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Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in the midst of an official visit to China. His mission? To convince Beijing’s mandarins to buy Canada’s Alberta oil sands hydrocarbon production, now that Republican Congressional overreach has effectively sidelined the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to transit the oil to U.S. Gulf of Mexico refineries, for the foreseeable future. Harper faces an uphill struggle, as China is questioning the delays in implementing the Northern Gateway pipeline, to transit Alberta’s oil to Canada’s western coast for transshipment to China. Complicating the picture, Harper has a weak hand of cards, and both he and...

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/billionaire-boondoggle/1428210002001

The US Bureau of Land Management published a draft programmatic environmental impact statement and possible land use amendments for federally administered oil shale and tar sands acreage in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. It also opened a 90-day comment period on the proposals on Feb. 3. The draft PEIS analyzes several land allocation and resource management alternatives, the US Department of the Interior agency noted. It said if it decides to adopt the preferred alternative, 461,965 acres would be available for research and development of oil shale (35,308 acres in Colorado, 252,181 acres in Utah, and 174,476 acres in Wyoming), and...

The Bureau of Land Management on Friday proposed scaling back a George W. Bush-era plan for development of oil shale and tar sands on Western lands, drawing the ire of Republicans and industry groups. The plan would reduce the available acreage for oil-shale and tar-sands development by about three-fourths in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming in an attempt to protect environmentally sensitive areas. It also would pull back the Bush-era proposal to make oil-shale leases available for commercial development, instead continuing to lease them only for research-and-experimentation purposes. BLM announced last year it would redo the Bush-era plan as part of...

The latest chapter in Canada’s quest to become a full-blown oil superpower unfolded this month in a village gym on the British Columbia coast. Here, several hundred people gathered for hearings on whether a pipeline should be laid from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific in order to deliver oil to Asia, chiefly energy-hungry China. The stakes are particularly high for the village of Kitamaat and its neighbors, because the pipeline would terminate here and a port would be built to handle 220 tankers a year and 525,000 barrels of oil a day. But the planned Northern Gateway Pipeline...

The global warming apocalypse and its Elmer Gantry, Al Gore, may have faded from public view lately, but that old-time green religion is still making mischief. President Obama has just delayed until after November’s election a decision on the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline. This truly shovel-ready project would create thousands of blue-collar jobs, help hold down the price of gasoline, and lessen our dependence on oil imported from thugs like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The administration’s excuses for this move are preposterous. The State Department sniffed that it needs more time “to determine whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the...

The Obama administration finally pulled the trigger on a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, and while very few were surprised at the President’s thumbs-down, many were disappointed. The proposed line, which would actually be a twinning/extension of an existing one, would take raw bitumen from Alberta’s abundant oil sands down to the Gulf Coast of Texas to be refined. The arguments have all been played out on both sides of the issue. Anti-oil sands environmentalist groups, backed by outspoken yet unknowledgeable (and hypocritical) eco-celebs grabbed the media spotlight with their protests. Pro-groups, including a large portion of Obama’s base...

"It is not in the national interest to lock the United States into supporting an expensive and dirty form of oil for many years to come. Also, additional capacity for tar sands oil perpetuates America's addiction to oil, and undermines the clean energy alternatives that would bring genuine energy security," the NRDC report continues.

The Obama administration is expected to reject the controversial Keystone Pipeline this afternoon, according to Fox News. The State Department is expected to vote against the pipeline this afternoon. Transcanada will however be allowed to reapply with an alternate route going through Nebraska. The administration will be unlikely to approve the pipeline under the timeline for the payroll tax cut extension law which requires a decision by February 21 The project has been extremely controversial for two main reasons. Those in favor of the pipeline point to the 8.5% unemployment rate, and point out that the pipeline could create much-needed...

The controversial Keystone Pipeline will reportedly be denied by President Obama, according to Fox News. The State Department is expected to vote against the pipeline this afternoon. Transcanada will however be allowed to reapply with an alternate route going through Nebraska. com/obama-to-deny-keystone-pipeline-2012-1#ixzz1jpV0l0Mp

Apparently, The One couldn't wait until February after he saw his latest polling score. The Greeniacs clearly have him by the shorts. Will be interesting to see union reaction.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper became the latest stakeholder in the Keystone XL debate to cite Iran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz as one justification for the U.S. to approve the controversial oil pipeline. Harper told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday he thinks it’s “pretty obvious what the right decision is, not just from an economic and environmental standpoint but also from an energy-security standpoint.” “When you look at the Iranians threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, I think that just illustrates how critical it is that supply for the United States be North American,” Harper said....

