And its Happy Xmas to Big Coal too. Britain plans to build eight new coal power stations as part of the country’s efforts to address its looming energy crisis.
Although it is an early Christmas present to Big Coal, it will completely undermine the Bali agreement on climate change and discredit Britain’s efforts to […]

Anyone who read yesterday’s blog on oil sands will know it’s a fuel with serious ecological and social problems. Well, Canadian oil sands producers should brace for further bad news - this time from south of the border.
David Pumphrey, a former official in the Department of Energy and now a senior fellow at the Centre […]

People concerned about the environmental and social downside of the tar sands boom, should read the Guardian today, with a long feature on the “dark side” of  the frontier town of Fort McMurray, which is an oil sands boom town – going from a “a small town becoming a major city, and a major economic […]

Stupid Idea number two. Good article by Dan Woynillowicz from World Watch on the growing importance of Canada’s tar sands, especially to the US. If you thought coal to oil (see blog below) was stupid, tar sands is much worse.
The United States has its hopes pinned on Canada’s “tar sands” for North American security in […]

Interesting story from the Globe and Mail about new techniques being used to exploit Alberta’s oil sands which offer a “potential sea change in how Canadian companies wring energy from the ground.”
Most companies have traditionally pumped steam into their reservoirs to move the putty-like oil deposits, a process called steam-assisted gravity drainage, but this consumes […]