Yadullah Hussain, Financial Post, Apr 25 2013

Hemmed in by unco-operative jurisdictions to the south, west and east, Alberta is looking upward, exploring at least two new northern projects that would help the province get its oil to tidewater, making it available for export to overseas markets.

Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Mar. 28 2013

France’s Total SA says current market conditions favour processing oil sands crude on the U.S. Gulf Coast rather than building an $11.6-billion upgrader in Alberta, as the company took a $1.65-billion (U.S.) loss on its 49-per-cent stake in the cancelled Voyageur project.

Brent Jang, Globe and Mail, Mar. 27 2013

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest oil-sands producer, has cancelled its $11.6-billion Voyageur upgrader project because of soaring capital costs – and the belief that better profits are to be found in shipping out unprocessed bitumen.

By Associated Press, Published: March 22

WASHINGTON — The Senate has endorsed construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is to carry oil from Canada to Texas oil refineries.

Senators voted 62-37 on Friday for the nonbinding measure. Seventeen Democrats and all 45 Republicans voted yes.

Robert Redford, Huffington Post, March 4 2013

Mr. Secretary, I am disappointed. I thought that we all understood that to fight climate change, we have to be able to say "no" to dirty energy projects. Our friends around the world are looking to us for climate leadership and it starts with drawing the line at tar sands expansion. It also means that we need to give health and environment a fair shake in the environmental review of a dirty energy project such as the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Yet the draft environmental review prepared by the State Department for Keystone XL misses what folks in industry themselves are saying: the Keystone XL project is necessary for expansion of tar sands. We know this means that Keystone XL will make climate change worse.

Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Mar. 16 2013

HOUSTON — The cherry-red crane looms emphatically over the grey industrial landscape of the Houston shipping channel where a refinery processes crude oil into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products.

Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee.ca, 9 Mar 2013

Behold the latest mystical and ecstatic pronouncements of Keystone XL acolytes.

Editorial, New York Times, March 11, 2013

The State Department’s latest environmental assessment of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline makes no recommendation about whether President Obama should approve it. Here is ours. He should say no, and for one overriding reason: A president who has repeatedly identified climate change as one of humanity’s most pressing dangers cannot in good conscience approve a project that — even by the State Department’s most cautious calculations — can only add to the problem.

Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, March 8 2013

Day seven of blockade: Group hopes to slow down the flow of Canadian tar sands oil

Michael Grunwald, Time Magazine, Feb 28 2013

The activists fighting the Keystone XL pipeline are radical-and right

US State Dept, March 1 2013

Keystone XL Pipeline Evaluation Process Fact Sheet 2012 [ PDF version   ]

Executive Summary

1.0 Executive Summary Front Cover  [155 Kb]
2.0 Title Page  [1889 Kb]
3.0 Executive Summary  [12305 Kb]
Keystone XL DRAFT SEIS Cover Letter  [95 Kb]
Keystone XL DRAFT SEIS Errata Sheet  [54 Kb]

Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Mar. 01 2013

OTTAWA — TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline has cleared a significant political hurdle in the United States after a State Department assessment concluded the project would not contribute to the warming of the planet.

Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal, February 24, 2013
 

EDMONTON - The Alberta government blames the “bitumen bubble” for the province’s current fiscal woes, but oil industry players have been warning about the phenomenon for more than a decade.A review of historical markets shows the gap between what Alberta oil sells for and the benchmark price for West Texas Intermediate has repeatedly hit $35 in the past two years.

Western Investor, 16 February 2013

It now appears increasingly unlikely that neither the $6 billion Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway pipeline or the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Trans Mountain oil pipeline will be approved in British Columbia.

John M Broder, New York Times, Feb 13 2013

Four dozen environmental activists succeeded in getting themselves arrested outside the White House on Wednesday afternoon to draw attention to their demand that President Obama reject construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

Journalstar.com, February 9, 2013

CALGARY, Canada — Crude from Alberta's oil sands sells at a 30 percent discount to its U.S. counterpart. TransCanada Corp. Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling plans to narrow that gap whether or not his Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico wins approval from the Obama administration.

Nathan VanderKlippe, Globe and Mail, Feb. 05 2013

Suncor Energy Inc. has taken a writedown of nearly $1.5-billion on its Voyageur project, a massive oil sands plant that is now at serious risk of cancellation.

And in an additional potential blow, Suncor faces a $1.2-billion tax bill, which it is disputing.

Frik Els, MiningDigest.com, January 29 2013

Zoe McKnight, Vancouver Sun, December 14, 2012

First Nations leaders signed an indigenous legal declaration on Thursday, banning pipelines and oil tanker traffic in British Columbia in a further attempt to halt Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway project.

News Release, Yinka Dene Alliance, December 13, 2012

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson proclaims "Save the Fraser Declaration Day" recognizing need to protect rivers and coast from tar sands threat

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Dec. 13, 2012) - (Coast Salish Territories) - Opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project continued to gain momentum today as the Tahltan Central Council, the Tahltan Band Council and the BC Metis Federation signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, an indigenous law declaration banning tar sands pipelines and tankers from crossing British Columbia, signed by over 130 First Nations.

Shawn McCarthy & Steven Chase, Globe and Mail, Dec. 07 2012

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has erected new barriers to investment by state-owned companies, fencing off the oil sands from further control by foreign governments.

Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Star-Telegram, Associated Press, 11 Dec 2012

HOUSTON — A Texas judge has ordered TransCanada to temporarily halt work on a private property where it is building part of an oil pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, the latest legal battle to plague a project that has encountered numerous obstacles nationwide.

Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal, November 10, 2012
With Files From Reuters And Bloomberg

In a market that is short on pipeline space and heavy crude sells at a big discount, one oilsands producer has found a way around the bottleneck.

Alaska Dispatch, 21 Nov 2012

Will a railway intended to carry oil products from Alberta to Alaska be built in the next decade? The Canadian company G Seven Generations (G7G) is banking on it, but first it needs investors to fund the project.

Diane Francis, Financial Post, November 16 2012

A group of Canadian businessmen has obtained the blessing of Alaskan tribes and Canadian First Nations to build a railroad through their lands that could carry up to five million barrels per day from the oil sands to the super tanker port in Valdez, Alaska.