The oil sands in northern Alberta are crucially important to the Canadian economy. People from all over the country are traveling there to find work. The news is filled with controversy over proposed pipelines (the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway) to carry the oil to export markets. Here are 10 things everyone should know about the oil sands. Words: 878
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. By now, Peak Oil was supposed to be a fact of daily life. People were supposed to be lined up at gas stations, struggling to buy US$10-a-gallon gas. Solar and wind companies were supposed to occupy prominent places on the Big Board instead of going out of business right and left. People were supposed to have diminished expectations – resigned to shivering in the dark. Free markets, a flawed system of commerce, were to be exposed as a misleading theoretical construct, incapable of providing for people’s needs…The world was running out of resources…Now, suddenly, there is a different tale to tell and the New York Times is up to the task. Up and down the Americas, we learn, there is an Oil Boom. Suddenly, we have gone from enforced austerity to an unheralded plenty. Middle East, watch out! [But all is not as it seems. Let me explain.] Words: 1440
In a recent article called There Will Be Oil in the WSJ, Daniel Yergin once again attempts to debunk the concept of peak oil and sees global production capacity growing to 110 mmbpd by 2030, followed by slow decline. In this short report I take a quick look at his key arguments in an effort to bring further convergence between the peak oil and business-as-usual camps. [Unfortunately, I failed to do so concluding that Peak Oil is still very much with us. Let me explain.] Words: 2032
As the world approaches ‘Peak Oil’ crude oil usage will begin to be rationed more and more and the world will turn to nuclear energy to meets its energy needs. As such, expect both oil and uranium to surpass their previous record levels of US$147 per barrel and US$140 per pound, respectively, within the next 2-3 years. Let me explain why. Words: 1446
A bunch of bobble-heads and tongue-waggers are saying that the recent decline [in the price of crude oil] shows the top is in… [for]this year. Sheesh, gimme some of what they’re smokin’! Words: 1215
When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind: the world’s peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country’s government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee’s tea party. Words: 1377
The carbon footprint left by Canada’s oil sands has been a target of criticism for years with many environmentalists suggesting that the extraction and processing of bitumen from Alberta’s northern oil sands is “two to three times worse” for the environment than any other supply of oil on the planet. Is that legitimate criticism? Words: 692
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