barrels per day of new production to Canada's largest thermal oil sands development.
Federal documents spark outcry by oil sands critics
nathan vanderklippe
Globe and Mail
Jan. 27, 2012
Critics are attacking Ottawa’s energy strategy after internal documents shed new light on the extent of federal efforts to advocate for the oil sands industry.
