LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quotewhat exactly is there objection to oilsand fuels , its extraction methods...?
and
wtf does that mean?social impacts of the fuels it use
Visit the Archives for U.S. Politics Online -- U.S. Politics Online . net
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
looks like its time for Canadians (those who are not in a stupor from AGW Kool-Ade) to do some boycotting. Hopefully our American friends who like to drive cars will join in.
Time to stop buying anything from The Gap, Timberland, Levis Strauss, and Walgreen. Fuck them.
Four U.S. companies join 'financial war' on oilsands
By BOB WEBER The Canadian Press
Fri, Aug 27 - 4:54 AM
The Gap, Walgreens, Timberland and Levi Strauss will avoid contractors that rely on oilsands fuel. (Jeff McIntosh / CP)
EDMONTON — Another four major U.S. companies are joining the move to either avoid or completely boycott fuel produced from Alberta’s oilsands.
Walgreens, which has 7,500 drugstores across America, is switching fuel suppliers for its delivery trucks to those that don’t make gas from oilsands crude.
"We found that it was a relatively simple process of surveying our vendors, seeing which ones may have tar sands oil sourcing and simply avoiding those vendors," said Walgreen’s spokesman Michael Polzin. "We are in that process right now."
The Gap, Timberland and Levi Strauss have all told their transportation contractors that they will either give preference to those who avoid the oilsands or have asked them what they’re doing to eliminate those fuels.
The move adds to growing international economic pressure on the oilsands industry and the Alberta government to reduce its environmental impact.
"What this signals is the beginning in earnest of the financial war over the tar sands," said Todd Paglia of the environmental group Forest Ethics, which is organizing the campaign.
As well, courier company Federal Express has promised it will consider the environmental and social impacts of the fuels it uses, although it didn’t specifically mention the oilsands.
Polzin acknowledges that Walgreens isn’t using much fuel from the oilsands.
"We had very little exposure to begin with," he said.
But the move fit with the company’s other plans to reduce its carbon footprint, which includes energy-efficient buildings and some solar-powered stores.
It’s also in tune with an American public looking to use its economic muscle to influence corporate policy, said Paglia.
Four U.S. companies join 'financial war' on oilsands - Canada - TheChronicleHerald.ca
BTW, almost everything this Forest Ethics group is saying is bullshit.
President
what exactly is there objection to oilsand fuels , its extraction methods...?
and
wtf does that mean?social impacts of the fuels it use
President
Apparently they are worried about the by-products of the strip-mining process contaminating groundwater and fisheries.Originally Posted by Imperator
Vice President
I don't know if the environmentalists are worried about this, but one thing they do to extract the oil is to drill parallel horizontal holes. They ignite the top hole and it gets hot enough to liquify the oil below it which drips down into the lower hole for easy extraction. In some sense, that doubles the carbon footprint of each drop of oil obtained. Furthermore you can't put a catalytic converter or other scrubber on that kind of process, it's just the same as burning raw oil in the open air. They can also do the same thing by pumping steam through the upper hole, but that also wastes fuel to heat the water.
President
Brexx, I love my Levi jeans. I have several pair that are 10-20 years old and I still wear them. They fit like a glove and just get more comfortable with age. They last.
Boycott Levi Strauss? Hell No!
President
Actually I don't think that the carbon footprint is a major issue here. Most rational environmentalists know that CO2 is beneficial to the environment.
I live in Toledo, Ohio. This is where BP & Husky are in the midst of a billion dollar upgrade of the Toledo facility where they are going to refine the product from the Alberta oilsands. The refinery is on the east-side right in the middle of a heavily populated inner-city neighborhood. The location might have made sense when the refinery first opened nearly a century ago, but I think we would be better off if it was moved outside of the city. The risk of a catastrophic accident or sabotage is too great these days.
Last edited by hairballxavier; 08-28-2010 at 02:13 AM.
Secretary of Defense
The oil sands require a lot of heat to extract the heavy oils from the sands. It takes something like one barrel of oil to extract two from the ground.
There was a proposal a couple of years ago to build a nuclear power plant to produce electricity to make the heat to do the extraction but I havent heard about that for a while so think that it is not going anywhere.
Also the oil sand extraction is a strip mining type of operation. It has caused a lot of environmental damage in the Fort McMurry area of northern Alberta.
I always find it strange that only reasonable people agree with me.
Has anyone here ever been to the oil-sands? I have; I have a client in Ft. McMurray, and have made the drive from Edmonton to Ft. Mac more times than I care to count.
I think people should be boycotting the Province until they can do something about the road that leads into Ft. Mac. There have been some upgrades and widening but, for the most part, it's still a dangerous, shitty drive...
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
They whine about a lot of things - destruction of the boreal forest, contamination of the river, etc, but mostly it comes down to CO2. They have to burn Natural gas to produce the heat required to extract the oil from the sand, so there are more CO2 emissions per barrel than conventional oil.
The land will be reclaimed when the mining is done, and as for the river, oil has been seeping into that river for centuries. The Indians used it to waterproof their canoes.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
I won't be throwing away my Levis either, but I won't buy any new ones.
I have no respect for a company that will join in a fear-mongering campaign to gain sales at the expense of other people's livelyhood.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
I lived in Edmonton for years and worked in the patch but have never been to Ft Mac. Heard about the road tho. People I knew who worked there always flew in and out.
Vice President
If these morons keep making the cost of energy artificially high, it will be very easy to boycott.
Vice President
Don't you realize that poisonous gases or a giant fire are good for us? you irrational liberal.
President
You cannot reclaim the wetlands and you cannot reclaim old growth forest. It's impossible. Even the industry itself admits this. The only reclamation project so far has resulted in lawn, a few trees, and some park benches. The ecosystem has not returned and it never will.
Yes, it is true that there is a natural concentration of toxins (not oil) in the river because the Athabasca oil sands are fairly unique in their relative proximity to the surface.
A study just came out from the University of Alberta that shows the toxins in the river are above natural levels and accumulating.
Oil sands polluting Canadian river system: study | Canada | Reuters
This is only one concern, amongst many. The social costs are huge. I deal with them every day. Transient workers who don't give a shit about the province, drugs, prostitution, elevated cancer levels, birth defects, murder, etc.. Fort McMurray is certainly the most disgusting place that i have ever seen in Canada, and it effects the entire region.
The other problem is the toxic tailing pools. These things are massive. They leak, they kill thousands of migrating birds every year, and if one ever failed or was attacked it could seriously harm one of the biggest fresh water sources on the planet.
Another issue: Oil Sands are only feasible & profitable if oil is ~ the $50 USD mark. It almost certain that oil will drop below that price eventually, and then the industry just up and leaves. This means thousands of unemployed, massive subsidies and begging of these industries to stay, (we already have a huge deficit in alberta) and they leave all the damage behind and the citizens are responsible for it.
Fuck them.
CO2 is a minor problem compared to all this as it represents a minuscule amount of the total global emissions. But many in Canada want to move away from a carbonized economy and we really can't stand to see this nightmare project expanded.
As for the boycott. Who the fuck cares, it never works anyway.
And fuck the oil sands, i want them out. And im from Alberta.
Andrew
...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.
-- Derrick Jensen
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks