Unions Back Keystone XL Pipeline Threatens Clash With Occupy Movement. TransCanada Corporation announced an agreement with American labor unions supporting the Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Pipeline Project (Keystone XL). The Project Labor Agreement is with the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Laborers International Union of North America, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Pipeline Contractors Association. While the Occupation Movement has realized that Unions and the Labor movement should be their natural allies on certain issues, the realization that many unions have become as willing to work against the best interest of the health, welfare and continued sustainability of their rank-and-file has made it very difficult to establish a healthy working relationship.
UK secretly helping Canada push its oil sands project | Environment. The UK government has been giving secret support at the very highest levels to Canada's campaign against European penalties on its highly polluting tar sands fuel, the Guardian can reveal. At the same time, the UK government was being lobbied by Shell and BP, which both have major tar sands projects in Alberta, and opened a new consulate in the province to "support British commercial interests".
At least 15 high-level meetings and frequent communications have taken place since September, with David Cameron discussing the issue with his counterpart Stephen Harper during his visit to Canada, and stating privately that the UK wanted "to work with Canada on finding a way forward", according to documents released under freedom of information laws. Nasa scientist James Hansen says if the oil sands were exploited as projected it would be "game over for the climate". The vote to approve the European fuel quality regulations takes place on Friday. BP has lobbied ministers, too. To the Last Drop: Canada's Dirty Oil Sands - Part 1.
Jeremy Symons: Tar Sands Oil: New Pipeline Routes, Same Dangers. On June 16 in Washington, Cynthia Quarterman - the government's top official on pipeline safety -- appeared before a committee to urge Congress to update America's pipeline safety laws. Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois cited a rash of recent pipeline spills and asked Administrator Quarterman whether pipeline regulators had evaluated the safety of transporting raw tar sands material from Alberta via pipeline.
"We have not," replied Ms. Quarterman. With the Keystone XL pipeline igniting a groundswell of public opposition against dirty tar sands from Canada, the safety risks of transporting tar sands oil by pipeline are finally ripe for action. The delay in permitting the 1,700 mile Keystone XL pipeline defied all odds and predictions for a project that had long been assumed to be a "done deal.
" The transport of tar sands oil through pipelines is riskier and more dangerous than the transport of conventional oil through pipelines. Spills are happening on both sides of the border. Stop the #Keystone Pipeline #PDX. PROTEST DATE/TIME: Nov. 6th, 2PM The Alberta Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline: “Game Over for the Planet” (Dr. James Hansen, top U.S. climatologist). The Keystone XL would take the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet from northern Alberta 1,700 miles to the Texas Gulf Coast, for export to China and worldwide.
President Obama has EXCLUSIVE authority to stop it, and will decide this fall. Stopping it is the single biggest climate issue we face in 2011. Key Facts: (see - Energy Security: Tar Sands will not Reduce Dependence on Foreign Oil - Gas prices: Keystone XL will increase gas prices for Americans—Especially Farmers - Jobs: TransCanada’s jobs projections are vastly inflated. - Safety: A rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could cause a BP style oil spill in America’s heartland, over the source of fresh drinking water for 2 million people. Proposed is a massive 7 billion dollar pipeline to transport this oil — The Keystone XL. Dr. Mission. Canada oil sands digger uncovers dinosaur.
UK Tar Sands Network (@NoTarSands) sur Twitter. No Tar Sands | Clean Energy President Embraces Dirty, Dangerous, and Expensive Future. One can’t help but feel that Obama is still of a mind to go ahead and OK this dangerous and much-derided plan [the Keystone XL pipline], it is just the Obama 2012 campaign that’s agonizing over how to spin it. Back in 2008, Obama the candidate seemed to understand the threat posed by global warming, and he spoke often of moving away from carbon-heavy fuel sources like tar sands. Now, a good part of what is considered the president’s “base,” it seems, understands that the transcontinental pipeline is not only a danger to farmlands and aquifers, but also a betrayal of a campaign promise. Don’t think this is the dynamic at play? Look at recent administration boasts about such “green” initiatives as raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, or just read Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt in the abovementioned Reuters story: “The president has done more to wean us off of foreign oil and transition the nation to a clean energy economy than any other,” he said.
Almost. UK activists surround miniature White House as pipeline protests go global | No Tar Sands. Rise Up from Nancy Boulicault on Vimeo. Sunday 6th November – For immediate release Activists outside the US Embassy in London surrounded a model of the White House to protest against the proposed US Keystone XL pipeline. Holding banners that read “Obama NO!” And “Tar sands is blood oil”, the action corresponded with 6000 people in Washington DC surrounding the White House to urge Obama to reject the proposed 1600-mile pipeline that would take tar sands oil from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast. [1] “The Keystone XL pipeline would entrench our reliance on a particularly dirty fossil fuel which is devastating communities,” said UK Tar Sands Network campaigner Suzanne Dhaliwal.
