People Before Profit blog

Mining black gold, and profits, from northern sands

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:04:00 +0000

Imagine for a moment that you’re an American oil executive. You’re pondering the prospects for the next big oil strike overseas — and dreaming of a place where the government is stable and compliant, the royalties are low and the environmental standards minimal.

You’re visualizing a place where you won’t have to drill thousands of feet into the earth’s crust, because the deposits are already known and readily accessible near the surface. Plus you count on at least half of the production going directly to the United States, sure to please the folks back home.

Is it just a dream? Not at all. Just look north to the tar sands of central Alberta, Canada.

Ancient fields of black gold

Used by the indigenous people of this densely forested region to waterproof their canoes, these tar-like outcroppings of bitumen-rich sands turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Beneath them lay many millions of cubic yards of oil-soaked sand.

Fur traders were the first Europeans to see these deposits, most of which lay underground in layers hundreds of feet thick, covered by an equal amount of sand, clay and peat bogs.

Although the Canadian government and the big oil companies have known about these deposits for hundreds of years, the extraction of oil from them was always regarded as too costly and impractical. The tar sands were basically forgotten and not even counted as part of the world’s known energy reserves.

Impractical becomes practical

As long as oil prices remained below $50 a barrel and the cost of producing crude from the tar sands was estimated to be $35 to $40 a barrel, very little was done. Interest in the exploitation of these deposits waxed and waned in sync with the world price of oil, but the prospects of tapping this energy resource remained dim.

That indifference suddenly changed, however, once the price of oil shot up. The rising price of oil made commercial exploitation feasible.

As the world price of oil broke the $50 mark, two Canadian oil companies started mining the tar sands to produce what’s known as light, sweet synthetic crude. As the price soared above $70, with little chance of falling below $60, and with conventional oil production leveling off, the handwriting was on the wall.

Global oil prices have doubled over the past three years alone. And cheaper ways of extracting the oil, now estimated to cost about $20 a barrel, have prompted oil companies from several nations to rush in, aiming to grab their share of the soil and the profits.

Vast reserves, vast profits

The Alberta tar sands deposits are huge, containing hundreds of billions of barrels of bitumen mixed with clay, sand and water. Experts estimate the potential yield from the Florida-sized fields to be about 180 billion barrels of oil, making it second in the world only to Saudi Arabia’s 262 billion barrels.

The sands are regarded as an “unconventional” source of oil because of the form in which it is found. Think of roof cement mixed with sand and water and you get an idea of what the oil companies are working with.

Although only 10 percent of these deposits are economically recoverable with today’s technology, the financial prospects of selling 180 billion barrels of oil were not to be ignored.

So, in addition to the Canadian companies, in marched Conoco Phillips, Royal Dutch/Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Devon Energy, among others. All are now big players. Where else are they likely to find a more stable region with so much potential for windfall profits?

Today, oil-sands production from the area stands at more than 1 million barrels a day. It’s projected that by 2015, that figure will rise to 3.5 million barrels a day.

Canada is now the top supplier of oil to the United States, with over 2 million barrels flowing to its southern neighbor every day. It supplies about 10 percent of total U.S. oil and gas consumption. Half of that comes from the oil sands of Alberta.

Bonanza or boondoggle?

Is it an energy bonanza or an ecological boondoggle? It all depends upon whom you ask, and who most benefits from the development.

The Canadian government gets royalties amounting to only 1 percent of the price of each barrel. So that should tell you where the bulk of the money is not going.

While it’s true that the mining of the tar sands and extraction of the oil creates some jobs — including for workers who come from some of the most economically depressed regions of Canada — the environmental costs are high.

Boiling the sand to get the oil

There are two methods of extracting the bitumen from the sands.

The first method involves removing the “overburden” — the layer on top that in some cases is more than 200 feet thick, mining the tar sands, hauling it out in two-story trucks and then processing it at special refineries. The bitumen is extracted by using huge amounts of clean water and by applying intense heat from natural gas — washing and boiling the oil out of the sand.

The second method extracts the bitumen in situ, or in place, and is used for deposits too deep for surface mining. It involves drilling two holes deep into the deposits and inserting pipes. One pipe forces down steam to liquefy the bitumen; the other pipe is used to pump the liquid to the surface. It then goes through a similar refining process, again using large quantities of water (up to six barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced) and heat produced by natural gas.

