Tar sands extraction in Canada is devastating Indigenous communities, wildlife and vast areas of boreal forests, as well as being many times more carbon-intensive to produce than ‘conventional’ oil.
“We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked to the Tar Sands development on our doorstep. It is shortening our lives. That’s why we no longer call it ‘dirty oil’ but ‘bloody oil’. The blood of Fort Chipewyan people is on these companies’ hands.” – George Poitras, former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation
The higher oil prices in recent years have meant that it’s become a more attractive prospect for oil companies to expand their operations in the costly process of obtaining and processing the thick bitumen into a usable form. It’s estimated that the industry is looking for a capital investment of $120-$220 billion over the next 20 years to build the new pipelines, mines, refineries and upgraders that are necessary to sustain the boom.
This report looks at the role that UK banks are playing in providing the necessary capital, and how RBS, which is 84% owned by the UK public, has been the bank the most heavily involved in underwriting loans to companies engaging in tar sands extraction.
Maybe I should get a bank account with the Co-Op?
The Co-Op Bank has been wonderful supporting the Beaver Lake Cree Nation and its legal action aimed at stopping the expansion of the tar sands developments. (The lawsuit rests on the Canadian Constitution – and the fact that all the permits doled out to mega-oil companies, if allowed to proceed, would infringe on the BLCN’s guaranteed right to hunt, trap and fish on the Cree’s traditional lands. A court declaration that the permits are unconstitutional would render them immediately illegal.) There is more information on the Co-op’s Toxic Fuels website and on RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values & Environmental Needs) – a non-profit also raising funds for the case. It’s time to stop this – and this legal action is a concrete way to do it.
When the Tar Sands was reaching fruition, President George Bush leaned on the Canadian Government to pull the research grant from a BC marine biology company producing cheap Biodiesel using specialty algae to destruct waste and producing Biodiesel for pennies per litre. Poor Georgie could not push the price of diesel up so long as these downunder dickheads were making fuel for pennies, so he had them stopped before they became a commercial reality and a real threat at the pumps. The technology was proven and producing good clean fuel that burned reliably in winter (important in Canada), but it was such a tiny pilot plant it was only a year away from a real presence in the market, once development capital was raised for a commercial size plant. Pres. Georgy decided it was easier to squash them before the public learned about the technology and their resistance to the Tar Sands Development. So they bought off the scientists who would be bought off and created phoney criminal charges against those who would not sell out and put them in jail. The First Nations people involved were scared off with threats of jail time and so the project was killed dead in the water for want of funding. The Fed Conservative Party have a history of killing off even large projects as famous as sucessful ones like the Avro Arrow project; the broken up Avro Arrow plant went on to become NASA, British/France joint venture Jet liner, with the remaining design engineers going to Apollo project in California. The Space Lab and the shuttle are all products of the broken up Avro Air, which originally made their money building Lancaster bombers for Britain and the Mosquito all purpose plane used for everything from photography over enemy lines flying too high to be shot down to the Wellington Bomber of the Dam Buster legend that helped win the war. The original Avro Arrow first came to note when it flew into space againt orders, then restarted the engines when it dropped back to earth again. The fired pilot was immediately hired by Apollo program. Boeing Aircraft began in Canada, but quickly moved to Seattle and became the largest aircraft builder in the world.
We have the science and technology to deal with the plastic island and global warming, what we do not have is an ethical business group to get behind the techys to raise the requisite capital to push petroleum off the market before it kills us.