The Boreal Forest

Following three significant spills of tar sands oil from aging pipelines in the Midwest, RAN Chicago took action. An afternoon protest was themed around pushing back on Canada’s tar sands and kicking our addiction to oil. Of the various placards on display (stop the serial spiller!) and a hypodermic needle filled with oil.

If oil is like a drug, then the Canadian Consulate in Chicago has become the kingpin of US tar sands trafficking. The Consulate has teamed up with oil companies to push through new tar sands pipelines, and strong-arm companies into keeping tar sands crude flowing into Midwestern refineries.

The provincial government's open house on its land-use framework for this region was the largest yet in terms of turn-out.

While a variety of concerns were offered by the some 76 members of the general public who attended Wednesday night, protection of the Clearwater River, especially from Nexen Inc.'s water withdrawal application, was one of the more popular topics of conversation.

"I was looking at the comment board afterward and there was a lot of comments about that. They marshalled their forces and made themselves heard. That was good," said Duncan MacDonnell, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

As for the attendance figures, he added, "That's the largest yet for the process; the most we've had at any one session. It kept going until after 8 p.m., so very popular."... Read more »

BANFF - Premier Ed Stelmach said the oilsands industry is making progress on environmental issues, but acknowledged there was more work to do.

In remarks at the opening of the Global Business Conference here, the premier said the province continues to take that message on the road in an effort to counter concerns over the growing footprint of oilsands development.

"We've come a long way but we can and will do more," he said.

"That' s the message we're taking to the world."

Over the next few weeks, he said ministers will be heading to Alaska and Mississippi to talk about environmental efforts in the oilsands, as well other Canadian provinces.

We're not doing this because we like airplane food," he said.

"We're doing this to protect and grow our markets and defend our province and it's industries."... Read more »

Constantly the topic of debate between politicians, environmentalists, activists, and businessmen, the oilsands are loved and loathed across Canada, and across the globe.

Alberta's oilsands are the second largest source of oil in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia in ranking. The oilsands produce millions of barrels of oil every day. In 2008, 1.31 million barrels of oil were produced per day, and that figure is expected to climb to 3 million barrels per day by 2018.

Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the United States, solidifying an iron grip on trade between the neighbouring nations.

Alberta’s oil sands underlie 140,200 square kilometres of land in the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River areas in northern Alberta. The vast reserve provides relative energy security to the country and is responsible for an economic boom in Alberta.... Read more »