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is heading to China next month for his second official visit, as his government looks to boost bilateral trade and ship more energy products to the Asian powerhouse. snip The Harper government is looking to increase petroleum exports to China, but those hopes are very much pinned on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project currently under review by the National Energy Board. Public hearings began this week on the pipeline, which would ship oilsands bitumen from northern Alberta to a marine facility in Kitimat, B.C., where oil would be loaded onto tankers for export...

While the green movement naively harbours hopes it will be able to shut down unconventional oil and gas development, in Saudi Arabia they are already contemplating a time when North American fossil fuel will replace their oil. Looking past the din of protesters, state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco is resigned to the fact that its influence will wane because of the massive unconventional fossil-fuel development underway in North America. As such, Saudi Arabia has no plans to raise its production output to 15 million barrels per day from 12 million, said Khalid Al-Falih, the powerful chief executive of Aramco. “There...

A looming deadline for a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline is ratcheting up political pressure on President Barack Obama, who will anger key supporters regardless of his decision. Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s proposed 1,700-mile pipeline would carry tar-sands crude from Alberta to Texas refineries in Port Arthur and Houston. It appeared late last year that the administration had found a way to delay the permitting decision past this year’s election. But the pipeline’s Republican supporters raised the stakes by negotiating inclusion of a 60-day decision deadline as part of the two-month payroll tax cut extension enacted Dec. 23. The Feb....

Through most of 2011, Canadian energy officials in politics and industry watched with bewildered helplessness and some shock as Washington allowed environmentalists to seize control of TransCanada’s $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline issue. They stood by aghast as President Barack Obama, a captive of U.S. green activists and Hollywood movie stars, caved in to political pressure and postponed a decision to approve the project, a potential economic bonanza that promised to deliver thousands of jobs to Americans and billions of barrels of Canadian oil sands production to Texas. No such green hijacking is going to take place in Canada, at least...

CALGARY—Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. said it was selling a 40% stake in one of its oil-sands prospects to PetroChina Co., a move that for the first time will give full ownership of such a project to a Chinese company. Athabasca is selling its remaining interest in the MacKay River project in northern Alberta to PetroChina for C$680 million, or US$666 million. In 2010, Athabasca sold 60% stakes in MacKay and a separate development, Dover, to PetroChina for C$1.9 billion. … Canada holds the world's third-largest reserves of oil. Most of those are oil-sands—essentially a mix of bitumen and quartz sand—located...

I was part of the Footloose generation. I used to shake my ass to the theme song countless times at junior high school dances, and have followed your career with some interest through the years (full disclosure: Tremors is still my favorite Bacon flick). How disappointing it was then to read this morning of your recent slide into the cult of EnviroCelebs regarding the protesting of Alberta’s oil sands and their associated proposed Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines. We as Albertans are used to seeing certain celebrities getting face time in front of the camera protesting against our energy...

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp exercised its option to sell its 40 per cent stake in the MacKay River oilsands project to a unit of PetroChina for C$680 million to focus on developing other projects. The Calgary-based company reiterated its production guidance of 8,000-10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by the end of this year, but cut its capital budget by about C$190 million as a result of the sale. It had planned to spend C$203 million of its capital budget of C$700 million on the Mackay River project. Athabasca plans to use the proceeds to further its strategy...

Enbridge Inc. has received regulatory approval for its Bakken Pipeline project, adding much needed capacity out of the prolific and pipeline-constrained U.S. play. The $180-million pipeline will move crude from the Bakken and Three Forks formations in Montana and North Dakota to Cromer, Man., via a new pump station at Steelman, Sask. “We’re pleased to receive the board’s approval of our Canadian Bakken project and to be able to move forward with this component of our broader expansion plans in the Bakken in both Canada and in North Dakota,” Perry Schuldhaus, Enbridge vice-president of regional pipeline development, said today. “The...

The Colonial has seen it all. The retired United States Air Force pilot and war veteran has always had a keen interest in politics, with an opinion on almost any issue at the ready. Against stereotype, he isn’t a ‘blind right winger’ – as evidenced in his claim that he has voted for a Democrat for president “…several times when they were the best choice.” “Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Reagan, they all had their good qualities and ideas. Even Clinton had a couple of good days,” he said with a chuckle. “Of course, there were the others. Like Carter.” International issues...

