Consumption Drives Oil Sands Industry 

Consumption drives oilsands industry

  Edmonton Journal

July 8, 2010
  Re: "Wasteland not worth oil cash," by Paula Stein, Letters, July 5.

Paula Stein, with due respect, your letter was long on emotion and short on facts. Let me cover your points through fact and science, based on my 35 years in the Alberta energy industry, principally the oilsands.

I do not respond to political adjectives, as that is a cottage industry in Alberta.

But you, me and 30 million other Canadians require energy in all its forms.

Life would be intolerable without gas to heat our homes and oil to gas up our cars and planes and trains.

Do you have a car? If you do, 60 per cent of that fuel is probably from Alberta's oilsands.

Do you shop at the supermarket?

Eighty-nine per cent of all the food on the shelves is brought there by 18-wheeler trucks and trains fuelled by diesel, again largely from the oilsands.

Have you gone on vacation anywhere? Planes don't run on energy bunnies.

Does your house have electricity? Presumably it does, like 99.9 per cent of Albertans' homes. That electricity is generated in most cases by burning coal.

Have you shopped at the hardware store lately? Between 800 and 1,200 items on those shelves originate from oil or its energy equivalent.

You mention "seduction of oil money." We are the seducers. We demand oil. We are banging on the doors of the oil companies to have them bring gasoline to our local service station at a reasonable price.

Every gallon of oil is pre-sold weeks and months ahead of time. It would be great to have a world without fossil fuels, but currently that is utopia. You cannot run a cable from a wind turbine to an 18-wheeler, at least not yet.

As to your comment on "wasteland," I am not sure what you mean, as your comments apply to the entire province. But let me assume you mean the oilsands. I suggest you take a trip to Fort McMurray and the oilsands region to see what is going on.

• Visit the bison trail at Syncrude, where bison are being reared and bred, the first for many years on land that has been reclaimed -- unique for Canada.
• Visit the Science Museum in Fort McMurray (online at www.oilsandsdiscovery.com)
  
  Bitumen naturally occurs along the
  river banks and in the Athabasca River area.
  and arrange a personal tour of the oilsands and learn the facts about reclamation of all of the lands where bitumen is extracted. Learn about the Athabasca River, where explorers Alexander MacKenzie and John Richardson found pelicans and wild birds struggling in the "tar" that was in the crevices of the river rocks. It's written in their journals. The year? 1788. Look at the river where, 323 kilometres upstream from industry, three metres of bitumen layers leach into the river on hot days.
• Learn that the oil did not originate in the Fort McMurray area. Surprised?
• Learn that only one-fifth of the entire oilsands region requires settling ponds. The majority uses an in situ process invented by Roger Butler.
• See Suncor's original settling pond being cultivated for the planting of 600,000 trees.
• And only one per cent of the Athabasca River flow is used for the oilsands process, tested regularly.

The oilsands provides direct and indirect employment for 230,000 Canadians. It keeps Alberta and Canada going. It pays for huge equalization dollars to Ottawa. It pays for Alberta's health care. It eliminated sales tax. That's why business has flocked to Alberta.

It has transformed the lives of Canada's First Nations toward better employment and jobs. On Canada Day, 89 nations flew their flags in Fort McMurray, Newfoundland's "second city."

Alberta's prosperity began with the legendary Hunter crew of Leduc in 1947. Nobody should forget that story.

Are there challenges? Of course. Every scientific endeavour has challenges. But they are solved by scientific facts and not naysayers such as yourself.

Myself and 1,000 others kick-started the oilsands on Sept. 30, 1967. We are proud of the workers who did that. Then we pumped 45,000 barrels per day.

It's now 43 years later. Now we pump 1.49 million barrels per day and growing. Alberta is in good hands. Think positive.

And, I can see my neighbour's Volkswagen from space, too.

Bert MacKay, Oilsands Veterans Association, St. Albert

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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/Consumption+drives+oilsands+industry/3248680/story.html 

Wasteland not worth oil cash

  Edmonton Journal

July 5, 2010
  Re: " 'Bigger issues' than ducks; Syncrude trial 'overpublicized,' Liepert tells Mideast audience," The Journal, July 1.

Ron Liepert, and by extension the Stelmach government, treat with utter contempt the average Albertan, our efforts to protect a fragile environment, and our desire to save ourselves from exploitation.

With an arrogant wave of his hand and a scornful dismissal of the court's guilty verdict against Syncrude, Liepert demonstrates in the Middle East and to the entire world that the Alberta government's sole priority is acquiring the money that can be squeezed from oil exploitation, no matter what the cost to the environment, the people of Alberta, and certainly without any concern about health or social issues associated with this industry.

What could possibly make a dent in Liepert's conscience or consciousness when weighed against the seduction of oil money?

Responsible and moral people pose the question: What's the point of the money if all we have left is a wasteland? Unfortunately, Liepert and the Stelmach government live only in the moment; no thought for the future. Albertans can do better. Haven't we had enough of this stumbling, bumbling, self-serving government making short-sighted decisions that serve only itself, and deliver a barren future for everyone else?

Paula Stein, Edmonton

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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Wasteland+worth+cash/3235862/story.html