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.
Tar sands battle continues in California courts
InsideClimateNews | Jan 25, 2012
By Maria Gallucci
A high-stakes legal battle is underway in California over whether the state's clean air agency can enforce a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in transportation fuels. The fight is being closely watched because the rule could choke global market demand for Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands at a very precarious time for the industry.
Ottawa plays down oil sands document
David Ljunggren - The Globe and Mail
January 26, 2012
The federal government disassociated itself on Thursday from an embarrassing official policy paper that said the country’s independent energy regulator, now studying a controversial oil pipeline, is in fact a government ally.
Critics have long charged the right-of-centre Conservative government is trying to pressure the regulator – the National Energy Board (NEB) – to approve Enbridge Inc. ’s plan to build a pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast.
Saudi Arabia. Nigeria. Venezuela. Canada?
Is our neighbor to the north becoming a jingoistic petro-state?
By Will Oremus|Posted Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
Slate.com
January 19, 2012
When Will Environmentalists Ever Wake Up?
The Great Pipeline Scam
by MICHAEL LEONARDI
Counterpunch
Not a statement, but a thought on the denial of the Keystone XL permit. This was not Obama "getting it right"-- this was Obama afraid of people power.
Latin oil supplies for U.S. start to dry up
Canadian pipeline can fill gap
By Patrice Hill
The Washington Times
Monday, January 2, 2012
The political and environmental debates swirling around the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas miss a crucial point, energy analysts say: The Canadian oil is needed to replace fast-dwindling production from two other major suppliers of oil — Mexico and Venezuela.
PetroChina to take full control of MacKay River oilsands project from Athabasca
By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press
January 03, 2012
CALGARY - Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. has decided to sell its 40 per cent stake in the MacKay River oilsands project to joint-venture partner PetroChina, giving a Chinese oil giant full control of an oilsands asset for the first time.
China Digs Deeper Into Canadian Tar Sands During Durban Talks
Think Progress
By Brad Johnson on Dec 3, 2011
Although China boasts of its green progress, the booming nation is also making major bets on North and South American tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet. This play for civilization-threatening energy comes even as the world’s nations jockey over the fragile international climate accords in Durban, South Africa:
Energy sector brings wealth, immigrants to Alberta
Jeremy van Loon, Bloomberg News
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Alberta Premier Alison Redford says oil is opening Canada's fastest-growing province to the world for the first time.
The population of Canada's main oil-producing region has soared by 37 percent to about 3.7 million in the past decade as companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Statoil ASA attracted workers from China, Venezuela and the Philippines to develop the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.
Imperial Oil approves US$8.6 billion expansion to Kearl oil sands mine
By Associated Press
December 21
CALGARY, Alberta — Imperial Oil Ltd. said Wednesday it will go ahead with an $8.9 billion Canadian (US$8.6 billion) expansion to its Kearl oil sands mine in Alberta.
The Calgary-based oil producer and refiner said the second phase of the project is slated to begin producing 110,000 barrels of oil per day by late 2015.
