Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
This much we know: The fossil fuels that power our economy take their toll, on workers, on the environment, and on those who live near areas of extraction, transportation, processing, and burning—which, these days, is a whole lot of people.
The derailment and explosion of a shale oil train in Canada highlights desperate attempts by refineries along the US/Canada East coast to offset the conventional oil peak of Atlantic basin producers who traditionally supplied them with Brent type crude.
“We don’t want the unconventional fuel industry to gain a foothold on the Colorado Plateau,” said Taylor McKinnon of Grand Canyon Trust. “The U.S. unconventional fuel carbon bomb is bigger than Alberta’s."
The Mackenzie River Basin, which occupies and protects one-fifth of Canada’s fresh water, could be severely destabilized by climate change as well as unbridled resource extraction, including hydraulic fracturing, hydro dams and oil sands mining.
An analysis of jet fuel alternatives that could be viable in the next decade.
•Oil guru says US shale revolution is ‘temporary’ •A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit •Analysis – Oil executives tune out the call of the wild Arctic •The delayed oil impact of the ‘Arab spring’
As we work down the hydrocarbon pyramid, energy gets messier and much more costly. Latest in a series.
The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, would travel straight through sensitive watersheds, temperate rainforests, and millennia-old communities of First Nations peoples.
If the Arkansas spill is upsetting not for its relative scale, it might be for its proximity to…well, where we live.
In fact, God has hammered out a whole lot of plans. He has plans for me and you and everyone we know. His plans range from dinosaurs to pussycats, from Godzilla to Hello Kitty. Oh my heck, He even has plans for gun violence and rape pregnancies. So is it any surprise at all that He has a plan for that liquid solar energy that powers human civilization? Yes, God has a plan for oil.
•Everything You Need to Know About the Exxon Pegasus Tar Sands Spill •Tar-sands oil spills in Arkansas and Minnesota •Oil spills disastrous for public relations •A train derailing, spilling 30,000 gallons of oil is still not a reason to build Keystone XL pipeline
Governments and financial analysts who think unconventional fossil fuels such as bitumen, shale gas and shale oil can usher in an era of prosperity and energy plenty are dangerously deluded, concludes a groundbreaking report by one of Canada’s top energy analysts.
