Energy

For Immediate Release, September 3, 2009, OTTAWA – The tar sands are creating severe environmental, economic and social problems in the Ontario - Michigan Great Lakes Region according to a new Polaris Institute report.

The report, “Toxic Trail Exposure,” is the result of an Ontario youth delegation that traveled together to Sarnia, Detroit and Windsor to uncover and expose the connections between the Great Lakes Region and tar sands developments.

Some of the key findings include:

Residents of Sarnia, Windsor and Detroit are located near five major tar sands oil refineries, are reporting disproportionately high rates of respiratory illness, cancers, skin disorders, and kidney problems.

Across the Great Lakes Region – in both Canada and the United States – youth are concerned about the impacts of ongoing tar sands developments and actively working to expose the dangers.

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE, September 1, 2009, Globe and Mail - Chinese companies have been on a shopping spree for global energy assets this year, and yesterday, the country made its biggest splash yet in Alberta's oil patch. PetroChina paid $1.9-billion to acquire 60 per cent of two projects held by Athabasca Oil Sands, reviving enthusiasm for Canada's energy industry after investment was shelved when crude prices slumped

A major Chinese energy company has delivered a jolt of confidence to the oil patch with a $1.9-billion investment that marks China's biggest entry into Alberta's oil sands.

In a deal that many took as proof of the oil sands' continued attractiveness to deep-pocketed investors, Calgary-based Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. sold a 60-per-cent interest in two of its undeveloped projects near Fort McMurray to the international unit of PetroChina Co. Ltd.

Hans-Werner Sinn, August 26, 2009, The Financial Times--The chief goal of European environmental policy is to curb fossil energy consumption. Governments are busily promoting alternative energy, improved building insulation and more efficient cars. These programmes cost billions – and probably achieve the exact opposite of what policymakers intend: the global extraction of coal, gas and oil shoots up instead of sinking.

The explanation is simple. Green measures that herald a gradual tightening of policy over the coming decades exert a stronger downward pressure on future prices than on current ones. The owners of oil and gas fields react by pulling forward production. That is the green paradox: efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the future have the effect of accelerating climate change now.

Dave Hall, The Windsor Star, August 23, 2009 - New development of Alberta and Saskatchewan's tar sands should be halted and existing projects gradually scaled back because of the negative impact the extraction of petroleum products is having on the environment, said a group of environmental activists who met in Windsor Saturday.

Participants in a symposium held at the University of Windsor were told that Canada's tar sands generate three to five times more greenhouse gas pollution than from the production of conventional oil products while overall tar sands operations also have environmental and social costs which have yet to be fully measured.

Suzanne Goldenberg, August 14 2009, UK Guardian--The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy, according to campaigners.

A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ''energy citizen'' rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a "sensitive" plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a "human face" on opposition to climate and energy reform.

After the clamour over healthcare, the memo raises the possibility of a new round of protests against a key Obama issue.

"Our goal is to energise people and show them that they are not alone," said Cathy Landry, for API, who confirmed that the memo was authentic.

Paul Morden, July 28, 2009, The Sarnia Observer--Sarnia is scheduled to be a stop on a three-day oil sands awareness tour organized by the Polaris Institute and the Sierra Youth Coalition.

The dozen young people taking part in the Tracking the Tar Sands: Tri-City Youth Tour are set to stop in Sarnia Aug. 20.

Elly Adeland, water and energy campaigner at the Polaris Institute, said the group is expected to leave Toronto that morning and arrive in Sarnia for a tour of the Shell refinery after lunch.

Following that, they are scheduled to meet with Ron Plain, Environmental Defence Aboriginal Program manager, for a tour and discussion on the impacts of the tar sands on First Nations' communities.

After the Sarnia stop, the tour moves on to Detroit and Windsor, before returning to Toronto.

The institute, an Ottawa based national activist group, opposes Canada's oil sands developments.

Stephen Hazell and Jeh Custer, July 23, 2009, OTTAWA – Tar sands oil is as dirty as ever despite the most recent communications spin by the Alberta government and oil industry says Sierra Club Canada.

“It is discouraging that the Alberta government and oil industry can’t get their heads out of the tar sands and face up to the realities of this dirty oil,” said Stephen Hazell, executive director of Sierra Club Canada. ”All peer-reviewed studies, as well as U.S and Canadian government studies, show that tar sands emissions are higher relative to the average conventional crude oils. The TIAX and Jacobs reports released today by the government and industry controlled Alberta Energy Research Institute were not peer-reviewed.“

Todd Paglia, June 25, 2009, The Huntington Post--Seeing the future is hard enough--but can you smell it? If you are talking about green energy maybe you can... We conducted our own scientific research on this very question in Washington, D.C., where we unveiled the world's first-ever "Clean Energy Smell Test." If you thought the Coke and Pepsi taste tests were exciting, this one is really going to roll your socks up and down--and there is slightly more at stake than which carbonated sugar water tastes best.

On one side we have the energy future that visionaries like Van Jones--our green collar jobs czar--have been fighting for. On the other side we have Big Oil's version of our future (can you hear the booos?). One smells like sunshine, a gentle breeze through a windmill, mountain water flowing into a micro-hydro generator. The other smells like, well, hell.

Dan Healing , July 14, 2009, Calgary Herald, CALGARY - The Ed Stelmach government should take advantage of the slowdown in oilsands development in Alberta to regulate the pace of growth, thus reducing costs throughout the province for a host of businesses, says former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed.

But an oilsands industry spokesman said costs are a product of the general Alberta economy, not just oilsands, and it would be unfair to impose limits on one player in a large construction oriented sector

Speaking at the opening of a five-day international engineering conference at the downtown Calgary Westin hotel, Lougheed said the frenetic pace of oilsands development has hurt the province by making everything more expensive.

“The oilsands have created in our province, because of the rapid growth that has occurred in the past decade, a very high-cost economy,” said Lougheed.

Terry Macalister May 24, 2009, The Guardian - A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today.

Among those attending the World ­Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as "the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world".

There is concern that the big energy companies will be pushing carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of keeping the oil-based economy running.