The expenditure of energy in the mining and extraction of the oil leaves a much greater than average “carbon footprint,” generating large carbon emissions in the process. According to the Pembina Institute, a Canada-based nonprofit that monitors environmental issues, producing a barrel of oil in the oil sands releases an average of 189 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent, compared with the 63 pounds generated in convention production.

It’s processing dirty oil, using clean oil, to produce less dirty oil. As one environmentalist said, “It’s akin to using lobster to make imitation crabmeat.”

In addition to the pollution and global warming aspects, the mining has taken a heavy toll. Wildlife habitat has been destroyed. And Canadians are expressing concern about the reduced summer flow of Alberta’s northern rivers, and fears about a dropping water table, attributable in part, many suspect, to the huge demand for water involved in the refining process.

As more projects come online, it is estimated that 20 percent of Canada’s natural gas production will be diverted to make the tar flow.

‘Free trade’ means extra profits

From the oil companies’ point of view, the exploitation of the sands is made easier by having a compliant Canadian government, headed by the Conservative Party, in place, along with the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Written into the NAFTA rules is an energy-sharing clause that guarantees that half of Canada’s oil and gas production goes to the United States. It also prohibits the use of tools by governments to regulate energy exports, including the setting of export prices or export taxes, export bans or even export quotas.

A particularly onerous provision is Article 605, which limits the right of Canada to halt exports, even during times of national scarcity. Should such a situation arise, where will Canadians turn to make up for any shortfall? They will either have to import the difference or intensify their exploitation of their coal reserves.

As more and more of their clean air, clean water and natural gas is squandered on this environmentally destructive project, the citizens of Canada have to ask themselves: Are the short-term benefits worth the long-term costs?

Workers on both sides of the border have reason, once again, to call for the abolition of NAFTA.

Struggles in the U.S.

Given the requirement that half of production goes to the U.S., refineries here are upgrading their facilities to handle the stuff. As one observer said, “It sure ain’t your sweet crude of yore!”

The controversial decision by the state of Indiana to allow BP, which is expanding and upgrading its facilities in Whiting, Ind., to accept this new source of Canadian crude, has created a public outcry against allowing BP to increase its discharge of pollutants into Lake Michigan.

If anything, BP should be forced to decrease its polluted discharges into the lake, the source of drinking water for millions of people, since there are newer and better technologies available to remove pollutants from discharge water.

BP’s carefully crafted Madison Avenue image of a “green company” has been exposed. Neither it nor the other U.S. oil companies engaged in the plunder of Canada’s resources should be able to avoid public accountability, either here or there.

It’s time to create jobs by developing alternative sources of energy.

Bill Mackovich is a longtime labor activist in Chicago.

Heeding the call of Elvira Arellano

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:15:00 +0000

News Analysis

LOS ANGELES — Elvira Arellano stepped completely out of the shadows last week, seeking to galvanize the immigrant rights movement into emergency action. At stake is the fate of the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrant workers and their families.

“We cannot just sit by and watch our families be torn to pieces for the next three years. I cannot,” said Arellano, Aug. 18, when she appeared here at La Placita Church. She called for the start of a campaign for emergency legalization legislation.

Arellano left her sanctuary church in Chicago to come to California to help build grassroots efforts here urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Immigration Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren, both Cali-fornians, to initiate emergency legislation.

Arellano’s bold step came in response to pronouncements by politicians and pundits that comprehensive immigration legislation would not be debated again for at least another three years, and to the Bush administration’s launching of stepped up raids and deportations, and mass firings through the Social Security “no-match” system.

The day after Arellano’s press conference here, a special squad of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials swooped down on her as she left La Placita on Aug. 19. Her arrest and deportation was an obvious effort to squelch and divert the campaign. Arellano is now in Tijuana, Mexico, with her 8-year-old U.S. citizen son Saul, who will return to Chicago for the start of school.

Immediately after the arrest, immigrant rights, labor, religious and civil rights groups organized vigils and other actions in response.

In May, the Senate came to a bitter standoff on immigration legislation. On Aug. 10, the Bush administration announced it would pursue an enforcement-first crackdown on the undocumented for the rest of its term. The House of Representatives has not debated the issue this year, so Arellano and supporters are focusing pressure there.

