Abandon oil sands, urges big investor
One of Britain’s biggest investors will launch a campaign this week to persuade Shell and BP to drop their plans for heavy investment in oil sands and shale projects in North America.
Co-operative Asset Management is concerned that the huge environmental costs of producing crude from oil sands or shale could change the economics of these so-called ‘unconventional’ fuel sources, putting the oil companies and their investors at risk of a huge wasted investment. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: canada, dion, environmental crime, federal election, invest, investment, investor, oil sands, oilsands, stelmach, tar sands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on September 10, 2008
Alberta oil leak kills 300 birds
By BILL KAUFMANN — Sun Media
Crude oil leaked from an untapped well in southeastern Alberta has killed up to 300 birds, sparking outrage among environmental critics.
The leak of 60 to 90 barrels of sweet heavy crude oil from a suspended well at CFB Suffield, 200 km southeast of Calgary, has killed hundreds of birds, said David Inkstrup, a spokesman for the federal Canadian Wildlife Service.
Drilled in 2005 but never put into production, the well is licensed to Calgary-based Harvest Energy Trust.
The latest mass death of birds is part of a disturbing trend which governments are neglecting to halt, said Greenpeace Canada spokesman Mike Hudema.
“It’s imperative there be enough people in the field to make sure these kinds of mishaps don’t occur,” said Hudema. “There seems to be an environmental incident in Alberta every week.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: tar sands, stelmach, oil sands, harper, oilsands, tarsands, federal election, birds dead, suffield, national wildlife area | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on September 10, 2008
Alberta oil spill kills hundreds of birds
NORVAL SCOTT AND DAWN WALTON
With a report from The Canadian Press
September 10, 2008
CALGARY — Alberta’s oil and gas industry is again in the environmental dock, as a spill at an oil well in the province has killed up to 500 ducks and swallows, according to reports from the scene.
The birds died after landing in the spill, which was found Monday at an out-of-service conventional oil well in the southwest corner of CFB Suffield, in southeastern Alberta. The well is operated by Calgary-based Harvest Energy Trust.
The new deaths have occurred at a bad time for Canadian oil companies, whose public image was hit earlier this year when 500 ducks and other waterfowl strayed into a waste pond at the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oil sands facility. Pictures of those oil-covered birds made international headlines, as environmental groups used the incident to illustrate the perceived hazards resulting from oil sands development.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: birds dead, ducks, greenpeace, oil sands, oil spill, oilsands, suffield, syncrude, tar sands, tarsands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on September 10, 2008
As part of the process to separate the bitumen from sand, large amounts of waste liquid, tailings, is produced. These tailings are poured into huge diked ponds. If allowed to continue, current and proposed tailings ponds would cover up to 220 square kilometres! The companies admit that left on there own, the silt will not settle in the ponds for up to 100 years. Should any pond’s dike break, it would create an environment disaster of which the world has never seen before.
In addition, history as shown that the companies responsible for creating an 
environmental hazard, are no where to be seen when it’s time for a cleanup. The Alberta government requires the oil sand companies to estimate the cost to reclaim the ponds and put the money aside. They have estimated it would cost $10,000 hectare. Syncrude’s reported reclamation costs for the one pond they have reclaimed, averaged nearly $47,000 per hectare. Who’s going to make up the shortfall?
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Posted by mhudema on September 10, 2008
Layton targets tar sands
GLORIA GALLOWAY
Globe and Mail Update
September 8, 2008 at 7:04 PM EDT
FORT SMITH, NWT — The plane carrying New Democrat Leader Jack Layton and his NDP entourage swooped over the Alberta tar sands Monday to show vast expanses of northern wilderness despoiled by development.
Ponds filled with chemicals that remain from oil extraction, forest that have criss-crossed with strips that have been cleared of trees, mines that rise out of nowhere.
Linda Duncan, the environmental advocate who is running for the New Democrats in Edmonton-Strathcona, offered a running description of the devastation below. Wildlife has been displaced, she said, and ground water has been drained.
In Fort Smith, more than 300 kilometres north of the tar sands that lie outside Fort McMurray, Alta., people fear the chemicals they say may be flowing their way.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta government, canada, federal election, fort mcmurray, layton, oil sands, oilsands, slave river, stelmach, tar sands, tarsands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on September 10, 2008
Tar-sands pipeline will undo Quebec’s work on environment
Voters should press governments to force polluters to reduce emissions
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| MATT PRICE and AARON FREEMAN |
| Freelance |
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Quebec was one of the first provinces to show leadership on tackling global warming. It is now pursuing more efficient vehicles, has a carbon tax at the fuel wholesale level, and is joining other jurisdictions in a cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse-gas emissions.
It’s a shame that this progress is being undone by the tar sands.
The tar sands are already holding Quebec and the rest of Canada hostage on global warming, and now for the first time Quebecers will be asked to aid and abet the hostage-takers by routing tar sands oil into and through Quebec.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta government, montreal, oil sands, pipeline, quebec, stelmach, tar sands, tarsands, trailbreaker | 1 Comment »
Posted by mhudema on September 9, 2008
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September 7, 2008
For Hudema, love over money is ‘eco’ logical
Greenpeace’s man says defending Alberta wilderness trumps legal career
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By KERRY DIOTTE
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It’s been just over a year since Greenpeace set up an office in Edmonton.
Compared to its presence in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, this is, relatively speaking, enemy territory.
It’s especially so because this is not just a regular office of the direct-action environmental group. This office was set up specifically to try to shut down oilsands operations in Alberta.
Sitting inside the humble digs that appear to have once been an auto repair shop on 64 Avenue near 104 Street, Greenpeace spokesman Mike Hudema is reflecting on a year that has seen its activists fined for high profile stunts and wind up slapped with a $120,000 lawsuit for trespassing on Syncrude property near Fort McMurray.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: tar sands, alberta, stelmach, oilsands, tarsands, syncrude lawsuit | 1 Comment »
Posted by mhudema on September 9, 2008
Layton calls for halt to tar sands approvals
Updated Mon. Sep. 8 2008 10:05 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
NDP Leader Jack Layton cast doubt on Stephen Harper’s environmental policies as he flew over the Alberta oil sands in his campaign plane on Monday.
“We’re looking at the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world,” he said, “and Mr. Harper is responsible because he is giving away the store to big oil companies.”
Layton has demanded a moratorium on oil sands development, and criticized the “tax grab” it provides to oil and gas companies.
In a statement released on the NDP website Layton said: “Despite warnings from his own government agencies, Harper fast tracked Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands development, north of Fort McMurray, without any conditions to mitigate the significant impacts on the environment.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: canada, federal election, layton, ndp, oil sands, tar sandsm | No Comments »
