Short Term Gain, Long Term Ecological Pain

July 9, 2008 10:00 AM

The tar sands: Investing for short-term gain, long-term eco-disaster

India is considering investing up to $10 billion dollars in Canada’s tar sands. This is yet another case of one country wanting to make a financial killing while helping to kill a distant ecosystem. But on a small planet where pollution from one place can have an impact on a region thousands of kilometres away and our fragile atmosphere is a shared space, nations and companies must wake up to their responsibilities.

Tar Sands Go High Tech (from Treehugger)

Alberta Tar Sands Go All High Tech and Futurist

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 9.08

Science & Technology (alternative energy)

There is too much oil in the ground there just to leave it, so what about the carbon dioxide and the natural gas consumption. We will just throw some high tech at it; problem solved.

Use Blimps to Move Stuff to the Tar Sands

First up is the Skyhook JHL-40 Rotorcraft. A cross between a dirigible and a helicopter, Skyhook prez Peter Jess says the patented craft will be capable of hauling 40-tonne loads up to 320 kilometres in areas without basic infrastructure such as roads. Boeing will build them for Skyhook, and says that “the blimp would be environmentally friendly because it would eliminate the need to build roads and rail lines to remote locations, where transportation can be costly, inadequate or unreliable.” Right. So how are they going to get the crap out? ::Calgary Herald

Shell Cancels Tar Sands Refinery

Shell cancels Canadian tar sands expansion

July 9, 2008

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By Gitte Laasby and Christin Nance Lazerus Post-Tribune staff writers

An oil giant that planned to refine the same Canadian tar sands as BP Whiting has canceled plans for an expansion in Ontario.

Shell Canada is scrapping a proposed refinery project in Sarnia, which would have turned tar-like crude from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, into refinery-ready light oil, the company announced Tuesday.

OEA busts Oil Conference

Oil Enforcement Agency busts oil worshiping cult at hearing on I-5 expansion

Jul 9th, 2008

The controversy over the I-5 expansion project known as the Columbia River Crossing took a theatrical turn on Wednesday, as politically charged street performance took center stage outside a packed city hall. Meeting attendees were greeted with a fake check point just past an area marked off by “Global Warming Crime Scene” tape.

Carbon-Capture plan full of hot air

July 10, 2008 Carbon-capture plan full of hot air, say critics

By JEREMY LOOME, EDMONTON SUN

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It’s a $2-billion blunder that could prove even more costly to Alberta’s environment, say critics.

They’ve lambasted the Alberta government for committing half of a $4 billion green fund to carbon capture and storage (CCS) - the process of storing carbon gases underground - as an unproven science that ultimately may not even be able to hide the province’s carbon emissions problem, let alone solve it.

$2 Billion Dollar Greenwash

The cost of green
Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008

Sometimes, one just does what one must. Such is the case with the provincial plan to put $2 billion of an expected surplus wholly attributable to resource royalties into pumping the energy industry’s carbon dioxide exhaust back into the ground.

Recognize it for what it is, a $2-billion public relations campaign to arm provincial cabinet ministers against critics of Alberta’s supposedly dirty oil. “No, we’re not pumping CO2 into the air: In Alberta, we bury it. Next question?”

It has to be viewed that way, because otherwise it’s a lot of money for not much.

Environment Canada’s National Inventory Report on Canadian greenhouse gas sources gives the perspective.

Nationally, Canada produced 721 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2006. Alberta was responsible for 234 million tonnes.

When fully implemented in 2015, the government’s $2-billion plan will capture and sequester five million tonnes of it annually.

That’s two per cent. Or it’s about 3.4 per cent of the 146 million tonnes of CO2 produced by the province’s electrical generators and its energy industry — perhaps the more reasonable comparison, as vehicle and residential emissions are scarcely amenable to capture.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 2 billion, alberta, carbon capture, climate plan, emissions, government, green plan, greenwash, oil sands, stelmach, storage, tar sands | 5 Comments »