Labour / Migration

Madagascar Oil and Total drop Africa’s biggest oil sands project
Frik Els | July 1, 2011

Madagascar Oil’s annual report released on Thursday shows the company is scuttling its project with French giant Total to develop a massive oil sand deposit on the island estimated to contain 1.2bn barrels of oil after three years of extensive work. The Bemolanga bitumen deposit adjacent the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve (pictured) was first drilled in the late 1800s and would have cost upwards of $8bn to bring into operation.

Jordanian Senate endorses laws ratifying oil shale agreements
June 29, 2011
Jordan Times

Enviros, celebs plan W.H. protest
POLITICO [reprinted in the Seattle PI]
Published 03:41 a.m., Thursday, June 23, 2011

A group of environmentalists and liberal celebrities are organizing civil disobedience protests at the White House against a proposed oil pipeline - with the emphasis on "civil."

In an open letter, actor Danny Glover, activists Bill McKibben, James Hansen, David Suzuki and others ask for volunteers willing to risk arrest at the White House from mid-August to Labor Day.

But they don't want downtown Washington to look like Vancouver after the Stanley Cup Finals.

Neighbors wary of tar sands refinery in Detroit
By Eartha Jane Melzer | 06.23.11

The Marathon refinery in southwest Detroit is expanding in order to process more Canadian tar sands crude oil, a move it admits will increase pollution in a neighborhood already burdened by industrial contamination.

The Detroit Free Press reports that many want to leave the neighborhood and that Marathon has bought up some of the homes around its 81 year-old factory for use as parking lots or green space.

Shell – Chevron – Marathon, Game Over

After Gutenberg Blog: June 23, 2011

While this blog disagreed with Hansen’s position on nuclear power for base-load electric power, this blog agreed with the position this leading climate scientist takes on tar sands. Treehugger began their interview on Climate Change and Intergenerational Justice by noting Hansen’s concern: “the phase out of emissions from coal is, itself, an enormous challenge. However, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it’s essentially game over.” And, James Hansen elaborated upon his aversion to such development.

June 27, 2011

Feds fund Shells CO2 project general newsCalgary, Alberta – Shell has secured $865 million in funding from the federal and Alberta governments for a project to store CO2 from its tar sands operations.

The Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project is intended to capture more than one million tonnes of CO2 per year from Shell’s Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton, which processes heavy oil from the Athabasca oil sands, and permanently store it deep underground. Quest would be the first application of CCS technology for an oil sands upgrading operation, the company said.

Alberta fires prompt Shell to pull workers from oilsands mine site

By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press –May 19, 2011

CALGARY — Shell Canada Ltd. said Thursday it was pulling non-essential workers from its vast oilsands mining operations north of Fort McMurray, Alta., as wildfire smoke drifted toward the site.

The winds had previously moved smoke north from the site, but overnight they changed direction and brought heavier smoke into the area.

Government failure on oil-sands royalties shameful, says AFL

"The Tories are allowing billions of dollars to slip through their fingers
while they say we can't afford to keep schools open," laments McGowan

EDMONTON, April 15 /CNW/ -The Auditor General's Report on oil-sands royalties confirms Albertans' worst suspicions - that the Progressive Conservative government cares more about the energy industry's bottom line than what is in the best interests of Albertans, says the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

Canadian firm to probe Utah oil sands
Project to build mine would be first of its kind in United States
Written by
CHI-CHI ZHANG
Associated Press
April 17 2011

SALT LAKE CITY -- Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah's Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States.

It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

It's no pipe dream

Politics has no place in Keystone review

For Calgary Herald April 10, 2011

Politicians on both sides of the border should cool the rhetoric over TransCanada Corp.'s contentious pipeline to Texas and get back to dealing with the facts.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama contradicted his earlier message about the need for increased imports from friendly countries such as Canada.