“Congress must act in September to stop the separation of families, the raids and deportations, the no-match sanctions. They must act to stop the hatred,” Arellano said. Arellano was intending to go to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12 to personally lobby the Democratic House leadership to fulfill its pledges for legalization legislation. Immigrant rights advocates pledged to go in her place and are lobbying for a special bill to allow her to return to the U.S. and her son.

At her press conference, Arellano proposed a set of basic first-step proposals. She did not include a path to citizenship or a temporary worker program, saying those were “longer-term measures” and not the priority.

“Our priority is to keep our families together,” she said. “We believe that these proposals provide an interim solution to the current crisis.”

The proposals include:

• a safe-harbor visa for parents of U.S. citizen children,

• a temporary work visa for those now employed here without documents,

• reopening the Immigration Act’s section 245i, which allows immigrant spouses of citizens to get visas without returning to their home country,

• passage of the Child Citizen Protection Act to stop deportation of undocumented parents,

• passage of the DREAM Act and AgJobs legislation, which provide visas to students, military volunteers and farmworkers.

Her proposals also include an immediate moratorium on raids, deportations and separation of families.

The arrest and deportation of Arellano could complicate her mission and her struggle to reunite with her son. However, Arellano said Aug. 14, one year after she took sanctuary in Chicago, “God has protected me this long year, but I cannot sit by now and watch the lives of mothers and fathers like me and children like Saul be destroyed. I believe in my heart that the people of this nation do not, in their hearts, want to destroy our lives, our families and our communities. I believe, however, that we must come forward in the witness of faith to bring resolution to this crisis.”

Arellano is in the forefront of the millions of immigrant workers who are speaking out and taking risks for the right to work to support themselves and their families in dignity. They deserve the full support of all democratic forces.

Related stories on Elvira Arellano:

Mother on hunger strike for immigrant families, by Pepe Lozano

Immigrant mother defends son’s future, by Pepe Lozano

Madre indocumentada sigue luchando por su hijo, por Pepe Lozano

Joint Party Statement on the August 20-21, 2007 Summit and the SPP

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:34:00 +0000

Communist Party of Canada

Communist Party of the USA

Partido de los Comunistas de México

Partido Popular Socialista de México

The August 20-21 Summit of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Presidents George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón, and the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP) deal which will be the centerpiece of their meeting, constitutes a grave threat to the democratic and social rights of the peoples of Canada, the United States and Mexico, to the national sovereignty of our respective countries, and to the cause of peace.

We, the undersigned parties, join with trade union, anti-war, environmental and other social and people’s movements in denouncing the corporate-driven agenda which the SPP agreement seeks to foist on the peoples of our countries, and in urging the widest possible mobilization of labour and other popular forces to stop and defeat this dangerous and reactionary ‘initiative’.

The real class forces driving the SPP are the biggest corporations and banks, acting through various ‘think tanks’ such as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), the Conference Board of Canada, and the (US) Council on Foreign Relations, among many others. A newly-formed “North American Competitiveness Council” composed of 10 leading corporate CEOs from each country, has been directing the SPP process to ensure that “governments look to the private sector to tell them what needs to be done.” Among the firms represented are Lockheed Martin, Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Motors, Home Depot, GE, Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck and Chevron.

According to its corporate sponsors, the SPP aims to “deepen North American integration… transforming all three nations and establishing the dynamics of a new continental economy.” It would create a common “North American security architecture”, “secure the energy resources and strategic networks needed to remain competitive”, and impose a single “regional regulatory harmonization” over virtually all aspects of economic and social life – “agriculture, water, health and emergency services, energy (electrical, nuclear, hydro, and gas and oil), transportation systems (air, roads, rail, ports, and waterways), information and telecommunications networks, and banking and financial systems.”

In other words, the SPP is a ‘fast track’ to a “North American Union” – one firmly under the domination of U.S. imperialism and its transnationals and banks. It would consolidate corporate control over the energy, water, and other natural resources of the continent, further erode labour and democratic rights, accelerate the privatization of public services such as health care and education, and strengthen the drive to militarization under the Bush Administration’s so-called “War on Terror”.

