Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The abrupt decision by Teck Resources to withdraw its application for the Frontier bitumen mine project reveals a truth that politicians like Jason Kenney and other industry boosters continue to deny — that investing large sums of money in Canada’s oilsands no longer makes any financial sense.
There’s obviously something hideous about watching the Trumps and the Putins of the world gleefully shred our future. But it’s disturbing in a different way to watch leaders pretend to care – a kind of gaslighting that can reduce you to numb nihilism. Trudeau, for all his charms, doesn’t get to have it both ways: if you can’t bring yourself to stop a brand-new tar sands mine then you’re not a climate leader.
Alberta’s major exports these days seem to be piles of misinformation, denial, blame, and propaganda on the state-owned Trans Mountain pipeline.
The Tar Sands Songbook asks us to reconsider our unseen relationships with oil.
A managed decline of the tar sands isn’t a popular idea in Alberta, or in Canada for that matter. The idea of sunsetting the tar sands industry is about as polarizing as it gets. The problem is that people have been led to believe that a managed decline undercuts a booming oil industry that is on the cusp of bouncing back after a few bad years. It’s not. The only real alternative to a managed decline is something much worse: an unmanaged decline.
Proponents call them oil sands while opponents call them tar sands. Whatever they’re called, Alberta’s bitumen reserves are so massive, James Hansen warns that it could be game over for the world’s climate if all are extracted and burned.
Politicians who advocate for more bitumen pipelines and LNG exports are making a "have your cake and eat it too argument" because there is no way Canada can meet its climate change commitments under such a scenario
Is this the beginning of the end for the tar sands juggernaut?
Using the assessment of the Bank of Canada, production of affordable oil at price levels up to $75 has peaked or is at peak since the turning point of 2005. This means that the global economy cannot grow “normally” again.
Without KXL, tar sands are a bad investment. By fighting the pipeline, activists have disrupted the industry’s bottom line.
The Alberta Energy Regulator is 100 per cent funded by industry.
•Who Owns the Arctic •Gazprom’s over-reaction to Arctic oil protest is a sign their fortune is at stake •Canadian Oil Producers May Have A Lot More Riding On The Keystone XL Pipeline Than Transcanada •OPEC oil production update July 2013 •Mexico deputies scuffle in chamber over energy bill •IEA Boosts 2014 Global Oil Demand Forecast on U.S. Recovery •Worst-Case Scenario for Oil Sands Industry Has Come to Life, Leaked Document Shows
