New Fish for Chipewayn – Yippee!

Fort Chipewyan, just downstream from the fabled Athabasca Tar Sands, seems to be raking in a lot of “firsts.” For one there’s the incidence of cancer among the local natives. But wait, there’s more!

Now there’s Petrofish, a new type of Goldeye – with two mouths.

A Parks Canada official from the Woods Buffalo National Park had a look at the mutant before handing it back to the Mikesew Cree nation. A report has been sent to Alberta’s Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (RAMP), a cooperative that includes the Harper Department of Fisheries and Petrobucks, the Tony Clement Department of Dirty Needles, the Alberta environment department and silly walks, oilsands corporations and a few natives thrown in for good measure (those who haven’t already contracted cancer).

Local natives are treating the mutant fish with alarm but, then again, they would, wouldn’t they?

 

Hey Ed, Put Up or Shut Up!

If Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach wants to protect his supposed, Tar Sands bonanza, he knows just how to do it. In fact, he keeps telling us he wants to do it. The problem is, we’ve been waiting for years for any sign that Special Ed or his predecessors will or even can do it.

The “It” is carbon sequestration. Alberta produces the dirtiest oil on the planet but whenever anyone points that out, Ed tells us what his employers, Big Oil, have been prattling on about for years – the answer is to take all that carbon output and sink it deep underground where it can do no harm to man or any other lifeform.

Ed’s even put up two billion petrobucks to fund a sequestration initiative, or so he says. He wants you to take his word for all of this. Just don’t ask Ed or Big Oil to lift the veil so that we can see the awesome results of their efforts. That would be rude, wouldn’t it?

The Alberta Tories are possibly even more indentured to Big Oil than the gang of squatters that currently occupy the White House. If it wasn’t for this windfall of unearned, subterranean treasure, the province might actually have to live off the labours of its own people. In today’s Alberta that must seem a thoroughly scary prospect indeed.

But TWO BILLION DOLLARS for carbon sequestration, that’s pretty impressive, rien? Hardly. The Americans recently scrapped their own sequestration trial after many years and countless bags of treasury doubloons because they couldn’t make it work. In fact, the technology has been or is being attempted elsewhere but… that’s where these alchemist’s tails always end, “but.”

The science and technology is much too complex for the likes of you and me to really comprehend which explains why the Eds of this world use such childlike language when they speak to us of these things. But you don’t really need to understand coal seam geology to sort your way through this anymore than you need to know what makes the canary fall of its perch and die in the mine.

Here’s the dead parrot for carbon sequestration claims. In fact you’ve got a flock of dead parrots, all of them lying at your feet.

The ever popular Norwegian Blue. If Special Ed really believed that the miracle of carbon sequestration was in his hands, why would he bridle at the first suggestion of capping carbon emissions?

The Reunion Ring-Neck. Taking Ed at his word, why are his projections for Alberta’s carbon emissions so high as to render futile Our Furious Leader Harpo’s “50 by 2050” commitment completely unobtainable?

The African Grey. If this vaunted carbon sequestration technology that Big Oil has been hailing for so many years existed, where the hell is it? They’ve been promising this FOR YEARS but never allowing us so much as a peek at anything resembling a practical, carbon sequestration system.

My favourite, the Bismark’s Hanging Parrot. Ignoring the Blue and the Grey (and that pesky Ring-Neck) altogether, why are the Petro-Morlocks so stubborn about timelines for their eco-salvation technology? Could it be they don’t want us to know that, even if they could turn lead into gold, it would take two decades, possibly more to refine and deploy the technology?

The Scaly-headed Pionus. If Big Oil and its legislative henchmen can perfect carbon sequestration, why are they doing so precious little about the other environmental ills associated with the Tar Sands? Why are those oily tailing ponds now visible from space? How about Fort Chipewyan downriver and its strange cancer rates? How about the other aspects of land, air and water pollution? What about the inordinate strain on the region’s fresh water and natural gas resources?

You see, everywhere you look it’s the same thing – dead parrots. That’s got to tell you something.

 

Putting a Number on the Tar Sands

The US Conference of Mayors annual meeting came up with a great idea – tracking the “life cycle impact” of various fossil fuels. They also passed a resolution urging member municipalities to stop using unconventional fuels with lage carbon footprints. The resolution specifically referenced Canada’s Tar Sands:

“The production of tarsands oil from Canada emits approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as does conventional oil production and significantly damages Canada’s Boreal forest ecosystem – the world’s largest carbon storehouse.”

You see, once you factor in the carbon footprint of various fossil fuels – assign a number to them – it’s an easy process to translate that into any of several forms of carbon tariffs.