Workers, women, Aboriginal peoples, immigrants and people of colour, and all those striving to defend democratic rights, oppose war and aggression, and preserve our environment – that is, the vast majority of the people in all our three countries – have a common interest in derailing this dangerous, pro-corporate plan. As neighbouring peoples, we stand for close cooperation and friendship across our borders. But we categorically reject any attempt to dictate our future and trash the sovereign rights of our peoples by the likes of Exxon, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin, and their right-wing governments.

Unite to stop and defeat the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP)!

Déclaration conjointe de partis nord-américains

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:25:00 +0000

Communist Party of the USA

Parti communiste du Canada

Partido de los Comunistas de México

Partido Popular Socialista de México

Le Sommet du 20 et du 21 août, qui réunira le premier ministre du Canada, Stephen Harper, le président des États-Unis, George W. Bush et le président du Mexique, Felipe Calderón, et les ententes qui seront établies dans le cadre du “Partenariat nord-américain pour la sécurité et la prospérité” (PSP), élément central des discussion de cette rencontre, constituent une grave menace pour les droits démocratiques et sociaux des peuples du Canada, des États-Unis et du Mexique, pour la souveraineté nationale de nos pays respectifs et pour la cause de la paix.

Nous, partis signataires de cette déclaration, nous nous unissons aux différents mouvements, syndicaux, anti-guerre, de défense de l’environnement, sociaux et populaires, pour dénoncer l’agenda défini par les grandes entreprises en fonction de leurs intérêts, que les ententes du PSP cherchent à imposer aux peuples de nos pays. Nous lançons un appel à la mobilisation générale, la plus large possible, des syndicats et des autres forces populaires pour bloquer et faire dérailler cette “initiative” dangereuse et réactionnaire.

Les forces de classe qui dirigent vraiment le PSP sont constituées par les entreprises les plus importantes et les grandes banques. Elles agissent par l’intermédiaire des nombreux centres de recherche politique, les «think tanks», tels que le Conseil canadien des chefs d’entreprise (Canada), le Center for Strategic and International Studies (États-Unis), le Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) (Mexique), le«Conference Board» du Canada et le Council on Foreign Relations (États-Unis). Le nouveau «Conseil nord-américain de la compétitivité», composé de dix des plus importants chefs d’entreprise de chacun des trois pays, dirige le processus du PSP de façon à s’assurer que «les gouvernements se tournent vers le secteur privé pour que ce dernier leur dise quoi faire». Parmi les grandes entreprises représentées au sein du Conseil nous retrouvons Lockheed Martin, Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Motors, Home Depot, GE, Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck et Chevron.

Selon les grandes entreprises qui parrainent le PSP, ce dernier vise «à approfondir l’intégration nord-américaine (...), à transformer les trois pays et à établir la dynamique d’une nouvelle économie continentale». Il créerait une nouvelle «architecture nord-américaine de sécurité» commune, «sécuriserait les réseaux de ressources énergétiques et stratégiques nécessaires au maintient de compétitivité» et imposerait une seule «réglementation régionale harmonisée», qui régirait presque tous les aspects de la vie économique et sociale, «l’agriculture, l’eau, la santé et les services d’urgence, l’énergie (électrique, nucléaire, hydraulique, gazière et pétrolière), les réseaux d’information et de télécommunications, ainsi que les systèmes bancaires et financiers».

En d’autres termes, le PSP est une voie express vers la création d’une «Union nord-américaine», qui serait fermement dominée par l’impérialisme états-unien au profit de ses entreprises transnationales et de ses banques. Le PSP consoliderait le contrôle des grandes entreprises sur l’énergie, l’eau et les autres ressources naturelles du continent, réduirait davantage les droits des travailleuses/eurs et les droits, accélérerait la privatisation des services publics tels que les soins de santé et l’éducation et renforcerait la campagne de militarisation menée par le gouvernement Bush dans le cadre de la prétendue “guerre au terrorisme”.

Les travailleuses/eurs, les femmes, les nations autochtones, les immigrantes/ants, les personnes de couleur, ainsi que toutes les personnes qui luttent pour défendre les droits démocratiques, pour s’opposer aux guerres et aux agressions et pour préserver notre environnement, c’est-à-dire la majorité des citoyennes et des citoyens de nos trois pays, ont pour intérêt commun d’éliminer ce dangereux plan favorable aux grandes entreprises. En tant que peuples voisins, nous luttons pour resserrer les liens de collaboration et d’amitié qui nous unissent au-delà de nos frontières. Mais, en même temps, nous rejetons catégoriquement toute tentative faite par Exxon, Wal-Mart, Lockheed Martin et leurs semblables, ainsi que par leurs gouvernements de droite, de dicter notre avenir ou de détruire les droits de nos peuples souverains.

