Posted by mhudema on January 27, 2008
http://johnwilson.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/intentional-climate-disaster/
Elizabeth Kolbert had a sobbering article in the New Yorker** a few weeks ago about Alberta’s plans to develop tar sands that will cause huge environmental damages as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta recently announced a plan to “cut GHG emissions 50% by 2050.” What this means is that they will cut emissions 50% from a baseline that will grow 50% between now and then, meaning of course that emissions will be about flat. Dillusional.
Even worse, the “cuts” they are counting on come (90%) from carbon capture and sequestration, which they of course have little idea how to do.
What’s also strange is that Alberta’s GHG emissions today are about 205 million metric tons, while California’s are about 500 million metric tons. Alberta’s population (3.5 million) is one-tenth of California’s (38 million). How do they generate all the GHG emissions?
To express even more frustration, here are California’s GHG reduction goals. If Alberta increases its GHG emissions by about 200 MMT (which I’m sure they will if they stay on the tar sands developmet path), and they don’t achieve the CCS reductions (which are very speculative in my mind), their emissions will largely offset California’s gains of 341 MMT (which is an ambitious an speculative goal in itself). Yuck.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta election, alberta government, california, climate change, climate plan, global warming, kyoto, oil sands, stelmach, tar sands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on January 27, 2008
Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008
VANCOUVER - When British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell hosts Canada’s provincial leaders on Monday, he’ll be trying to find a climate change consensus.
But it won’t be easy.
Alberta accounts for one-third of all national greenhouse gases, mainly due to its tar sands and oil and gas sector. And it’s the fastest-growing emitter.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta election, alberta government, climate change, global warming, kyoto, oil sands, stelmach, tar sands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on January 27, 2008
JEFFREY SIMPSON
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080126.wcosimpson0126/BNStory/National/columnists#
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
January 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
Canada’s conventional oil supplies are running down. They are being replaced with oil from Alberta’s tar sands.
Each barrel of tar-sands oil produces two to three times more greenhouse-gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil. The result is obvious: Greenhouse-gas emissions from Alberta oil have been rising.
Alberta’s attitude toward its “large final emitters,” including the tar sands, has been a licence to pollute dressed up in rhetorical petticoats. It so remains following Premier Ed Stelmach’s scandalously weak update this week of the province’s climate change “strategy.”
Oil company spokesmen hailed the Premier’s announcement, and why not? It’s the most weak-kneed climate-change effort anywhere in the advanced industrialized world.
Read the fine print. Canada under Stephen Harper is committed, at least rhetorically, to reducing emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020Ö. This is already a substantial weakening of previous commitments that were based on 1990 levels.
Nonetheless, it’s 20 per cent by 2020 for Canada, with some provinces anxious to go further. U.S. politicians are almost all agreed on this target. Europeans want to move further faster, but they, too, will accept the 20 by 2020 formula.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta election, alberta government, climate change, global warming, kyoto, oil sands, stelmach, tar sands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on January 27, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012503001_pf.html
Saturday, January 26, 2008; A16
Enbridge, a Canadian company, seeks to build a pipeline to carry synthetic crude oil from Alberta, Canada, into southern Illinois [news story, Jan. 16]. Of the many problems with this project, the greatest one stems from the energy approach driving its construction: bitumen extraction from Alberta’s tar sands.
Tar sands oil is produced through a destructive process that has deplorable consequences. Extraction and processing of just one barrel of synthetic crude oil from bitumen requires up to five barrels of fresh water and 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The gasoline yield from that single barrel is only enough to fill a Chevrolet Avalanche’s tank three-quarters full.
The environmental impact is severe. In 2007, greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands plants were roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 27 million American passenger vehicles. High levels of carcinogens in fish, water and sediment have been found downstream from tar sands areas.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta government, climate change, global warming, kyoto, oil sands, refinery, tar sands, washington | 1 Comment »
Elizabeth Kolbert had a sobbering article in the New Yorker** a few weeks ago about Alberta’s plans to develop tar sands that will cause huge environmental damages as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta recently announced a plan to “cut GHG emissions 50% by 2050.” What this means is that they will cut emissions 50% from a baseline that will grow 50% between now and then, meaning of course that emissions will be about flat. Dillusional.
To express even more frustration, here are California’s GHG reduction goals. If Alberta increases its GHG emissions by about 200 MMT (which I’m sure they will if they stay on the tar sands developmet path), and they don’t achieve the CCS reductions (which are very speculative in my mind), their emissions will largely offset California’s gains of 341 MMT (which is an ambitious an speculative goal in itself). Yuck.