“As we speak, First Nations in Alberta are having their way of life destroyed, with forests being clear cut, animals poisoned, and rare cancers now rife in the community. The likely environmental impacts of the pipeline have been vastly downplayed. Notes for editors: OpTarSandZ. 350.org. Emma Pullman | Oil Industry Co-Opts Occupy Movement to Sell the Keystone XL Pipeline.
U.S. Department of the Interior. Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Is Ecocide a Crime? From TIME contributor Joe Jackson: As oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in May 2010, and then CEO Tony Hayward made his infamous statement that he wanted his life back, he likely had little fear of it being taken in a court of law. But that reality could be changing as a movement to make business executives and political leaders legally accountable for environmental destruction gains global momentum. Campaigners are calling for the introduction of a new internationalized law of ecocide – the mass destruction of ecosystems – that would be on a par with genocide and similar crimes against humanity. In late September the Hamilton Group – an NGO promoting sustainable development – staged a mock trial at the U.K.’s Supreme Court. The day-long proceedings saw two fictional oil company execs – played by actors – face three counts of ecocide.
“We took it very seriously,” says jury foreman Huw Spanner, a 51-year-old writer and editor.
SUNCOR. OIL SAND EXTRACTION. SUNCOR. Oil sands protesters are job-killing ‘extremists’: Tory MP | Politics | Canada. By Peter O’Neil OTTAWA — The New Democratic Party is on the side of job-killing “extremists” who engaged Monday in a peaceful anti-oil sands protest on Parliament Hill that included a number of arrests, the Conservative government charged Monday. The broadside came during a long day of protest against the federal government’s support for the oil sands industry, and in particular for TransCanada Corp.’s $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico and Enbridge Inc.’s $5.5-billion pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat, B.C. The attack was also part of a broader campaign by the Tories to paint the official opposition as being in favour of high taxes, hostile to free trade and too close to labour unions and environmentalists. “Mr. Speaker, the NDP members should stop taking the side of the extremists who want to kill Canadian jobs,” said Tory MP David Anderson, parliamentary secretary to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
“Shut down — tarsands!” CENSORED NEWS. Join Us! | OttawaAction.ca. Hundreds gathered on Parliament Hill to say ‘No to Tar Sands’ (Ottawa) – On September 26, hundreds of people from across North America gathered on Parliament Hill for a rally followed by a mass civil disobedience sit-in. Participants responded to a call to action for a large peaceful protest where many risked arrest to tell the Harper government they don’t support his reckless agenda and urge him to turn away from the tar sands and build a green energy future that promotes climate justice, respects Indigenous rights and prioritizes the health of our environment and communities. “It is morally justifiable to risk arrest if you see and witness a crime occurring or about to occur.
We are saying the tar sands industry is unlawful. More than 200 people risked arrest on Parliament Hill in the largest climate-related civil disobedience action in Canadian history. Learn more about the Ottawa Action Sunday September 25 Training will run from 1pm to 8pm on Sunday, September 25 at 55 Laurier Ave.
TarSandsJOBS If You Want It Done Correctly, Why Not. Leda Huta: Keystone Pipeline Could Push Endangered Whooping Crane Into Extinction. If you were to choose a route through which to move toxic, highly corrosive, sludgy crude oil, would you place it on the same narrow corridor used by one of the world's most endangered birds? The Canadian energy company TransCanada did and the Obama administration is on the verge of approving that absurd proposal. Migration Pathway -- From the US Fish & Wildlife Service If approved by the administration, the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline will move a half million+ barrels daily of Canadian crude 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Texas coast as soon as 2013. TransCanada would like the world to believe that their pipeline is relatively safe, claiming just one predicted spill in the first 7 years. Despite assurances by pipeline operators, spills continue.
That doesn't sound safe, particularly not for the one of the most highly endangered birds in the world -- the Whooping crane. Proposed Keystone Expansion Route -- From the U.S. US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY. O'Grady: Canada's Oil Sands Are a Job Gusher. Is the Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline in America's Best 'National Interest?'
Washington - Proponents and opponents of the fiercely debated Keystone XL pipeline agree on at least one point. The next three months will be crucial in bolstering their respective arguments about a proposal to pump Canadian oil sands via a 36-inch pipeline through America's heartland to Gulf Coast refineries. Barely two weeks ago, pro-pipeline contingents were claiming victory and anti-pipeline forces were fuming after the State Department declared that the project would cause minimal environmental harm. But now both sides are girding for the federal government's next step. It requires the State Department to take the lead in determining if Keystone XL is in the national interest. The $7 billion pipeline, a project of Alberta-based TransCanada, would travel 1,702 miles through six states.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promised to say yes or no to the company's application for a presidential permit by the end of the year. Pipeline advocates are still confident they will prevail. Canada’s Oil-Sand Fields Need U.S. Workers, Alberta Minister Says. Unemployed U.S. construction workers should look for jobs in Canada’s oil-sands industry, which faces a shortage of as many as 75,000 positions in the next few years, Alberta Energy Minister Ronald Liepert said. Alberta’s oil sands, the world’s third-largest recoverable reserve of crude, needs workers including electricians and construction staff, Liepert said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York late yesterday. Labor restrictions between Canada and the U.S. need to be eliminated first, he said. “This is one way of solving the unemployment problem,” he said. “I really hope as two countries we can come to some sort of ability to move people back and forth.
