Tar Sands

August 10, 2016, BELLINGHAM,, Wa,, USA - No new applications to ship unrefined fossil fuel through Cherry Point can be approved for at least the next two months after Whatcom County Council passed an emergency moratorium Tuesday night, Aug. 9.

The council unanimously passed the moratorium to address concerns about potential public health and safety risks that could come with the increased transportation of unrefined fossil fuels, such as crude oil traveling by rail through the county to two refineries at Cherry Point.

July 30, 2016 - 

It’s been a full 10 days since a Husky Energy pipeline spewed 250,000 litres of heavy oil and diluent into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone, Sask.

"TransCanada's Energy East proposal is truly Keystone XL on steroids," says Natural Resources Defense Council

The pipeline giant TransCanada, stymied in its attempt to drive Keystone XL through America's heartland, is facing renewed opposition to its "new and equally misguided proposal" to build the Energy East pipeline across Canada and ship tar sands oil via tankers along the U.S. East Coast to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. 

If it's ever built, a $22 billion oil refinery in Kitimat would be Canada's largest

July 27, 2016 -  Share:B.C. newspaper owner David Black thinks Canada should be refining its oil, not shipping it offshore.

Will the federal Liberal government put up a $10 billion loan guarantee for David Black’s proposed $22 billion low-carbon refinery in Kitimat?

That is just one of the financing issues the B.C. newspaper magnate needs to resolve if he is to succeed in building what he says would be Canada’s biggest – and the world’s cleanest – oil refinery.

July 19, 2016 - Tradespeople at Cenovus Energy Inc.’s two major oil sands projects are trying to unionize and its top executives are fighting back, arguing that a collective agreement would not shield workers from layoffs as the economy slumps, according to an internal company memo.

Unifor, which says it is Canada’s largest private-sector union, is in talks with employees at Cenovus’s Christina Lake and Foster Creek projects. The company rolled out a multifaceted response to the campaign in June, urging employees to reject the pitch.

July 14, 2016 - TransCanada Corp. joined hands with construction unions on Thursday to demonstrate support for its Energy East pipeline project, which goes to public hearings next month.

At a ceremony in a union training facility in Ottawa, TransCanada chief executive officer Russ Girling signed an agreement with four unions committing to employ their members in the $15.7-billion project – assuming that it receives federal approval two years from now.

[One webpage editor's note: Three items below - Tzeporah Berman's new position in Alberta, 'astroturfing'  by some US unions, and the promoters of a bitumen refinery who include the then-President of  the paperworkers union I was a member of for years.]

The surprising composition of Alberta’s new oilsands GHG advisory group

by JNW staff, jwenergy.com, July 14, 2016

Canada's oil sands production will grow by 1 million barrels daily in the next decade above the current output of about 2.75 million barrels, driven mostly by the expansion of existing facilities rather than new projects, a new reports shows.

According to global consulting firm IHS Energy, the roughly 42% production increase will help Canada remain among the world’s largest oil suppliers.

June 30, 2016 - The Federal Court of Appeal has quashed the federal government's Enbridge pipeline decision.