Amid growing suggestions the U.S. State Department will delay or potentially reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline, oilsands executives counting on ramped up exports of bitumen said Thursday there are other options. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. president Steve Laut said oilsands producers could pursue other markets, if the U.S. denies a presidential permit needed for construction of the proposed 2,700-kilometre crude oil pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. CNRL has 120,000 barrels per day “locked up on Keystone for 20 years,” said Laut, who’s betting on U.S. approval. That’s about one-fifth of the company’s current total production of...

Norway’s Energy Minister is backing Canada in its fight with the European Union over a fuel-quality directive that discourages the use of oil sands bitumen, saying the world needs more Canadian crude production. The minister – who represents the minority Centre Party in a Labour-led coalition government – has battled Norway’s green movement since taking over his portfolio in March. And he is sure to provoke more anger with his support for Canada’s oil sands and Statoil ASA (STO-N25.620.753.02%)’s investment in Alberta fields, which have become a key target of environmental activists in North America and Europe.

Any American watching cable TV over the past few months can hardly fail to have noticed the seemingly ubiquitous advertisements extolling the virtues of extracting oil from Canadian oil sands, which the commentators assure their audience has a carbon footprint largely comparable with traditional fossil fuels, and which, if developed will provide not only millions of new jobs but billions of dollars for governments as well as energy security by weaning the Western Hemisphere off its addiction to terrorism-tainted Middle East oil. But don’t break out your checkbook just yet. Apparently those pesky Eurocrats in Brussels haven’t gotten the message,...

Every once in a while, when reality is looked squarely in the eye, pragmatism wins over blind idealism. There are billions of dollars in the oilsands of Alberta, and no right-thinking government is going to leave that resource untapped and deprive its citizens of a wealth that will benefit their collective lives for generations. That's the reality. This undoubtedly was driven home when British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Ottawa last week for, no sooner had he left Prime Minister Stephen Harper's side, than his high commissioner to Canada was looking reality in the eye and letting oilsands pragmatism prevail....

Maybe Hubbert’s Peak isn’t the tallest mountain after all. North American oil production will hit a new all-time high by 2016 given the current pace of drilling in the U.S. and Canada, according to a study released by an energy research firm this week. U.S. oil production in areas like the Permian Basin, the Eagle Ford, Bakken and others will rise by a little over 2 million barrels per day between 2010 and 2016, according to data compiled by Bentek Energy, a Colorado firm that tracks energy infrastructure and production projects. It’s a reversal of the steady downward production trend...

Imagine you threw a party and no one showed up. That’s how members of the environazi movement must feel after Monday’s anti-oil sands protest at the Parliament grounds in Ottawa. Billed as ‘the biggest environmental demonstration in Canadian history’ with thousands of protestors expected to attend, what actually resulted were a few hundred people showing up. In theatrical terms, the show was a flop. The media, instead of filling the papers and televisions with reports of a massive protest, is instead dissecting the failed event with numerous theories as to what happened. Gang Green must also be wondering. Someone forget...

“I think nuclear has a role to play in the exploitation of Canada’s oilsands resources,” said AECL president and chief executive Hugh MacDiarmid during a presentation at the Global Business Forum. “The nuclear industry and the oilsands industry need to get together and find a solution that works and be part of that dialogue ... I remain convinced that nuclear can be a very important of the long-term exploitation of that resource.” However, Murray Edwards, vice-chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., which opened the 110,000 barrel per day Horizon mine and upgrader near Fort McMurray in 2009, said in an...

A commercial by the non-profit organization Ethicaloil.org which calls out Saudi Arabia for their human rights and woman's rights record has drawn the ire of the Arab kingdom. The ad makes the point that it is more 'ethical' to get oil from a source located in a free, open and democratic society like the Alberta oil sands than it is to fund oppressive Arab states to the tune of billions. With a stunning encroachment on Canada's sovereignty and an attempt of foreign censorship, the nation that was home to the majority of 9/11 hijackers and the birthplace of Usama bin...

A non-profit group has managed to enrage an entire kingdom, put an army of lawyers to work, and make the front page of newspapers across Canada. All thanks to a television ad which states facts, and posits a choice between one product produced “ethically” and the other “unethically”. The ethical product is Canadian oil sands crude, while the unethical stuff flows from the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. As the ad points out, Saudi doesn’t allow women to drive, leave their homes without a male guardian present, and values their court testimony at half that of a man. As a...

Saudi Arabia has hired lawyers to threaten Canadian broadcasters who dare to run a TV ad critical of Saudi conflict oil. I know this because I am the volunteer chairman of EthicalOil.org, the non-profit website that promotes Canada’s oilsands as an ethical alternative to the conflict oil of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC dictatorships. Alykhan Velshi, who runs EthicalOil.org, produced a 30-second TV ad comparing the treatment of women in Canada with the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. That’s a place where women can’t drive, can’t vote and can’t even get medical care without the permission of their husbands/owners....