If we’re short 50,000 to 75,000 workers there would be no problem finding those workers here in the U.S.” U.S. Alberta faces potential inflation as the oil-sands industry, the largest source of revenue for the province, prepares to almost double production over the next decade, the minister said. Chinese Investment. Energy: Minister of Energy. Oil Addiction. The origins of oil animation - oil - black tides. Logo Design and Name Generator. OttawaAction.ca | Stop The Tar Sands! Join Us This Fall ! | OttawaAction.ca. OIL. Tar Sands Basics. Keystone_XL_Pipeline_Not_Needed_2010-05-07.pdf (application/pdf Object) Tar Sands Pipeline Plan Renews Energy vs. Environment Debate | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 29, 2011.
JEFFREY BROWN: Next: a friendly and safe new source of oil for the U.S. or an environmental disaster waiting to happen? The tar sands of Alberta, in western Canada, are today considered one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a source of crude petroleum known as bitumen. But the extraction of oil there has come with concerns about the environmental impact. And now those concerns have exploded with a plan by the Calgary-based company TransCanada to build a massive pipeline to carry that crude oil deep into the U.S. The proposed Keystone X.L. pipeline would run 1,700 miles through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma on its way to refineries in Texas. Activists are now in the midst of a two-week protest at the White House. A final decision to allow or reject the pipeline will come from Secretary of State Clinton and ultimately President Obama.
Bill McKibben, why these protests? And the reason is that this is — this tar sands in Alberta is a big deal. So… Of course. Map of US Refineries and Pipelines. 03OTTAWA334. This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available. UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 OTTAWA 000334 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR EB/TPP/BTA EB/ESC/ISC (MCMANUS AND ERVITI), WHA/CAN (MASON AND RUNNING), OES/EGC (MIOTKE AND DEROSA), D/HS (OPTICAN) AND PM (MARKOFF) HOMELAND SECURITY FOR EPR (BROWN) DOE FOR INT'L AND POLICY (A/S BAILEY) AND IE-141 (DEUTSCH) DOE PASS FERC FOR KELLY AND LEKANG DOT FOR OFFICE OF PIPELINE SAFETY COMMERCE FOR 4320/MAC/WH/ON/OIA/BENDER PARIS FOR IEA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EPET, ETRD, EINV, CA SUBJECT: CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION IN CANADA'S OIL AND GAS PIPELINE NETWORK SUMMARY/INTRODUCTION -------------------- 1.
(U) This message is sensitive, but unclassified. Please handle accordingly. 2. (U) This message was prepared with assistance from Amconsul Calgary. 3. (U) Critical infrastructure protection is among the areas listed for bilateral action in the Ridge-Manley Smart Border plan. Anonymous - Operation Green Rights - Tarmageddon Phase Two. TarSandsPipeline4pgr. Top NASA climate scientist arrested at White House. By Stephen C. WebsterMonday, August 29, 2011 16:06 EDT One of the nation’s foremost experts on climate change was arrested outside the White House on Monday morning after he joined a protest against a planned Canadian tar sands pipeline.
Dr. James Hansen (pictured), who runs NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was arrested along with 139 other protesters taking part in a series of demonstrations against the planned $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 500,000 barrels of crude per day from America’s neighbor to the north all the way to the Gulf coast of Texas. So far, 521 activists have been arrested since their first protest on Saturday, Aug. 21. Hansen, a 44-year veteran of the nation’s space agency, is perhaps the best-known climate scientist in the world. A U.S. Climate protesters preparing to be arrested on Monday. Proponents argue that the pipeline would bring hundreds of new jobs to the U.S. and help the nation achieve greater energy independence. VIDEO: Tar Sands Action By “Gasland” Director Josh Fox. Montana Women For... Tarsands Nuclear FearZ WikiLeak. No Tar Sands | Sending our love to Washington DC | No Tar Sands. Keystone Pipeline Project. Tar Sands Action. Make Or Break.
Justice for Aboriginal Peoples -- It's time. Oil sands. Breaking: Idaho Residents Arrested Blocking Tar Sands Megaloads Bound for Alberta. Josh Fox for the Tar Sands Action.