Tar Sands

Deconstructing “ethical oil”

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EthicalOil.org is a defense of the Canadian oil sands industry. The argument it makes is that because human rights standards are much better in Canada than in many other oil exporting nations, Canada should be considered a more “moral” source of oil. In fact, the oil from the oil sands is touted as a “fair trade choice.” Once I’d read through the site, it was hard to imagine why the oil sands industry would even want it online. If these people were working for me with the express mission of defending the oil sands, I would fire them.

‘Net Energy’ ignorance reigns on Capitol Hill

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If there is one unshakable belief in America today it’s that the U.S. economy can and must continue to grow. That’s why the messages delivered in November in Washington D.C. at a gathering of oil geologists, scientists, economists and others challenging that core belief went largely unheeded in the nation’s capital. The approximately 300 people who attended the 7th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil–USA (ASPO-USA) in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol were told that economic growth is no longer possible as oil production flattens and declines, that U.S. energy independence is impossible and that domestic shale gas will fall far short of fueling American prosperity even while polluting the nation’s vital aquifers.

Das Blut der Welt (The Blood of the World)

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(In German) Stefan Aust and Claus Richter have created a two part documentary on the history of oil starting with whale oil and the move from conventional oil to unconventional oil. Includes analysis on depletion and geopolitical implications.

Includes interviews with: Colin Campbell, ASPO; Fatih Birol, IEA; Matthias Bichsel, Shell, Alexander Medwedew, Deputy CEO Gazprom; Christof Rühl, Chief Economist BP; Gerhard Schröder former German Chancellor; Martin Winterkorn CEO Volkswagen Group; Dieter Zetsche, CEO Daimler AG.

Two more ethical challenges to Canada’s oil sands

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Since the turn of the century, light oil, the highest quality hydrocarbon, has given civilization extraordinary energy gains and fueled all the trappings of modern life. But the rapid development of bitumen, one of the world’s most expensive and heaviest hydrocarbons, has clearly signaled the end of cheap oil. Like most unconventional fuels, bitumen takes more energy to make than conventional oil. In fact, bitumen production requires so much natural gas for processing and enrichment that it now accounts for one-fifth of Canada’s natural gas demand. The extravagant use of natural gas to produce a lower grade fossil fuel is unprecedented.

Oil Sands: Canada’s 10 ethical challenges

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Canada has joined the ranks of exporting oil nations and now supplies more petroleum to the United States than Mexico or Saudi Arabia. The unconventional character of mined bitumen as well as the startling revenue it generates for government coffers has irrevocably changed the country. Five per cent of the nation’s GDP comes from oil while bitumen makes up 25 per cent of the nation’s exports. As the wild debate about the Keystone XL pipeline illustrates, Canada’s $200-billion energy project has also become a global lightning rod. No oil exporting nation, whether Christian or Muslim, is immune from the corrosive influence of oil money and its dirty politics. Yet Canada has anointed bitumen as the nation’s new “economic engine” without setting clear public policy goals or assessing the economic risks.