LNG - Fracking

By Roger Annis

Another oil train derailment and explosion in Canada has sent nearby residents fleeing from their homes in the middle of the night. It happened at 1 a.m. on Saturday, October 19 on a CN Rail line outside the hamlet of Gainford, Alberta, 85 km west of Edmonton. The accident coincides with new steps by the Canadian government to extend oil and other resource extraction into the Arctic.

The Calgary Herald

First Nations fear they are being cut out of a potential $2.5 billion windfall from the development of B.C.'s liquefied natural gas and mining sector and want the provincial government to mandate at least a quarter of those projects to use energy from B.C.'s independent power producers.

The current going price for water used for fracking is 'an insult,' said Eoin Madden, a campaigner from the Vancouver-based national conservation group Wilderness Committee.

Critics are raising alarms that oil and gas companies are getting a “free ride” from the provincial government for the billions of litres of water used in fracking operations every year.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/major_pension_funds_question_long-term_outlo...

By Roger Annis, October 24, 2013

Another oil train derailment and explosion in Canada has sent nearby residents fleeing from their homes in the middle of the night. It happened at 1 am on Saturday, October 19 on a CN Rail line outside the hamlet of Gainford, Alberta, 85 km west of Edmonton. The accident coincides with new steps by the Canadian government to extend oil and other resource extraction into the Arctic.

The image of burning police cars played endlessly on the evening news. Television and talk radio blared out reports of "clashes" between police and indigenous protestors. Last Thursday in New Brunswick near the Elsipogtog First Nation, we were told the government had enforced an injunction against a blockade of a US shale gas company. There was nothing about the roots of a conflict years in the making. An appeal to the stereotype of indigenous violence was enough: once again, the natives were breaking the law; the police had to be sent in.

The British Columbia government is close to completing an accord for land needed by China Petrochemical Corp. for a proposed liquefied natural gas export project in Canada’s westernmost province.

Canada's colonial past is present, however much Prime Minister Stephen Harper seeks to obfuscate the reality of the history of this land. This week has served as a prime example of how denial of past colonialism helps to perpetuate ongoing colonial relationships. The current flashpoint is the small town of Rexton, New Brunswick, where the Elsipogtog First Nation and their supporters are facing down massive RCMP repression of their protests against activity by SWN Resources, a company that is carrying out seismic testing for proposed oil and gas fracking operations in the area.

The Sun Sets on Fossil Fuels: Norwegian Pension Fund Divests from Financially Worthless Assets

http://www.alternet.org/environment/sun-sets-fossil-fuels-norwegian-pens...

Risks of steam-assisted bitumen recovery are too little discussed, experts say.

By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, Oct 7, 2013
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/10/07/Next-Oil-Sands-Threat/

A recent blow-out at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s Primrose facility in northern Alberta sheds light on a serious but little discussed topic in the oil sands industry: caprock integrity.