Alberta’s Tar Sands have always benefitted from the “out of sight/out of mind” syndrome. They’re way up north where few Albertans live. People don’t have to see them if they don’t want to. That, I suspect, is a key reason why Big Oil and the Alberta government have been able to get away with the environmental destruction the Tar Sands necessitate. Whenever someone does complain they’re rebuffed with the same old assurances about new technologies being just around the corner, an excuse that’s then put back in the bottom drawer until the next time it’s needed.

A carbon tariff by end user markets might give Big Oil and the Alberta government the big, swift kick in the ass they’ve needed to actually make those promised new technologies a reality. You simply make it more expensive for them not to clean themselves up. They say they can do it. It’s time they did.

Kudos to the US Conference of Mayors. They just might have pointed to the right path to curbing tar sands pollution.

 

Dead Ducks All In a Row

Special Ed Stelmach has a problem and it’s one that’s not going away.

Ed’s problem, or at least his latest problem, is the toxic waste dump also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands. Getting ersatz oil out of Athabasca’s bitumen tar uses an awful lot of water – fresh water that’s turned into a black, oily waste that has to be pumped into tailing ponds built out of earthen walls.

These tailing ponds are big. They can be seen from the shuttle as it orbits in space. And they’re not getting any smaller because no one, it seems, has any plan for dealing with this toxic sludge. Now I don’t know what the lifespan of an earthen wall may be but I’m pretty sure it’s not all that long. No one’s really sure how much of this stuff may seep into the groundwater or when or just who may be effected by it eventually.

When it comes to the Tar Sands and the rich array of environmental threats associated with that boondoggle, Special Ed clings to the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” school of environmentalism. When native villages downstream get swept with cancer or migratory birds die in the tailing ponds, he proclaims the Tar Sands an environmental triumph and brands his critics as outsiders, sh*t disturbers.

So now Ed has five or six hundred dead ducks on his hands and, of course, it’s not really about the ducks at all but where they died – the tailing ponds. That defeats the “out of sight, out of mind” firewall on which people like Ed rely so heavily. The timing couldn’t have been worse, coming at the same time as Ed had dispatched his Number Two to the US to promote the Tar Sands. How did Ed react? Predictably. Ed tried to set up the province of Alberta as the underdog, the David to the environmentalists’ Goliath. Why not? That kind of bullshit has worked great for the White House for the past eight years. Who cares whether the statement is utterly ridiculous so long as your target audience is willing to swallow.

Now it turns out that a Seattle scientist is calling “bullshit” on Ed Stemcell’s claims that the normal, annual loss from the Tar Sands ponds is only 20-birds. Jeff Wells belongs to a group that conducted research at just one operation in 2003 that found, even with bird-deterrence programmes in place, 705 birds died in just a four week span. That’s one operation, the Albian Sands project, and just four weeks. Albian Sands is a joint venture of Shell and Chevron-Texaco, operator of the Muskeg River mind about 75-kms. north of Fort McMurray.

Makes you wonder. If Ed’s going to deceive the public about a few hundred migratory birds, when it comes to his cherished Tar Sands, what else is he willing to hide and bury and lie about? My guess is that he’ll do whatever he thinks it takes.

No one seems to be asking why these tailing ponds are being left to grow and spread? The wealth associated with those tailings is leaving Athabasca and much of it is leaving Canada with the American oil companies running these mines. Simply leaving these tailings unresolved as a future threat to the region doesn’t sound like much of a plan.

The National Spot ran the predictible opinion piece dismissing the incident as just a few hundred birds that otherwise would have fallen to hunters anyway. What was interesting was the furor that sparked in readers’ letters. People were uniformly incensed with the Post’s whitewash. Maybe there is hope yet.

The satellite picture at the top shows the Albian Sands project. I expect you can figure out for yourself what those black objects are at the top left.

 

TAR SANDS TRIUMPH!

Yes! A setback for the Oil Patch, finally.

A Federal Court justice has put Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands project on hold, ordering the company to explain how it concluded that intensity-based targets will reduce the potentially damaging effects of the project’s greenhouse gas emissions to a level of insignificance.

Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer obviously wasn’t impressed with Esso’s hogwash. From The Edmonton Journal:

“The evidence shows that intensity-based targets place limits on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of bitumen produced. The absolute amount of greenhouse gas pollution from oil sands development will continue to rise under intensity-based targets because of the planned increase in total production of bitumen. The [environmental assessment] panel dismissed as insignificant the greenhouse gas emissions without any rationale as to why the intensity-based mitigation would be effective to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 800,000 passenger vehicles, to a level of insignificance.”

