A category all its own, despite being a form of energy. The until-now primarily dormant energy form of nuclear power is getting a new lease on construction life in the wake of the astronomical energy needs of the tarsands. The tarsands need a vast and growing energy supply, almost requiring half of what it will produce at the point of consumption. As a means of both feeding that "need" and using the thin-wedge of "thirsting for energy" that is "not greenhouse gas emitting" for the tarsands, this highly dangerous and discredited form of energy is making a slow and speeding up comeback. Again, as a result of peak oil, the resurgence of nuclear energy comes cloaked (in Orwellian fashion) in greenwash rhetoric-- ignoring the level to which greenhouse gasses are A) emitted in construction of power plants that will take several years to finish, and B) need to operate for a decade after that before any noticable depreciation in total greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions are registered. Even though it is portrayed as a boon for the earth, radioactive material is anything but and is yet more of the vast and growing assault on the earth of the tarsands. In complimentary fashion, the tarsands would provide legitimacy for a nuclear industry in a post-oil existence, where Three Mile Island and Chernobyl once took it away.
PNWER study on Energy "recommendations" for the Region
Nukes for the tar sands, massive new hydro projects in BC & AB, natural gas pipelines, new coal plants & more! And if we don't do this? Well, according to PNWER: blackouts, job losses and extreme price increases will occur! Be afraid, consume, and forget about everything else. This is to "help" stop climate change we are told. Coal, tar sands, these are now "solutions". Don't think about it, or else you will get a headache...
--M
*****
The Pentagon's Toxic Legacy
July, 01 2008 By Jeffrey St.Clair and Joshua Frank
Lake Athabasca north shore busy with mining
By Don Jaque 25.JUN.08
Slave River Journal
Red Rock Energy is one of at least seven exploration companies actively drilling for uranium on the north shore of Lake Athabasca in the Uranium City vicinity.
This is rather, ahem, self explanatory...
Especially when you read the bio of the author, on a site with several ex-Fox writers.
--M
Alberta Heavy Crude to be World’s cleanest production
By Mark Smyth Monday, June 30, 2008
For those who were not aware of the joint statement from the 76TH ANNUAL U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS in Miami this past week, to boycott Canadian gasoline made from oil sands heavy crude, pay very close attention.
Output still far from peak levels, say CEOs
Canadian production to play crucial role on world markets
Shaun Polczer, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008
MADRID, Spain - Canada's oilsands are still years away from making a meaningful impact on global oil supplies, the heads of two of the world's largest oil companies -- Exxon and Total SA -- said at the World Petroleum Congress in Spain yesterday.
But they also said despite economic and environmental challenges, unconventional oil from Canada will eventually play a crucial role in meeting the world's oil needs.
Macdonald Stainsby gives http://h2opodcast.com/ an overview of the tar sands, their history in development, why now, the connection to the war on terror & Iraq, trade deals, expansion of the temporary foreign worker programs in such development, violation of indigenous nations' self-determination and environmental destruction unparalleled in the world. (Part I of II)
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Part II of II:
Macdonald Stainsby gives http://h2opodcast.com/ an overview of the tar sands, their history in development, why now, the connection to the war on terror & Iraq, trade deals, expansion of the temporary foreign worker programs in such development, violation of indigenous nations' self-determination and environmental destruction unparalleled in the world. Part II of II.
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Bruce Power launches nuclear power feasibility study
Cassandra Kyle, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
SASKATOON -- A feasibility study into the potential for a nuclear energy plant in Saskatchewan will be complete by the end of the year, according to the president and CEO of Bruce Power LP, a nuclear power producer in Ontario.
Sask. to go nuclear?
By NEIL WAUGH, EDMONTON SUN
Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason went off the Richter Scale in the legislature last week. What else is new.
This time it was over Premier Ed Stelmach's nuclear energy policy.
Basically, the policy says let's study it now and come up with a position later after the premier promises to "ask Albertans for their opinions.
"We can't put our heads in the sand," Stelmach told Mason.
(I suspect, though, he was thinking of another place to shove the pesky socialist's noggin.)
May 15, 2008 - For Immediate Release
Jailed Algonquin Leader Begins Hunger Strike
Second Algonquin Chief Going to Jail - McGuinty Government Does Nothing
On February 15, 2008 Ardoch Algonquin First Nation
(AAFN) Spokesperson Robert Lovelace was sentenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kingston to 6 months in maximum security, plus crippling fines, for peacefully protesting uranium mining in the Ardoch homeland. Chief Paula Sherman was fined $15,000 and given until today to pay the fine, failing which she will be jailed.
