Oil prices are going up, food prices too. And so are the number of oil wells being drilled in the US. According to the American Petroleum Institute, more than 17,000 new oil wells were tapped in 2007, the most active pace since 1990. Reuters has reported one such case that signifies changing times. What is … Read More
Oil Shale
Oil Shale: “Many aspects of our lives would be jeopardized”
Oil shale development in the Western US moves a little closer. The Bureau of Land Management released a draft plan last December to mine the oil locked in rocks on federal land Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and gave the public 90 days to comment. Although government officials in western Colorado and eight water companies asking … Read More
Shell’s Oil Sands Squeezed by Rising Costs
Shell’s Canadian oil sands business is suffering a profitability squeeze because of the soaring cost of energy needed to extract bitumen from sand. The oil company’s annual report reveals that operating expenses at the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta have soared by almost 50 per cent in the two years since 2005, while output … Read More
Ed Plays it Tough…
He’s gruff and tough, wears a cowboy hat and won’t be messed around. That’s the image of Alberta’s Premier Ed-the-Earth-Destroyer Stelmach. His message to the World Heavy Oil Conference was that Alberta won’t be pressured by the Canadian federal government into accepting “unreasonable” deadlines for reducing greenhouse gases. [Note: Vote for Ed now as the … Read More
Stelmach Defends Climate-Change Plan
Suddenly Ed-the-Earth-Destroyer Stelmach is hounded everywhere he goes. He was the target of environmental groups that protested outside Canada’s climate change conference in Vancouver. But Stelmach fended off criticism over his government’s new climate-change strategy that won’t see absolute greenhouse gas reductions until 2020. Stelmach warned that implementing dramatic emissions reductions in Alberta similar to … Read More
Albertans “Hooked on” Oil Sands
A survey in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper makes interesting reading on Alberta’s growing love affair with oil sands, even though they know it is causing immense damage. “They love all the jobs that the pay dirt has created and the handsome quality of life it has bestowed. They say these things, like any honest … Read More
Oil Sands in the Lower 48
For those worried about oil sands development in Alberta in Canada and what they will do to the climate and environment, they might also have to start worrying about events closer to home. Analysts say the lower 48 U.S. states contain enough heavy crude oil deposits to power the economy for several years.
US Congress says no to tar sands (quietly)
Here’s one that somebody missed. Apparently Section 526 of the Energy Bill signed into law by Bush less than a month ago stated that the U.S. government would not purchase transportation fuel from nonconventional petroleum sources that have higher life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from production and combustion than equivalent conventional fuel. That means that the … Read More
SEC Re-examines Oil Sands Reserves
Interesting move this one, which could far-reaching implications for both the oil majors and the climate as it could make it easier for people to invest in oil sands. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at putting Alberta’s oil sands reserves on the same footing as conventional crude oil.
And Happy Xmas to Big Coal as Well..
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 reduce … Read More