Publications
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Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands
By: Oil Change International | Lorne Stockman
Published: December 2013
The Canadian tar sands have been called the “most environmentally destructive project on earth", with good reason. Extracting tar sands bitumen from under the boreal forests of Alberta, Canada requires huge amounts of energy and water. It has cleared vast tracts of forest, left scars on the land that are visible from space and threatened the health and livelihoods of indigenous First Nations communities across the region.
The Bitumen Cliff: Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments for Canada’s Economy
By: Polaris Institute & Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Tony Clarke (Polaris Institute), Jim Stanford (Canadian Auto Workers), Diana Gibson (Parkland Institute), Brendan Haley
Published: February 2013
A failure to carefully regulate the Canadian bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Polaris Institute.
The study's original, integrated analysis shows that the current bitumen path is creating the double threat: a “staples trap," whereby the faster Canada exports its bitumen, the less diversified, productive and resilient the economy becomes;" and a “carbon trap," which locks Canada into an carbon dependent development path, making the costs of future climate adaptation much more difficult.
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Beneath the Surface
By: Pembina Institute | Simon Dyer, Jennifer Grant, Marc Huot, Nathan Lemphers
Published: January 2013
This report examines some common claims about the environmental performance of oilsands producers and the environmental impacts of oilsands production. Many of the claims included in this document are not false, but they selectively present information to minimize the negative impacts of oilsands production or overstate the positive strides that industry or governments have made toward addressing those impacts.
The information presented draws on independent research, public information and expert analysis to put key facts about oilsands production in their proper context.
Financial Liability for Kinder Morgan
By: Living Oceans Society | Wilderness Committee | Georgia Strait Alliance | West Coast Environmental Law
Published: January 2013
This report warns that Kinder Morgan's new Trans Mountain Pipeline proposal represents an exponential increase in the risk of a major marine-based oil spill affecting the Salish Sea's most populous region, including the Cities of Vancouver and Victoria and the Southern Gulf Islands. The report analyses the insurance available to pay for spill response costs and damages caused by such a spill and concludes that Canadian taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as 90 percent of the cost.
Tagged with: pipeline, economy, oil, kinder morgan, spill, insurance, ocean, liability
Point of no return
By: Greenpeace | Ria Voorhar & Lauri Myllyvirta
Published: January 2013
"In 2020, the emissions from the 14 projects in this report –if they were all to go ahead – would raise global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 20% and keep the world on a path towards 5 to 6¬∞C of warming." Burning the coal, oil and gas from these 14 projects would significantly push emissions over what climate scientists have identified as the ‚Äúcarbon budget," the amount of additional CO2 that must not be exceeded in order to keep climate change from spiraling out of control.
The mega dirty energy projects in this report range from the development of risky unconventional sources of oil in the tar sands of Canada,in the Arctic, in the ocean off the coast of Brazil, in Iraq, in the Gulf of Mexico and in Kazakhstan, massive expansion of coal mining in China, to large-scale expansion of coal exports from Australia, the U.S. and Indonesia. The magnitude of CO2 from these projects in the next few years would push the climate beyond the Point of No Return, locking the world into a scenario leading to catastrophic climate change and ensuring that we run out of time.
Tagged with: emissions, climate, fossil fuels, threat
Competing in Clean Energy: Capitalizing on Canadian innovation in a $3 trillion economy
By: Pembina Institute | Dan Woynillowicz, Penelope Comette, Ed Whittingham
Published: January 2013
What will it take for Canada to become a clean energy super power?
With more than 700 companies, the clean technology sector has emerged as a major driver of innovation and employment growth in Canada. As this industry grows to a projected $3 trillion by 2020, Canadian clean technology companies have the potential to increase their market share from today's $9 billion to $60 billion. Yet Canada currently captures just one per cent of the $1 trillion global clean technology industry and places fifth in clean energy inventions, with its companies securing only two per cent of clean energy patents granted in the United States since 2002.
In Competing in Clean Energy we ask nearly two dozen clean energy entrepreneurs, executives, investors and academics about what Canada needs to do in order to compete in the global race for clean energy.
Tagged with: economy, clean energy, green energy, technology
The climate implications of the proposed Keystone XL oilsands pipeline
By: Pembina Institute | Nathan Lemphers
Published: January 2013
To help inform the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, this backgrounder features new analysis showing that producing enough bitumen to fill the Keystone XL pipeline would lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and inhibit Canada's ability to meet its climate targets.
Tagged with: keystone xl, canada, keystone, climate, targets
Crude behaviour: TransCanada, Enbridge, and the Tar Sands Industry’s Tarnished Legacy
By: National Wildlife Federation | Peter LaFontaine
Published: December 2012
Up north of the border, past Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, the planet's biggest carbon bomb is ticking. It's called the tar sands region, and it represents both incredible feats of industry and incredible hubris —Рand potentially the last blow to the fight against global climate change.
The facts about greenhouse gas pollution from oilsands development
By: Pembina Institute | Marc Huot and Jennifer Grant
Published: November 2012
This fact sheet provides an overview of how oilsands production and expansion contributes to greenhouse gas pollution and climate change, focusing on few key issues.
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MORE BANG FOR OUR BUCK
By: Blue Green Canada
Published: November 2012
Canada's increasing reliance on the oil sands is not the best strategy for the economy or our environment. This report shows if the $1.3 billion in government subsidies, now given to the oil and gas sector, were instead invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency, Canada would create more jobs: 18,000 more. We also discuss in detail the economic risks of relying increasingly on the volatile oil market.
Tagged with: canada, economy, oil, solar, green energy, growth, job, wind
