Reports - Dirty Oilsands - A threat to the new energy economy

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Assessing the risks of Kinder Morgan’s proposed new Trans Mountain pipeline

By: Conversations for Responsible Economic Development

We love and value the west coast of British Columbia for its creativity, innovation, quality of life and unparalleled natural beauty. This is why we live, work and own businesses here. We share a common concern around the impact the proposed new Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline would have on the province, and in particular the communities closest to it. The expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, if it goes ahead, would be a rare development project that would inevitably influence the region's economic development path for at least the next 40 years. It would involve a new pipeline running underneath communities from Edmonton to Burnaby and an increased frequency of tanker traffic through the Burrard Inlet and the Salish Sea. However, so far there has been a real lack of public information available about the project. We came together to respond to this concern - our goal is to conduct independent research about all aspects of the Kinder Morgan proposal and share the results with others. We believe that better decisions will be made if there is an open, robust and informed conversation about the project's risks and potential benefits before the approval process any further forward. We invite everyone to participate in the conversation to ensure we are getting all of the facts – before it's too late.

Tagged with: pipeline, kinder morgan, report

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Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands

By: Oil Change International | Lorne Stockman

Published: December 2013

The Canadian tar sands have been called the “most environmentally destructive project on earth", with good reason. Extracting tar sands bitumen from under the boreal forests of Alberta, Canada requires huge amounts of energy and water. It has cleared vast tracts of forest, left scars on the land that are visible from space and threatened the health and livelihoods of indigenous First Nations communities across the region.

Tagged with: tar sands, bitumen, climate, carbon, petcoke

The Bitumen Cliff: Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments for Canada’s Economy

By: Polaris Institute & Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Tony Clarke (Polaris Institute), Jim Stanford (Canadian Auto Workers), Diana Gibson (Parkland Institute), Brendan Haley

Published: February 2013

A failure to carefully regulate the Canadian bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Polaris Institute. The study's original, integrated analysis shows that the current bitumen path is creating the double threat: a “staples trap," whereby the faster Canada exports its bitumen, the less diversified, productive and resilient the economy becomes;" and a “carbon trap," which locks Canada into an carbon dependent development path, making the costs of future climate adaptation much more difficult.

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Beneath the Surface

By: Pembina Institute | Simon Dyer, Jennifer Grant, Marc Huot, Nathan Lemphers

Published: January 2013

This report examines some common claims about the environmental performance of oilsands producers and the environmental impacts of oilsands production. Many of the claims included in this document are not false, but they selectively present information to minimize the negative impacts of oilsands production or overstate the positive strides that industry or governments have made toward addressing those impacts. The information presented draws on independent research, public information and expert analysis to put key facts about oilsands production in their proper context.

Tagged with: tar sands, impacts, facts

Financial Liability for Kinder Morgan

By: Living Oceans Society | Wilderness Committee | Georgia Strait Alliance | West Coast Environmental Law

Published: January 2013

This report warns that Kinder Morgan's new Trans Mountain Pipeline proposal represents an exponential increase in the risk of a major marine-based oil spill affecting the Salish Sea's most populous region, including the Cities of Vancouver and Victoria and the Southern Gulf Islands. The report analyses the insurance available to pay for spill response costs and damages caused by such a spill and concludes that Canadian taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as 90 percent of the cost.

Tagged with: pipeline, economy, oil, kinder morgan, spill, insurance, ocean, liability

Point of no return

By: Greenpeace | Ria Voorhar & Lauri Myllyvirta

Published: January 2013

"In 2020, the emissions from the 14 projects in this report –if they were all to go ahead – would raise global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 20% and keep the world on a path towards 5 to 6¬∞C of warming." Burning the coal, oil and gas from these 14 projects would significantly push emissions over what climate scientists have identified as the ‚Äúcarbon budget," the amount of additional CO2 that must not be exceeded in order to keep climate change from spiraling out of control. The mega dirty energy projects in this report range from the development of risky unconventional sources of oil in the tar sands of Canada,in the Arctic, in the ocean off the coast of Brazil, in Iraq, in the Gulf of Mexico and in Kazakhstan, massive expansion of coal mining in China, to large-scale expansion of coal exports from Australia, the U.S. and Indonesia. The magnitude of CO2 from these projects in the next few years would push the climate beyond the Point of No Return, locking the world into a scenario leading to catastrophic climate change and ensuring that we run out of time.

Tagged with: emissions, climate, fossil fuels, threat

Competing in Clean Energy: Capitalizing on Canadian innovation in a $3 trillion economy

By: Pembina Institute | Dan Woynillowicz, Penelope Comette, Ed Whittingham

Published: January 2013

What will it take for Canada to become a clean energy super power? With more than 700 companies, the clean technology sector has emerged as a major driver of innovation and employment growth in Canada. As this industry grows to a projected $3 trillion by 2020, Canadian clean technology companies have the potential to increase their market share from today's $9 billion to $60 billion. Yet Canada currently captures just one per cent of the $1 trillion global clean technology industry and places fifth in clean energy inventions, with its companies securing only two per cent of clean energy patents granted in the United States since 2002. In Competing in Clean Energy we ask nearly two dozen clean energy entrepreneurs, executives, investors and academics about what Canada needs to do in order to compete in the global race for clean energy.

Tagged with: economy, clean energy, green energy, technology

The climate implications of the proposed Keystone XL oilsands pipeline

By: Pembina Institute | Nathan Lemphers

Published: January 2013

To help inform the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, this backgrounder features new analysis showing that producing enough bitumen to fill the Keystone XL pipeline would lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and inhibit Canada's ability to meet its climate targets.

Tagged with: keystone xl, canada, keystone, climate, targets

Crude behaviour: TransCanada, Enbridge, and the Tar Sands Industry’s Tarnished Legacy

By: National Wildlife Federation | Peter LaFontaine

Published: December 2012

Up north of the border, past Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, the planet's biggest carbon bomb is ticking. It's called the tar sands region, and it represents both incredible feats of industry and incredible hubris —Рand potentially the last blow to the fight against global climate change.

Tagged with: enbridge, tar sands, keystone, crude, summary

The facts about greenhouse gas pollution from oilsands development

By: Pembina Institute | Marc Huot and Jennifer Grant

Published: November 2012

This fact sheet provides an overview of how oilsands production and expansion contributes to greenhouse gas pollution and climate change, focusing on few key issues.

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MORE BANG FOR OUR BUCK

By: Blue Green Canada

Published: November 2012

Canada's increasing reliance on the oil sands is not the best strategy for the economy or our environment. This report shows if the $1.3 billion in government subsidies, now given to the oil and gas sector, were instead invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency, Canada would create more jobs: 18,000 more. We also discuss in detail the economic risks of relying increasingly on the volatile oil market.

Tagged with: canada, economy, oil, solar, green energy, growth, job, wind

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