Counsel representing the environmentalist groups who opposed Imperial were more than pleased with the result:

It sends a clear message that environmental assessments must be open, honest and transparent, said Sean Nixon, a lawyer for Ecojustice, formerly called the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.

Ecojustice represented the Pembina Institute, the Sierra Club of Canada, the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition and the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta.

“It will be interesting to see if the panel can explain in a rational way how intensity-based measures can lessen the impact of greenhouse gas emissions,” Nixon said.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=46586a70-7589-4ee7-81b6-27e497fe0413&k=4625

 

The Unstoppable Tar Sands

They’re Canada’s environmental disgrace, the oil recovery projects in the Athabasca Tar Sands, and yet the chances of anything being done to effectively clean them up are almost non-existant.

A CIBC report today suggests world oil prices will hit $150 per barrel within five years. Part of this is a tacit acknowledgement of the “peak oil” phenomenon and part is blamed on delays in bringing alternative oil projects such as Tar Sands expansion on line. The report warns Canadians to brace themselves for $1.50/litre pump prices.

Before you start thinking that the answer to all your problems is to dump that SUV for a fuel-efficient compact (although that is a good idea), remember that we’re an oil-based economy. Higher oil prices are going to find their way into your wallet at every turn whether you’re at an airline ticket counter or the produce aisle in your grocery store or laying in your winter stock of heating oil. Pretty much everything you buy is going to have some form of transportation cost premium worked into the price.

For those already struggling on fixed incomes, life could become a real bitch. Lots of money is going to be made in Canada but our government, by defunding itself through tax cuts, is making sure that there won’t be much left lying around for the truly needy. It’s a trick they’ve learned from their American Idols in the White House and Congress.

So, since there’ll be no stopping Tar Sands expansion and that bitumen is going to become vastly more profitable, where is all this clean technology Big Oil has been bragging about for years now? How’s that carbon sequestration project coming anyway? Harpo’s claimed Canada is going to be a “clean” energy superpower. Okay, show us the goods Steve.

Carbon sequestration is turning out to be a bit trickier and more expensive than was once believed and, let’s face it, Big Oil isn’t going to dip into its Tar Sands profits that far until Ottawa makes them do it and, even then, they can still count on Alberta to run interference for them for years before mandatory cleanup becomes a reality.

Meanwhile, how’s that Ford Excursion anyway?

 

Harper’s Deliciously Perverse Logic

When it comes to global warming, trust Stephen Harper to say whatever suits him at the moment. Even with Canada’s worst polluters, his beloved Tar Sands, he won’t tolerate any talk about hard caps on emissions. There, the formula is “intensity based” targets. That’s a scam. What he means is cleaning up bitumen extraction and processing – a little bit – while increasing overall extraction and processing – quadrupling or even quintupling operations. The net result – an enormous jump in GHG emissions from Big Oil at the Tar Sands.

When it comes to global warming and Stephen Harper – that’s what you’re dealing with. Fighting climate change will not come at the expense of Tar Sands expansion and that’s the bottom line.

In order to make any sense out of what Harper says elsewhere, you need to keep his Tar Sands perspective in mind.

On the weekend, Harpo made Canada the pariah of the Commonwealth (alright, alright – we’re still not up there with Zimbabwe or Pakistan, but… ) by scuttling a resolution calling for binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Harper, being the sleazeball he is, wasn’t candid enough to admit that he would not tolerate emissions caps because that would screw up his Tar Sands. Steve knows that sort of honesty could cost him big at home. Instead he resorted to the tried and true tactic of all swindlers – distraction.

Steve looked for another way out and found it – in India. He said the rest of the Commonwealth is flat out wrong in wanting developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions first. Harpo smugly described his knuckledragging as “the only right position.”

“If we are all to believe that climate change is a major problem caused by greenhouse gas emissions then we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the only way we can do that is if all major emitters reduce their emissions. It’s that simple, so we are not going to settle for anything less.” – Harper

It is indeed “that simple” to a real con man. What’s simple about it is that it tells it tells the emerging economies that, henceforth, we intend to preserve our per capita emissions differential. That means that every citizen of Canada is going to be entitled, indefinitely, to generate greenhouse gas emissions five or six times that of every citizen of India. Why? Because we’re Canadians, civilized, still mainly white folks – and they’re not. Why? Because we’re already accustomed to monster SUVs and 4,000 square foot houses with three car garages – and they’re not.

Then again, remember, this is a con – a distraction. Stephen Harper is not prepared to tolerate hard caps in any case. It’s all about “intensity based” targets for him, so all this business about China signing on to this or India signing on to that is just smoke and mirrors.

