Calgary muzzles artists critical of tar sands

BY ROB MAGUIRE

Art Threat

April 17, 2013

                                                Eeny, Meeny, Miny by Bill Helin

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation had a permit from the City of Calgary to display their travelling art exhibition, Artists for an Oil-Free Coast, at city hall. However, once the show opened, a backlash from conservative politicians caused the city to revoke the permit, arguing the show was too “political” and violated municipal bylaws banning demonstrations inside the building.

Despite the show’s unambiguous title, the city claims they “weren’t aware there was a specific political agenda or cause associated with the art exhibit,” according to Sharon Purvis, the city’s director with corporate properties and buildings.

While the city is allowing the work — largely comprised of landscapes and nature scenes — to stay up until Wednesday, they have banned exhibition organizers conducting media interviews or speaking about politics to the public.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, renowned painted Robert Bateman, who contributed artwork to the show, welcomed the hostile reaction.

“I’m sympathetic to the councillors that want to ban it. They’re actually helping the cause of raising the profile of the show, which is OK, because otherwise the show might get ignored.”

More information about the Artists for an Oil-Free Coast, including future tour dates, can be found at the Raincoast website.

The Tar Sands Disaster

BY THOMAS HOMER-DIXON
New York Times
March 31, 2013

IF President Obama blocks the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all, he’ll do Canada a favor.

Canada’s tar sands formations, landlocked in northern Alberta, are a giant reserve of carbon-saturated energy — a mixture of sand, clay and a viscous low-grade petroleum called bitumen. Pipelines are the best way to get this resource to market, but existing pipelines to the United States are almost full. So tar sands companies, and the Alberta and Canadian governments, are desperately searching for export routes via new pipelines.

Canadians don’t universally support construction of the pipeline. A poll by Nanos Research in February 2012 found that nearly 42 percent of Canadians were opposed. Many of us, in fact, want to see the tar sands industry wound down and eventually stopped, even though it pumps tens of billions of dollars annually into our economy.

A Celebration of Tarsands! (oops, oilsands!)

Stop the Expansion

Dirty Oil Sands Watch


Forty years ago, many Canadians were taught in school that the oil would never be extracted from the tar sands because it was too expensive. But that did not stop the oil sands companies from trying. The first open pit mine began in 1967 and produced 30,000 barrels per day and it took 10 years before the second mine started producing in 1978.

Thing look very different today. Today there are now 5 mines in operation with 7 more proposed or under construction. There are 9 insitu sites producing with 38 either proposed or in the exploration phase.

Currently there are 1.7 million barrels per day (mbd) extracted from the tar sands. If all the approved projects are built , there would be 5 mbd extracted. But the companies won’t stop there. They are considering enough projects to bring it to 9mbd.

That is over 270 million one litre pop bottles per day being produced right now with a goal of over 1.5 billion one litre pop bottles per day in the future.

In order to get this oil to market, there are plans to have four more pipelines ship the increase oil production to market. This includes:

Keystone XL
Northern Gateway
Kinder Morgan
Trailbreaker

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it a priority to expedite the expansion of the tar sands, including the rapid approval of more mines and pipelines. When the Prime Minister found a few obstacles in his way, such as public opposition and regulatory processes designed to protect the environment, he tried to overcome them by attacking nature and democracy. By limiting public engagement in the review of major projects like pipelines, attacking conservation groups, and gutting environmental legislation, Harper and the Government of Canada is determined to expand the tar sands putting at risk communities, land, air, water, the climate, and democracy. This must be stopped.

Instead of Harper’s petro-state we need to a low carbon economy, creating jobs and economic prosperity based on the development of clean energy. Pessimists say it can’t be done, that it is too expensive, and that we cannot produce enough energy to replace our dependence on oil. But if people were able to extract oil from the tar sands surely we can figure out a way to harness clean energy and protect our land, air, and water.

Pipeline politics — Can popular protest stop the tar sands leviathan?

By Richard Fidler 

Life on the Left

December 8, 2012

Petroleum giant Enbridge Inc. has taken huge strides in recent weeks to complete its plan to transport tar sands oil to eastern Canada and from there to foreign markets.

Already assured of support from the Harper government, the company is rapidly lining up further backing from provincial politicians and industry players, including a key trade union. And it is fast-tracking the regulatory approval process.



Enbridge’s project entails reversing the flow of an existing pipeline circuit across southern Ontario to Montréal, Quebec and from there through New England states to Portland, Maine. At present imported oil is carried from Portland to Sarnia, Ontario, where existing refineries already process dirty tar sands oil piped from Alberta. Enbridge also plans to increase the pipeline’s capacity from 240,000 barrels per day to 300,000 bpd.

Canada, the surprise 'pariah' of the Kyoto protocol

Some Canadians doubt whether their country should have any say in negotiating the second Kyoto protocol after it became the only nation to reject the first one

By Isabeau Doucet in Montreal
guardian.co.uk

26 November 2012 

Oil city: steam rises from refineries outside Edmonton, Alberta. Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters

Of all the delegations in the room in Doha, the Canadians adopt the lowest profile. Some question whether they should be there at all: The country's first and only Green party MP, Elizabeth May, said: "HavingCanada in the room negotiating to weaken the second Kyoto, when we have already signalled that not only will we not be participating in taking on new targets in the second period but we're legally withdrawn from the protocol, should make us pariahs."