Unissons-nous pour bloquer et vaincre le “Partenariat nord-américain pour la sécurité et la prospérité “ (PSP)!

Declaring victory over Cuba blockade

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:28:00 +0000

How can we end U.S. assaults on Cuban sovereignty and independence? That question arose during this summer’s trip to Cuba with the IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan. Since 1992, the New York-based group has fought the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba by organizing Americans to take humanitarian aid to the island.

This year, as usual, caravans of trucks and old buses traveled south from Canada to McAllen, Texas. En route, they picked up aid supplies, and participants talked about Cuba in churches, union halls and homes. On July 17, the full caravan crossed into Mexico, traveling the next day to Tampico, where late at night 90 tons of material were unloaded onto a dock. Tampico longshoremen joined the caravan for the week in Cuba.

The Friendshipment and the Venceremos Brigade represent militant, visible, principled opposition to policies hanging on despite overall public rejection. For 38 years, the Venceremos Brigade has enabled some 9,000 travel ban challengers to visit Cuba and work there. Friendshipment organizers refuse to apply for the license that our government requires for providing Cuba with humanitarian aid. Participants travel in violation of U.S. regulations.

On July 28, 175 participants with both groups confronted border officials in McAllen and in Buffalo, N.Y., on returning to the United States.

Purposeful defiance of unjust laws serves as a means for pressuring governments unresponsive to other expressions of protest. Surely, lessons derived from experiences of these challenge groups may contribute to building the Cuba solidarity movement, particularly in recruiting and involving supporters.

The commitment of old and new alike was reinforced by risk-taking and sweat equity. Cuba travelers this summer were united as they refused to answer questions put by border officials. Having defied Washington dictates, they could face significant fines. And activists of all ages, jammed into hot school buses for 24 hours moving across northeastern Mexico, showed they don’t give up.

Friendshipment people collected, packaged and transported humanitarian aid. This year, the Venceremos Brigade did agricultural work. Travelers with both groups held fund-raising events, recruitment meetings and public information meetings. They met with or contacted legislators.

In Cuba, the visitors learned of hardships experienced by the Cuban people under siege and came to understand the frustrations and discontent stemming from decades of privation, and to appreciate the difficulties of preserving hope and improvising. During the weeklong stay, reasons for fighting the blockade flooded in. Rules denying North Americans the privilege of seeing gifted young dancers and actors and hearing talented singers and instrumentalists, all of them beneficiaries of dedicated teaching, are just plain wrong.

Along the way, the visitors got a dose of revolutionary ideals and combativeness. “We had to confront the powers of the U.S. empire,” declared the Rev. Lucius Walker, the Pastors for Peace head. “We had to expose the power of money and lies.” The Friendshipment mission, he added, is “to stamp out the disease of truth decay. … We have come to have our batteries recharged by [Cuba’s] beautiful spirit of revolution.”

The summer travelers were successful. They broke the blockade. So did travelers in previous years. Once again, U.S. enforcement of the blockade was inconsistent and capricious. Maybe, one wonders, the blockade is more show than reality. In fact, maybe our side has won. This year we proved it.

In 1966, Sen. George Aiken of Vermont suggested that U.S. military forces could declare victory and leave Vietnam.

Maybe now is the time for all those who support Cuba to declare victory. One way to do it would be for groups of all stripes to take up the work of Friendshipment and the Venceremos Brigade. Unions, church groups, progressive political groups, even businesses, would trade with, help out, interact with and visit their Cuban neighbors, demonstrating the emptiness of our government’s stance toward Cuba and a victory for what Lucius Walker calls a “people’s foreign policy.”

“But we’re too busy fighting the Iraq war,” one may hear. Well, why not take a break, do something that gives you a clear win, and in the process help diminish the empire?

W.T. Whitney Jr., a retired pediatrician in Maine, was a member of this summer’s Friendshipment Caravan.