Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Water

Water is needed in huge amounts in tarsands production and in all other construction stages of tarsands infrastructure across the continent. It takes five litres of water to produce one of usable petrol. There is also water used to move gas, build new tar pits or that water which becomes polluted in the outlying areas. Waste tailings ponds are so vast as to be visible from outer space at this early point in production. Water is now being privatized in slow motion, as “access rights” are available in Alberta. As production grows and climate change continues to parch southern Albertan land, more and more water will be needed to help supply fuel for the American market. This water will ultimately be diverted from rivers, lakes, farms and cities throughout Canada; the water levels in the Athabasca River have already dropped several meters. The Deh Cho/Mackenzie River is already threatened, both from development along its valley and it is downstream from tar sands operations. A generation ago, the Athabasca River was clear and drinking was common. Now, those that live with the river consider it poison and off-limits.

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Tar Sands pipeline to take all-new route from Surrey to Burnaby

Oil pipeline to take all-new route from Surrey to Burnaby

By Jeff Nagel - Burnaby NewsLeader
May 27, 2013

Kinder Morgan Canada plans to stake out an almost all-new corridor for its second oil pipeline from Port Kells in Surrey to Burnaby to avoid digging through private property in densely populated neighbourhoods.

Greg Toth, senior project director of the Trans Mountain pipeline twinning, said following the existing right-of-way – as the company intends on most of the rest of the route through the Fraser Valley and the Interior – would be too disruptive to existing land owners.

Northwest Territories Looking to Bid for Pipelines

Lynsey Kitching
May 27, 2013
Tumbler Ridge News

The enormous opposition to the potential pipelines (Enbridge and Trans-Canada) in BC has spurred the Northwest Territories (NWT) to speak up and offer a solution to Alberta’s dilemma of getting their resources to market.

David Ramsay, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment for the NWT says, “If those opportunities don’t come for Alberta to the west coast, through a province like BC, we want to be seen as an option.”

First 100,000 Keystone comments reveal intensity of fight

First 100,000 Keystone comments reveal intensity of fight over oil sands pipeline
By Ben Geman - 05/24/13

Inside Climate News/The Hill

The State Department has begun making available over 1.2 million public comments received on its analysis of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, providing a glimpse into the intense political and organizing battle around the project.

The department announced late Thursday night that it had posted, on Regulations.gov, roughly 100,000 of the comments received on its March 1 draft environmental review. More will surface on the site weekly.

Jordan to Rely on Shale Oil to Meet Soaring Domestic Demand

7 August 2012—Jordan aims to extract 40,000 BOPD of oil from its shale oil reserves by 2016 to meet the country’s increasing demand, Jordan Oil Shale Energy Company (JOSECO) said.

JOSECO is a subsidiary of Estonian state-owned Eesti Energia.

Nunavut sees devolution light after long Arctic winter

Yadullah Hussain | Jul 20, 2012
Financial Post

Nunavut would like nothing more than be the master of its own destiny and has begun negotiations with the federal government to transfer land rights and royalties as it seeks to explore its fossil fuel riches, says Peter Taptuna, Nunavut’s Minister of Economic Development and Transportation. Excerpts from the interview:

Q The Arctic has become a focus area for many jurisdictions. Has Nunavut also noticed a surge in interest in its petroleum resources?

Unistoten Action Camp

by Noah Ross
Media Coop, August 8, 2012

Beginning on August 5th, the Unistoten, a clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, have established a checkpoint located on the bridge over the Morice River.

The checkpoint is in the path of the proposed Pacific Trails Pipeline south of Smithers in Northern British Columbia. It is being implemented in conjunction with the 3rd annual Unistoten Action Camp, which has attracted over 150 participants and is intended to build support for resistance to the Pacific Trails Pipeline.

Alberta Premier Says No Money For BC

Alberta Premier Says No Money For BC
By Ben Meisner
Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Alberta Premier Redford has made it clear, once again, that her government is not prepared to hand over any royalties to the province of BC for the movement of oil from the tar sands for shipment offshore.
Redford made the comments yesterday in Vancouver. At the same time she suggested that there is little point in her meeting with Christy Clark, her BC counterpart, to discuss the issue further.

B.C. newspaper tycoon proposing $13-billion oil refinery for Northern Gateway oil

By GORDON HOEKSTRA,
VANCOUVER SUN
August 17, 2012

VANCOUVER - B.C. community newspaper tycoon David Black proposed today building a $13-billion oil refinery near Kitimat to use all of the crude from Enbridge's controversial Northern Gateway pipeline.

It would mean tankers would ship refined fuels like gasoline off of B.C. northwest coast, not heavy oil from Alberta, reducing environmental risks, says Black.

A refinery also promises 10 times as many jobs as an export pipeline.

Kazakhstan will squeeze oil from sand and clay

Kazakhstan will squeeze oil from sand and clay
Sunday, 08.07.2012
Tengri News

Kazakhstan wants to start extracting oil from sand in 2013, deputy Director of the Scientific-Research Institute of New Chemical Technologies and Materials of Al-Farabi Kazakh State University Valentina Yemelyanova told Tengrinews.kz.

Tar Sands Giants’ Sneaky New Playbook Revealed [Re: Trailbreaker]

Tar Sands Giants’ Sneaky New Playbook Revealed

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jul 7, 2012 at 10:46 am

by Tony Iallonardo, via National Wildlife Federation

Polluters seem to have drawn the wrong lesson from the Keystone XL controversy. Rather than temper the headlong rush to exploit tar sands, they’re getting sneakier.