Highway robbery

Megaloads corridor debate reveals the true conservatives.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has worked hard for six years to turn the state's Highway 12 into a corridor for sending massive, 200-foot-long megaloads of heavy equipment to Alberta, Canada, for tar sands extraction. But it's not working out.

LINK (via: The Missola Independent)

Reality Check: Water and the Tar Sands

A new report, Reality Check: Water and the Tar Sands, sets the record straight on industry claims that misrepresent the tar sands industry’s use of the Athabasca River.

Tar sands companies used approximately 170 million cubic metres of water in 2011 to extract bitumen – that’s the same as the residential water usage of 1.7 million Canadians. And 95 per cent of the water used in tar sands mining is so polluted it has to be stored in toxic sludge pits.

LINK (via:Environmental Defence)

The Canadian Oil Sand Mines Refused Us Access, So We Rented This Plane To See What They Were Up To

An enlightening photo gallery tour of the Athabascan Oil Sands by Business Insider's Robert Johnson.

Note the size of the CAT 797 dump truck, 1,000,000 pounds per load.

LINK (via: Petapixel)

Dirty Oil

The megaloads now making their way across Idaho and Utah are just a precursor to hundreds more that will support the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands. The environmental impact of this project is almost beyond comprehension and both the ecosystem and the local population is paying a heavy price.

The United States now gets more of its oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta than from any other source. Oil sand development in Alberta could eventually cover an area the size of Greece. It's a huge part of the Canadian economy - and a big impact on the environment. Two Canadians who want a moratorium on that development - former Mikesew Cree chief George Poitras and Dene Nation tribal leader Francois Paulette - spoke recently in this feature interview with Montana Public Radio News Director Sally Mauk about the impacts the oil sands development has had on their people.

LINK

Cutting the Tar Sands Tentacle with Rick Bass and David James Duncan

Here is a link to the audio from last week's Orion Community Conversation with authors Rick Bass and David James Duncan.

As the massive mega-load truck convoys roll into Montana, they create a beastly "tar sands tentacle" all the way to Canada. Resistance to it is mounting. Bass and Duncan set aside other writing projects recently to coauthor a vitally important book on the topic, The Heart of the Monster. During this free live event, they will read from the book, lead a discussion of what is being done to combat "the haul," and answer your questions.

The Alberta Tar Sands - The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Along with megaloads rolling through the scenic byways of Idaho and Montana and Enbridges's plan to build dual pipelines to and from the BC coast, the Canadian company TransCanada hopes to build a new pipeline that would bring "oil" from the Alberta Tar Sands to refineries in Texas.

Opposition is building across the Great Plains to this project despite the economic benefits being touted by Transcanada.

New research has just emerged that raw tar sands oil is much more corrosive than standard crude resulting in greater risks for pipeline failures. The report said lines carrying product derived from tar sands are 16 times more likely to leak than lines carrying ordinary crude. Just so happens this new proposed pipeline would travel beneath the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, a huge, shallow water table that provides drinking water for about 2 million people in eight states.

Friends of the Earth has an overview of the project along with a number of ways you can take action.