Ten Reasons Why the Keystone Pipeline Will Be BuiltObama can't afford to oppose this commonsense measure. Over the past two weeks or so, several hundred protesters assembled outside the White House to oppose the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to transport bitumen produced from oil sands in Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast. During the protest, actor Daryl Hannah, climate scientist James Hansen, and author and activist Bill McKibben were among some 1,200 people who were arrested. The protesters are hoping that President Obama will block the $7 billion pipeline. Their rationale: The pipeline will result in...

TransCanada’s Keystone XL project is taking on a life form of its own as environmentalists, politicians and B-list entertainers put the heat on President Barack Obama to block the planned 500,000 barrels per day pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Texas Gulf Coast. It’s turning into a test of wills with no precedent in more than four decades since the battle over the trans-Alaska oil pipeline system. Demonstrations against XL flared up outside the White House, with more than 500 arrests over the past month. Galvanized by an August U.S. State Department report that essentially came up empty...

When it comes to energy, America is lucky to be next to Canada, whose proven oil reserves are estimated by Oil and Gas Journal at 175 billion barrels. This ranks just behind Saudi Arabia (260 billion) and Venezuela (211 billion) and ahead of Iran (137 billion) and Iraq (115 billion). True, about 97 percent of Canada's reserves consist of Alberta's controversial oil sands, but new technologies and high oil prices have made them economically viable. Expanded production can provide the U.S. market with a growing source of secure oil for decades. We would be crazy to turn our back on...

Capitol Hill opponents of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline are attacking the State Department’s finding that the proposed project will cause minimal environmental harm if managed properly.The State Department’s conclusion in an environmental analysis released Friday is a crucial step toward final federal approval of the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would bring crude from Alberta’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.But the finding isn’t sitting well with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who called the analysis flawed, alleging the State Department failed to “adequately asses the real environmental impact.” The pipeline would run through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and...

The State Department today removed a major roadblock to a planned $7 billion oil pipeline from western Canada to the Texas coast in a report that says the project is unlikely to cause significant environmental problems during construction or operation. The thousand-page report on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline says no significant problems have emerged since a similar report was issued last year. Calgary-based TransCanada wants to build a massive pipeline to carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta to refineries in Texas. The pipeline, which would travel through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, would...

From Simon Black of Sovereign ManMarc Faber: Don’t Store Your Gold In The United StatesAs usual, the CNBC hosts were completely dumbfounded.Phoning in from Sao Paulo, Brazil, investment guru Marc Faber was a guest on CNBC last week, once again telling the unvarnished truth about the state of the world economy and bankrupt western nations.This time, Faber had a very clear message: that everyone should own *physical* gold… and what’s more, they should store it outside of the United States: “I prefer if investors hold physical gold in a safe deposit box, ideally outside the US, in various locations…...

A controversial proposal to build a massive underground pipeline to carry 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas has become the environmental issue of the summer, pitting developers and labor unions desperate for construction jobs against environmentalists and Native American tribes who fear the pipeline will spell environmental disaster. TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL project would consist of more than 1,700 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipe, about 327 miles of which would be in Canada while the rest would snake southward through the central United States. Because the pipeline would...

The oil industry is hoping support from organized labor — and the promise of 20,000 construction jobs — will help convince the Obama administration to sign off on a pipeline that would transport crude oil harvested in Alberta, Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. Industry leaders teamed up with organized labor today to tout the projected economic benefits of the project, which is fiercely opposed by environmental advocates. “With the U.S. economy still struggling, nothing is more important than jobs, and construction of the pipeline would mean massive numbers of them,” said American Petroleum Institute Refining Issues Manager Cindy Schild in...

Fort McMurray, Alberta—This is the second dispatch from my oil sands tour. The first dispatch yesterday focused on the oil sands mining. After our Suncor oil sands mine tour, our band of flacks and hacks were bussed back to our motel for cocktails and dinner with various Canadian oil sheiks, including Alberta’s Minister of Energy Ronald Liepert, TransCanada Pipeline vice president Robert Jones, and ConocoPhillips Canada senior vice president Nick Olds, among others. In the fashion of such tours, we sat around a conference table listening to the concerns of our hosts, which in this case, mostly involved activist opposition...