"I can't imagine how anybody would want us in the room."

China’s Nexen Deal Tangled Up With Keystone Pipeline

By Peter Lee

Asia Times

October 6, 2012

An interesting side product of globalization is how China bashing has become a staple of domestic politics in nations around the world, from America to Zambia, from Sydney to Tokyo. Best practices also propagate with remarkable speed and efficiency.

It may not be a coincidence that, just as the United States finally gets the memo that the Chinese currency is no longer significantly undervalued, the commentariat turns on a dime (or jiao, if you prefer) to announce that the real problem is the market-distorting, security-undermining shadow of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over the world economy.

Economic Growth and Our Collective Demise

By Jim Harding

No Nukes
October 1, 2012 

Stephen Harper wants to transform Canada into an “energy superpower”. Most Conservative policy seems to follow from this huge gamble with our future. On the surface this “vision” seems feasible; once examined it turns into a nightmare.

Oil is already Canada’s no 1 export and Harper wants to expand the oil-export economy. According to Rubin, in his End of Growth, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline to ship bitumen to China, which Harper wants to fast-track, “would move more than half a million barrels a day of very precious oil” and this would “lift the revenues of Canadian oil companies by billions of dollars”. Oil flows, money flows. How could anyone question such a seemingly self-evident vision for our country?

There remain vital questions about the risks and costs of environmental contamination, about who would really benefit and how much “trickle down” would actually occur. And whether this would make the economy more or less sustainable and what kind of society Canada will become if it continues down Harper’s path?

Enbridge spills it out

Enbridge's Attempt to Kill Spoof Backfires as Censored Cartoonist Goes Public
 

Pipeline setback for Enbridge doesn’t deter tar sands/natural gas rush in British Columbia

By Roger Annis
A Socialist in Canada
July 14, 2012

A four-page report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board into the disastrous pipeline break by Enbridge Corporation in Michigan last year is probably a final nail in the coffin of the company’s proposed ‘Northern Gateway’ tar sands bitumen pipeline across northern British Columbia to an export terminal in Kitimat.

The NSTB concurred with investigators’ findings that the Canadian pipeline builder knew for years about cracks that ruptured in July 2010 and caused more than three million litres (800,000 gallons) of tar sands oil to spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The cleanup has cost about $800 million, and counting. Several dozen lawsuits against the company have been launched.

In releasing the report, on July 10, the NSTB had harsh words for the company, which claims to have an exemplary safety record. “Learning about Enbridge’s poor handling of the rupture, you can’t help but think of the Keystone Kops,” said Deborah Hersman, chair of the NTSB. The report says pipeline operators took 17 hours to shut down the pipeline after the break was first reported.

Freedom Train Caravan

Victoria rises up against the tar sands, pipelines, tankers, capitalism and colonialism

By Joan.Russow 
Peace, Earth, Justice News
April 15, 2012

Hundreds attended the rally against pipelines and tankers. Victoria, April 15, 2012. Photo: Sandra Cuffe

Over 2000 people rallied at the Legislature and then walked to Centennial Square where there were panels and workshops. It was clear that this event is a beginning and foreshadowing of the solidarity resistance to come. There were passionate speeches from children from the Beaver Creek First Nations school, activists and elders in condemnation of the tar sands the pipe lines the tankers capitalism and colonialism.

April 22: No Pipelines! No Tankers! Call to Action

Indigenous Environmental Network

On April 22, Mother Earth Day, there is a call to action for organizing rallies as a public display of growing opposition to three major pipeline projects in British Columbia. These pipelines include: Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal, the expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Pipeline, and the construction of Pacific Trails Pipeline by Apache, Encana and EOG Resources.

These three pipelines threaten to:

• Increase the unsustainable expansion in the tar sands and fracking for shale gas.
• Undermine local communities’ right to say “no.”
• Wreak massive environmental damage by crossing hundreds of salmon-bearing rivers and streams, the Great Bear Rainforest and mountainous and landslide-prone-land where spills could spell ecological disaster and affect the livelihoods of those living nearby.
• Increase tanker traffic and the risk of a spill in B.C.’s ecologically sensitive coastal waters. 

What better way to spend Earth Day then by inspiring awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s natural environment? Mark April 22, 2012 on your calendars, start organizing to hit the streets, rally together and make some noise!

Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares

The Economic Costs and Benefits of the Proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline

BC Office, CCPA
March 21, 2012
PDF HERE.


A new study reviews the economic case for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline (NGP) and casts serious doubt on claims that the pipeline will lead to substantial job creation and other economic benefits.

Enbridge claims that the NGP will create 63,000 person years of employment during the construction of the pipeline, and 1,146 full-time jobs once it’s completed.

“That sounds like a lot of employment, until you start breaking down the numbers,” says Marc Lee, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC Office, and author of Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares: The Economic Costs and Benefits of the Proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.

