Showing posts with label media and tar sands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media and tar sands. Show all posts

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Same Headline Different Year- Tar Sands Monitoring

One year ago, the message that is pertinent today was titled Time to get serious about oil sands monitoring  
warning that the federal and provincial governments broke laws in failing to monitor industry and environment or to protect land rights of First Nations.

How we develop our oil sands, and whether we adhere to scientific standards, uphold our environmental laws and regulations, and meet our obligations to First Nations and future generations of Albertans will determine whether or not they are being developed ethically.WILLIAM F. DONAHUE, PH.D., LL.B., SPECIAL ADVISOR ON WATER POLICY — FEB 7, 2011
The very thorough analysis written for a blog about watershed and water rights protection is scientifically presented; that is its purpose.  It is also politically motivated.  Underpinning the understanding that water is a human right in a democratic country.  And certainly, the laws were not respected in the tar sands development.

Where were the consultations with the community?  Why are companies getting rights to land and continuing to expand beyond what is tolerable for the well being of the region?  Yet there is no real monitoring in place but plenty of promises.  Notice the date on the press release.  Well, not much different for February 9, 2012.


Jul 21, 2011 ... Environment Minister hopes plan will help improve reputation of Alberta energy sector.
www.theglobeandmail.com/.../oil-sands-monitoring.../article2104903/
Jul 21, 2011 ... Canada will boost monitoring of pollution from its oil sands projects, hoping to speed up U.S. approval of a pipeline to transport crude to the ...
www.sierraclub.ca/en/node/4378
Jul 22, 2011 ... Feds unveil "world class" tarsands PR monitoring plan. This week saw our federal, provincial and territorial energy ministers, minus Ontario, trot ...
creekside1.blogspot.com/.../feds-unveil-world-class-tarsands-pr.html
Jul 21, 2011 ... Governments agree there is a problem, but are at odds about who should solve it or how.
www.theglobeandmail.com/...oil-sands-monitoring.../article2105867/
Right, that was eight months ago and we saw nothing about the results.  Yet huge expanses have continued, not incrementally but were expedited to maximize the influx of investment.

1 day ago ... By Darcy Henton EDMONTON — Ottawa and Alberta are announcing a new strategy Friday to monitor the environmental impacts of the oil ...
business.financialpost.com/.../new-oil-sands-monitoring-stratgey-to-be- announced-friday/
The last link was yesterday.  You can see why nobody trusts that we will see any results for another three years.  Look at Environment Canada or Stats Can and the latest stats are from 2009 for water use.  So for 6 years, the world's biggest pollution will get to do its damage freely.

Friday, January 27, 2012

How the Canadian Government Plans Its Tar Sands Action

Could have been a same sex too!  This is Toronto after all.
See the full redacted scribd version.  Hope it doesn't get redacted too.  Seems that the government has been removing documents from the archives.