Fort McMurray, Alberta—Standing on the edge of the immense and spectacular pit of an oil sands mine for the first time last week, I was surprised by a sense of exhilaration. Later, seven stories up, equipped with earplugs, and clad in bright blue overalls, I marveled at the cascades of black bitumen froth bubbling over the sides of a separation cell like a giant witch’s cauldron. The scale of the enterprise and the sheer ingenuity involved in wresting value and sustenance from the hands of a stingy Mother Nature provoked in me a feeling close to glory. Yet as I...

Having just finished a three part series on Canadian oil sands, I’ve been paying particular attention to how both the American media and our politicians approach the subject. Of course, I can usually rely on the steady, conservative outlets to give a fair hearing to the subject, such as this one. Wait a minute… this is from the editorial board of the Washington Post???? TO ANY ENVIRONMENTALLY conscious American, building the Keystone XL oil pipeline doesn’t sound like a great deal: a new pipeline that would transport dirty tar sands crude from Canada, over the Great Plains and to the...

A 4-by-8-mile pit deep in the wilderness of northwest Canada is taking center stage in America’s energy debate. The Athabasca tar sands in Alberta Province is the largest mine in what is the second largest oil reserve in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia. The United States gets 20 percent of its imported oil from Canada, about half of it coming from the vast Athabasca tar sands. And now there are plans to more than double the oil sands production and pipe nearly all of the oil through a new pipeline that would take it to refineries in Texas. Recovering...

Fans of the “all of the above” theory of American energy policy are well aware that we need to be exploring every possible avenue of resources to meet demand in the 21st century. When it comes to oil, most of us think of sweet crude, with gushers coming up out of the ground. Unfortunately, while we have some here in North America, a lot of it sits under countries which don’t exactly have America’s best interests at heart, and it’s not going to last forever. But there are vast deposits of other types in the world, including huge reserves of...

<p>Workers at Syncrude Canada's oil sands North Mine in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Canada's oil sands contain the world's third-largest proven concentration of crude oil reserves.</p> <p>EDMONTON, Alberta—In a 21st-century oil boom, this sparsely populated Canadian province has become one of the world's newest petroleum powerhouses. Foreign investors are piling in, and Alberta plans to double production over the next decade.</p>

An OPEC billionaire has publicly said what everyone long suspected, but just hadn’t heard out loud before: Saudi Arabia doesn’t want the world to develop unconventional sources of oil, like Canada’s oilsands. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the world’s 26th richest man, worth more than $19 billion, told CNN he’s worried if oil prices stay around $100 a barrel, the West will look for other sources of oil and Saudi Arabia would lose its dominant position. “We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives,” he said, “because, clearly, the higher the price of oil goes, the more they...

A controversial $13-billion pipeline project originating in Hardisty, Alta., will accelerate U.S. addiction to Canadian oil, says a newly-released report from Natural Resources Canada. "The Keystone XL project is seen as both furthering U.S. dependence on oil, and enabling more oilsands crude to enter the U.S. market," said the document, released through access to information legislation. The document, which assessed the ongoing debate about the project in the U.S., noted a growing opposition that was stalling the U.S. State Department from issuing the presidential permit required to authorize the project. "Although the Keystone XL pipeline was certificated in Canada in...

Alberta will rake in $842 million from its largest sale of oil and gas drilling rights on record — including a whopping $107 million for a 7,900-hectare licence northwest of Red Deer. Alberta Energy reported Wednesday afternoon it had sold leases or licences on 271,000 hectares at an average price of $3,100 per hectare. The sale almost doubles the provincial take — in nine sales through May, it had raised $902 million at just $694 per hectare — and puts it on track to beat the record of $2.39 billion set in 2010. Energy Minister Ronald Liepert said the injection...

Work resumed at Imperial Oil’s oilsands site north of Fort McMurray on Tuesday as an enormous fire continued to burn out of control nearby. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development reported the fire was 284,000 hectares on Monday and was burning within a few kilometres of Imperial Oil’s Kearl site. Firefighters are using heavy equipment to construct a fire guard, while 438 workers are fighting the blaze. Imperial Oil halted work at the main Kearl site on Monday, the third time in just over a week it had taken the precautionary move. A company spokesman could not be reached on Tuesday, but...

Democratic U.S. lawmakers have asked Congressional panels to look into whether Koch, an energy company led by brothers who are powerhouses in conservative politics, will benefit if the Obama administration approves a $7 billion pipeline to bring crude from Canada into the United States. U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman and Bobby Rush wrote a letter on Friday to Republicans chairing the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and one of its subcommittees, asking them to request documents from Koch Industries regarding the extent to which the company would benefit if the Keystone XL oil sands line would be built. Privately held...