tar sands

Keystone-pipeline protestors link their movement to Occupy Wall Street

In keeping with the Occupy Wall Street movement, activists in Washington, D.C., on Friday protested the Keystone XL pipeline outside the State Department.

Critical List: E.U. could ban tar-sands oil; solar industry ‘a real mess’

Yesterday, an E.U. commission got behind environmental standards that could keep tar-sands oil from being used in Europe.

Another nuclear reactor in Japan shut down.

Clean energy investments can only go so far in keeping China's emissions down. The country will meet its environmental goals in the short term, researchers say, but it’s growing too fast for its emissions to stay manageable for long.

More than 100 tar-sands activists politely arrested in polite Canadian protest

On Monday, at least 400 protestors stormed -- or, more accurately, walked gently up to and tapped on the shoulder -- the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Over 100 people were arrested, charged with trespassing, and barred from coming near the parliament building for a year. But everybody was REALLY, REALLY POLITE about it.

Even the Bush administration wouldn’t touch tar-sands oil

Even if the Obama administration approves the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadians won't be able to sell the carbon-intensive tar-sands oil to one very big energy consumer: the Obama administration. Back in 2007, the federal government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, passed a law that forbade it from buying oil that's dirtier than conventional oil. And tar-sands oil is.

The Canadian government has been trying for years to wiggle its way around that restriction. The U.S Chamber of Commerce has also tried to free the Department of Defense from its shackles.

Cool vintage footage of Canada's tar sands

1942 wasn't so different from the present — wars were raging, the U.S. military was hugely dependent on oil, and Canada had some, in the form of tar sands. Back then the only problem was that conventional oil was still far too abundant to make extracting oil from the tar sands economically viable. (U.S. production […]

Could Nebraska stop Keystone XL?

Will Nebraska lawmakers try to force a reroute of the Keystone XL pipeline, now that they've seen how much Cornhusker football fans hate it?

Stopping bad things and starting good ones

On Moving Planet Day, Sept. 24, people around the world will get on bikes, skateboards, and their own two feet to put fossil fuels in the rearview mirror.

Ad claims tar-sands oil will save women

A group called Ethical Oil, the brainchild of neocon Alykhan Velshi, is running an ad touting Keystone XL as the savior of women in Saudi Arabia. Because suddenly conservatives care about women's rights.

Tar Sands Protest is like the War on Drugs

What I am about to say may be considered blasphemy: I think the tar sands protests are misguided and will not (should not) achieve their stated goal. Before you grab your sustainably harvested bamboo pitchforks, I should say that I want the protests and arrests to continue, because there could be a much greater win, […]