The study finds that Enbridge’s job creation estimates are based on flawed modeling and questionable assumptions. Estimates assume that workers would otherwise be unemployed, and a large share of the estimated jobs come from induced employment, i.e. the economic impact of expenditures by Enbridge workers and governments. These “induced” impacts are particularly difficult to estimate and notoriously easy to overstate.

Gloves are off in war on greens

BY SUSAN RILEY
The Ottawa Citizen
March 15, 2012

You don’t want to give too much credence to the unhinged accusations of crotchety Conservative senators, but their recent attacks on environmentalists suggest a bold escalation in the government’s anti-green messaging.

At a recent meeting of a Senate committee examining foreign contributions to Canadian charities, Conservative Senator Percy Mockler described some respected environmental organizations — including the Sierra Club and David Suzuki foundations — as “bad, not to mention, ugly.” (“They’re all anti-Canadian,” chimed in Conservative Senator Mike Duffy.)

Senator Don Plett, a former Conservative party president, picked up on a flippant remark from one environmentalist who said he would accept money “from Martians” if it helped preserve B.C.’s pristine coast.

“If environmentalists are willing to accept money from Martians,” Plett said, “where would they draw the line? Would they take money from al Qaeda, the Hamas, or the Taliban?”

Study Finds Tar Sands Has Higher CO2 Emissions Than Thought, Calls Land Restoration Pledge ‘Greenwashing’

By Joe Romm
Climate Progress
Mar 13, 2012

A new study finds the tar sands have yet higher CO2 emissions than expected because of the threat they post to forests and peatlands.

That is no bombshell: Climate Progress has previously pointed out that tar sands development threatens the carbon-rich boreal forests. Now it has been quantified.

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that existing industry plans for exploiting the tar sands will destroy over 29,500 hectares (65%) of local peatland. Peatlands are better known as bogs, moors, mires, and swamp forests. Their decaying organic matter is rich in carbon and already emerging as a major amplifying carbon-cycle feedback.

Keystone XL: Unions Bitterly Divided Over Pipeline

BY SAM HANANEL
Huff Post
03/10/2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unions may be united in working to re-elect President Barack Obama, but their leaders also are trying to repair bitter divisions over his rejection of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Trade unions representing workers who stand to benefit from thousands of new construction jobs from the Keystone XL pipeline are furious at other unions that joined environmentalists in opposing the project.

AFL-CIO leaders hope to smooth tensions at their executive council's annual winter meeting that starts Monday in Orlando, Fla.

New report outlines Canada’s tarred lobbying efforts

Council of Canadians
March 8, 2012

Climate Action Network Canada, in partnership with the NRDC,  Environmental Defence,  Equiterre, Greenpeace and Sierra Club, launched a new report today – Dirty Oil Diplomacy, The Canadian Government’s Global Push to Sell the Tar Sands. I just returned from a breakfast briefing with diplomats here in Ottawa introducing the report which provides hard-hitting evidence of our government’s strategy to promote the tar sands and undermine climate legislation in Europe and the U.S.

Yesterday, in the lead up to the launch of this report, candle light vigils were held outside Canadian missions in more than 20 locations in the U.S. and Canada to voice concern and extend hope that Canada will reverse its international lobbying on behalf of highly destructive and polluting tar sands oil industry. You can see pictures here. The report, which you can download here begins with providing a brief ‘101’ on tar sands and the context of domestic Canadian policy which includes the federal government’s track record of failed climate change legislation policy, declining support for climate science, oil and gas sector subsidies and attacks on First Nations and environmental groups.

On the environment Canada is a rogue state

From Murray Dobbin's Blog 
February 19, 2012

There are so many areas of conventional democratic governance being challenged or eliminated by the Harper wrecking crew it is hard to keep up. In a search for a line in the sand that even this government won’t cross we still haven’t found it. So far, it seems, there is nothing in the broad field of democratic governance (save the military and prisons) that is sacrosanct.

Minimally, all governments take seriously the protection of their citizens; otherwise there is scarcely any point in having one. Yet recent reports reveal that that the Harper government has virtually eliminated monitoring of the ozone layer over Canada. The government has shut down four of five very sophisticated monitoring stations leaving only a single station – at UBC in Vancouver – still gathering information about this critical aspect of our environment.

Harper Deals Threaten Human Rights and the Environment in Canada and China

By Maude Barlow
Council of Canadians
February 9th, 2012

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is basking in the uncritical media reporting of his state visit to China. His “open for business” message has been very well received in Beijing where he has just signed a slew of trade and investment deals in energy, agriculture, and natural resources. Small wonder. The world is running out of conventional energy, land, water, and natural resources. China, as the emerging superpower, needs unfettered and unconditional access to all of these.

What a difference a majority makes! Back when Stephen Harper was in opposition, he scolded the Paul Martin government for soft peddling human rights when it comes to China and promised he would never sell human rights out to the “almighty dollar.” Now, Canada and China have signed a Foreign Investment Protection Agreemen (FIPA) — a powerful tool used by corporations to undermine the public good globally that will be used by Canadian corporations to further their interests in China by taking advantage of the poor labour and environmental standards in that country.