War and Security

Part One: Peak Oil Goes Mainstream

The Archdruid Report (June 09 2010)

Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society

Longtime readers of this blog will recall that one of its central projects
early on was an attempt to deconstruct the most deeply entrenched set of
myths industrial culture uses to define the future. To borrow a phrase
from Carlos Castaneda, the myth of progress and the myth of apocalypse
were worthy opponents, and I hope the confrontation with them was as
educational, and occasionally entertaining, to my readers as it was to me.

Alberta tar sands equipment supplier opens in Billings

By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian | June 9, 2010

A major supplier of equipment to the rapidly expanding oil and gas market in the Alberta tar sands has set up shop in Billings.

Berry Y&V Fabricators plans to assemble modules in Montana and truck them north to the oil sands fields near Fort McMurray, according to a report last week in the Edmonton Journal.

Stelmach defends oilsands on foreign, domestic fronts

Premier calls protests 'unfortunate'

By Jason Fekete, with files from Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald, and the Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald June 10, 2010

Alberta's oilsands are facing a new cross-border assault, with a community in the U.S. boycotting the resource and a cosmetics store in Canada demanding development be halted.

China's oilsands plans no concern
By Markus Ermisch, Calgary Sun
June 9, 2010

China’s increased appetite for Alberta’s oilsands shouldn’t ring alarm bells in Ottawa, says a market observer.

“Supply will always be controlled by the country where the supplies are,” Tim Marchant, a professor of energy and geopolitics at the International Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability Studies, said during a panel discussion at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary on Tuesday.

Oil sands output set for takeoff, CAPP predicts

New projects to boost production as they return from backburner

By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald June 10, 2010

CALGARY - New oilsands projects and investments have changed Canada's long-range supply picture for the better, according to a new industry report.

The emergence of several new players in Alberta's oilsands will lift overall crude production between 2020 and 2025, a period that wasn't expected to see any production gains in last year's forecast, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Wednesday.

Foreign workers earn ‘substantially’ less than Canadians

June 08, 2010

Nicholas Keung

Temporary foreign workers earn substantially less than their Canadian counterparts and their most common jobs are as live-in caregivers, housekeepers and cleaners, says a new report.

Almost 30 per cent of Canada’s 265,000 non-permanent residents at the time of the 2006 census, including foreigners here on work permits and student visas, had been in Canada for at least five years, according to the Statistics Canada study released Tuesday.

China out front at Calgary oil show
June 9, 2010
CBC News

Chinese companies were well represented at the World Petroleum Show, which runs June 8 to 10 in Calgary.Chinese companies were well represented at the World Petroleum Show, which runs June 8 to 10 in Calgary.

As the world's top players in the oil and gas industry gather in Calgary for a high-stakes trade show, the largest contingent and most impressive displays are from China.

Cross-border fight simmers over tar sands

David Ebner
Jun 9/ 2010
Globe and Mail

The oil sands have a new adversary: the City of Bellingham, Wash.

On Monday night, in a vote of 7-0, city councillors endorsed a resolution to
reconsider what sort of fuel Bellingham buys for its fleet vehicles, a motion
that pointed a specific finger at “high carbon fuels such as those derived from
the Canadian Tar Sands.”

The resolution is largely symbolic, since the city of 76,000 is locked into its
current fuel supply contract until 2015, but highlights the ongoing political

Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Jennifer Wilkerson’s preparations for a post-petroleum world include growing her own food and stockpiling supplies against any shortages.
By JOHN LELAND
June 5, 2010

As oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico on a recent Saturday, Jennifer Wilkerson spent three hours on the phone talking about life after petroleum.

Protesters filmed at Alberta upgrader hearing
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 |
CBC News

(CBC)Private landowners who protested outside a public hearing into an bitumen upgrader northeast of Edmonton Tuesday were filmed by security guards hired by the project proponent, French energy giant Total S.A., CBC News has learned.

"What are they so afraid of?" landowner Anne Brown asked on Wednesday. "Why are they taping us?"