That, my friends, is what Stephen Harper is all about – and he’s laid it right out at your feet. He wants a return to the British Raj. That’s what this is all about – White Man’s Burden.

 

Watch Out Alberta – It’s the Carbonator

The Alberta tar sands have never had it so good since they got their people into power in Ottawa but they haven’t got friends everywhere and especially not in California. The Christian Science Monitor reports that governments are beginning to say “no” to super-dirty oil:

“California has enacted new climate-change policies that make energy companies responsible for the carbon emissions not just of their refineries but all phases of oil production, including extraction and transportation. If that notion catches on – at least two Canadian provinces have already signed on to California’s plan – then the futures of oil-sand, shale, and coal-to-oil projects may look less attractive.

The reason: Extracting these alternative sources of oil requires so much energy that their “carbon footprint” may outweigh their benefits.

“‘As the US and the world move toward more controls on carbon to solve the problem of global warming, it is clear that the development of high-polluting fuels will incur a penalty and the support of and investment in such fuels will be a more and more risky business,’ says Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

“California’s move came in January, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a state executive order creating a new “low carbon fuel standard.” The standard gives petroleum refiners 13 years to cut the carbon content of their passenger vehicle fuels by 10 percent. In May, Governor Schwarzenegger signed agreements committing Ontario and British Columbia to adhere to California’s standard.”

Next up, the Governator is heading to Ottawa to wrestle the same deal out of our boss, the Garburetor, Stephen Harper.

 

Is It Environmentalism or Is It Managing Environmentalism?

Stephen Harper is a man of deep principles. You may not agree with them, and I hope you don’t, but he’s a believer in what he believes. That’s why his chameleonesque transformation from Mr. “So-Called Greenhouse Gases” to environmental champion has such a hollow ring to it.

In his bid for a majority, Harpo is throwing around all that cash the Liberals left him and he’s tossing it about in big numbers – a hundred million here, two hundred million there and there and there too. He doesn’t show his face anywhere these days without packing along a 9-figure cheque for the locals.

He’s made a lot of noise about the environment and he’s doled out a lot of cash but the question remains whether he really gets it or is he really trying to manage what he sees as the fallout of environmentalism. I think Harpo sees the global warming business as something he must appear to accept if he wants to survive. I suspect he’s also gambling that the public interest is a fad and that he can best serve his real constituency, the Tar Patch and the province of Alberta, by ensuring that Big Oil and Big Coal get off as lightly as possible.

Hell, the guy just used the Stemlach to fence $150-million tax dollars to the fossil fuel industry. The money went to the province but that was the best way to politically launder it. At the end of the day, it’s still a subsidy to the impoverished oil companies, using federal taxpayers’ money so that Big Tar doesn’t have to spend its own on cleaning up its mess. He fenced it, and it will be laundered but it’s still a giveaway to Big Tar.

Of course scores of millions of dollars is just the start of Harpo’s gift basket to Big Tar. The real present will be “intensity-based” limits on greenhouse gas emissions. That’s about as close to business as usual as our Furious Leader can get without getting lynched by the public. Besides, it’s the very same sham policy adopted by his American idol, the chimp in the White House.

This isn’t environmentalism. It’s damage control and it’s a scam.

 

Clean Up Call for the Tar Sands

A Commons committee has urged the government to force a substantial reduction in emissions by the oil companies operating in the Athabasca Tar Sands. From the Toronto Star:

“The regulations should also ensure that future oil sands expansion is done in a way that does not “jeopardize” Canada’s obligations under the Kyoto climate change accord, says the yet-to-be released report of the natural resources committee, obtained by the Star.

“‘The mounting environmental and social costs associated with oil sands activities … make it increasingly clear that it would be irresponsible to continue on a `business-as-usual’ course. It is time to being the transition toward a clean energy future,’ says the report, dated Feb. 28 and marked “Confidential.”

“The report says by harnessing new technologies, such as pumping carbon dioxide underground, and by buying credits from companies that have already reduced their emissions more than required, the oil sands could have net emissions of zero within the next 12 years.

“The report was to have been tabled in the Commons this week, but was delayed.

“Because MPs yesterday began a two-week break, the report now is at risk of not being tabled until after the Tories have announced emission-reduction targets for the largest industrial polluters, which include the oil sands.”

The recommendations won’t go down well with Harpo who wants to avoid significant GHG emission reductions by opting for the ruse known as “intensity-based” targets. Once again aping his mentor, George Bush, Harpo is content to keep rolling the dice even though they’re loaded against the country and the planet.