Tar Sands

[One webpage editor's note: Three items below - Tzeporah Berman's new position in Alberta, 'astroturfing'  by some US unions, and the promoters of a bitumen refinery who include the then-President of  the paperworkers union I was a member of for years.]

The surprising composition of Alberta’s new oilsands GHG advisory group

by JNW staff, jwenergy.com, July 14, 2016

Canada's oil sands production will grow by 1 million barrels daily in the next decade above the current output of about 2.75 million barrels, driven mostly by the expansion of existing facilities rather than new projects, a new reports shows.

According to global consulting firm IHS Energy, the roughly 42% production increase will help Canada remain among the world’s largest oil suppliers.

June 30, 2016 - The Federal Court of Appeal has quashed the federal government's Enbridge pipeline decision.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won’t say when his government will fulfill a campaign promise to “formalize” an oil tanker ban for the northern B.C. coast.

“We’re working every day on getting both the environment and the economy protected right across the country,” Trudeau said in a recent interview when asked when he will fulfill that high-profile pledge.

“We’ll continue to work on that file.”

Ken Smith is one frustrated oil sands labour leader. The giant wildfire that forced Fort McMurray's evacuation came as the Unifor Local 707A president was in the middle of contract negotiations, fighting to save bitumen mining jobs despite the tough times for oil companies.

But he found himself fleeing the flames along with thousands of others. Negotiations to protect the 3,450 Suncor workers he represents were put on hold.

Harbir Chhina helped develop the game-changing steam technology that allowed companies to tap the world’s third-largest reserves in Canada’s oilsands. It was a moonshot that paid off.

Now the oilsands industry, still recovering from last month’s wildfires, needs another one. Without a technological breakthrough like steam injection three decades ago, the flows that have transformed the country’s economy could slow to a trickle. In a world that has plenty of cheap crude, and increasingly demands cleaner energy, the oil sands look dirty, as well as expensive.

On any hot day Shell and Syncrude tour guides used to call the gasoline-like vapours that wafted from Fort McMurray's huge open-pit bitumen mines "the smell of money."

But a new study in Nature has another name for the stench: air pollution and megacity volumes of it.

In fact the tarsands, already the largest source of climate disrupting greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, have a new grim moniker: "one of the largest sources of anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols in North America."

In his May 23 opinion piece, Tim McMillan, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, claimed that “New pipelines will help connect Canada’s landlocked oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, to tidal ports and from there to global markets where demand for oil is growing.” 

May 26, 2016 - Ultimately, it’s up to Justin Trudeau. ​Faced with his first pipeline challenge, the Liberal prime minister can say either yes or no. A decision has to be made before the end of this year on Kinder Morgan’s plan to expand its Trans Mountain oil pipeline.

The National Energy Board has given its conditional approval for the $6.8 billion project.

May 24, 2016 - The Alberta government is speeding ahead with aggressive action to address climate change, introducing new legislation on Tuesday that would require the province's population and industry to pay for their pollution and reduce energy consumption.

Environment Minister Shannon Phillips tabled her government's climate change legislation - Bill-20, the Climate Leadership Implementation Act, exactly one year after her New Democratic Party assumed power and ended 44 years of Progressive Conservative governments ruling the province.