Worst floods in Alberta history spread as water subsides in oil hub of Calgary – PM Harper: ‘I never imagined you could have a flood of this magnitude in this part of the country’

By Edward Welsch; Editing by Dan Stets 24 June 2013 CALGARY (Bloomberg) – The worst flooding in Alberta’s history spread to new parts of the province as water levels began to subside in Calgary and other southern Alberta cities hit this weekend by rain-swollen rivers. Evacuation orders were issued to towns north and east of […]

Graph of the Day: World remaining oil reserve estimates by political and technical sources, 1920-2012

By Jean Laherrere16 May 29013 (tribune-pic-petrolier.org) – It is well known that OPEC reserves were inflated after the 1986 oil counter chock, because the fight on quotas mainly based on reserves. Over 1986-89, 300 Gb of “political” reserves were added (not involving extra-heavy (XH) oil). This was confirmed by the former Aramco VP Sadad al-Husseini […]

Flaring emissions rise in Alberta’s oil sands as rules lag – ‘The economics for conserving gas just doesn’t seem to be there’

By Jeremy van Loon 17 June 2013 (Bloomberg) – In the farming country of northwest Alberta, heavy oil wells are becoming more common than cattle and combines. Along with money and jobs, the boom has brought smells and fumes that are adding to the greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s oil sands. Emissions from flaring, or […]

Hydraulic fracturing fuels water fights in U.S. dry spots – ‘We don't want to look up 20 years from now and say, ‘Oops, we used up all our water’’

By GARANCE BURKE 16 June 2013 SAN FRANCISCO (Associated Press) – The latest domestic energy boom is sweeping through some of the nation’s driest pockets, drawing millions of gallons of water to unlock oil and gas reserves from beneath the Earth’s surface. Hydraulic fracturing, or the drilling technique commonly known as fracking, has been used […]

Arkansas pipeline spill casts shadow over Keystone XL – ‘If it got into a major river, it could create a plume hundreds of miles long’

By Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau5 June 2013 MAYFLOWER, Arkansas – On warm spring evenings, North Starlite Drive buzzed with children. They cycled around the cul-de-sac at the end of the wide, block-long road, shot baskets in driveways and inevitably wound up on the swing set and trampoline behind the Bartletts’ large brick house. These days, […]

Watchdog group calls for U.S. State Dept. investigation into Keystone XL consultant’s conflicts of interest

By Gabriel Elsner 28 May 2013 (Checks and Balances Project) – Yesterday, Checks & Balances Project and 11 environmental, faith-based, and public interest organizations called on Secretary of State John Kerry and the State Department Deputy Inspector General Harold Geisel to investigate whether Environmental Resources Management (ERM) hid conflicts of interest which might have excluded […]

A black 3-story pile of Canada oil waste is rising over Detroit – ‘The dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth’

By IAN AUSTEN17 May 2013 WINDSOR, Ontario (The New York Times) – Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River. […]

Canada government increases advertising spend on tar sands from $9 million to $16.5 million

By Suzanne Goldenberg16 May 2013 (The Guardian) – The Canadian government has nearly doubled its advertising spending to promote the Alberta tar sands in an aggressive new lobbying push ahead of Thursday’s visit to New York by the prime minister, Stephen Harper. The Harper government has increased its advertising spending on the Alberta tar sands […]

Study finds use of dispersants can increase oil penetration into sandy marine sediments

By Keith Bromery 16 May 2013 (FSU) – A Florida State University researcher working as part of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) investigated the effects of dispersants on the movement of crude oil through water-saturated marine sand and found that dispersants potentially facilitate penetration of oil components into the seabed, where oxygen concentrations […]

Leaked papers show UK government will backtrack on tar sands extraction being classified as highly polluting

By Lorna Howarth17 May 2013 (The Ecologist) – The UK government has come under fire this week from both NGOs and scientists for rejecting an EU proposal to classify tar sands under the European Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) as ‘highly polluting’ – despite the fact research has shown that oil produced from the Canadian tar […]

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