A Glimpse of the Athabasca Oil Sands

As oil prices continue to soar and as North America strives for energy independence, the Athabasca Oil Sands represent a real energy future for our continent. Unlike liquid oil, this mined sand produces large profits and has created more jobs than there are people to fill them. While the region continues to be developed, activists and industry supporters alike are working together to produce the oil sands resource while also considering long-term sustainability.

Recently, ICOSA was invited by the Canadian government to visit the oils sands. The following video gives a glimpse into what one of our writers and his videographer saw while visiting Ft. McMurray.

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Diminishing Irreverent Ideology and Replacing it with Informed Understanding – The Unintended Consequences Project

Oil and gas are dirty; wind and sun are clean. It seems almost logical and undeniable. The thought of a breeze dancing through the air on a sunny day, providing energy to homes is almost idyllic, while drilling into the dark cold earth for oil and gas is grimy and horrid. The reality, however, is that the comparisons don’t match up, they are misleading. The processes to harness both renewable energy and fossil fuel energy are essentially the same. It starts with an end-user, you, and the products and technologies to supply that demand.  Whether it is drilling or manufacturing, nothing is clean. Everything comes at a price and sometimes those prices are the products of unintended consequences.

These consequences are a part of every industry and are the nature of innovation and advancement. From gas in shale plays across the United States to the Athabasca Oil Sands of Canada, down to the solar installations of the south and back up to the wind farms in the north, America and Canada are racing to harness energy.

There are two camps that sit at the crossroads of energy independence and energy sustainability, both entrenched in a one-sided conversation. In an attempt to curb the conversations and couch them in truth, documentary film maker Matt Palmer will challenge viewers on the difficult issue of “how do we deal with the externalities that result from our current global fossil fuel dominated energy system and transition to a low carbon society given that every aspect of our lives from modern science, medicine, technology and food production all rely on fossil fuels,” in his film Unintended Consequences.

While alternative energy resources and renewable technology is still being developed, it is important to understand the facts behind their foundation. Environmentalists tout the benefits of alternative energy as if it is a clean, free and benevolent source of energy without laying out other important factors to the production of solar, wind, hydro and biofuels. "We need to see how these energy issues fit together," said Palmer.

Sure past societies have existed on wind and watermills but they have advanced and excelled with the use of fossil fuels. They are what shaped our present but they don’t have to solely define our future. Both forms of energy have given sustenance and it is each persons choice how it will sustain them in the future. But according to Matt Palmer, they must be educated on both sides, "There is a true lack of understanding on where our energy comes from. I am going to help tell the story."

Palmer’s documentary will follows six families whose lives are exponentially different, and as he states, “to see how energy impacts their lives and the complexity of emotions that result from their access.”

To learn more about Matt Palmer’s upcoming documentary, Unintended Consequences click on the video below or visit http://www.indiegogo.com/Unintended-Consequences and get involved.

Global Commerce Forum and the Alberta Oil Sands

Reliable energy discussions continue on the burgeoning demand in emerging countries.  The question is which is best clean or traditional?  A base energy infrastructure is needed in Africa to ensure a sustainable economy.  The discussion begins October 13^th and 14^th at the Global Commerce Forum.  To register for the event, visit: www.globalcommerceforum.org or watch live, at: www.livestream.com/icosamedia.  Keynote speakers include former Governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter; chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Coorstek, Inc., Dr. John Coors; permanent secretary, Kenyan Ministry of Energy, Patrick Nyoike; executive  coordinator of sustainable community development services in Kenya, John Maina and; co-founder of Envirofit and Solix Biofuels, Dr. Bryan Willson.  

Michael Conners toured Alberta, Canada to get the total picture on the Canadian oil sands.  Canada exports 9 million barrels of oil per day to the U.S. The oil sands in Alberta Canada are stripped mined in an in-situ process.   In-situ uses a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operation.  The Pembina Institute, Syncrude and David Sands of the Alberta government/Public Affairs Bureau partnered with Jennifer Cook, communications and cultural affairs officer for the Consulate General of Canada to provide an in-depth look into the oil sands production, including the Keystone Pipeline Project.

Please continue to check ICOSA Magazine’s website for the future article on the oil sand tour.

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• Keystone pipeline: Why the oil sands conduit will get built (money.cnn.com)

Fort Mac Spreads Its Wings

Having been to Fort McMurray, the economic engine of Alberta, Canada, and having seen its incredible growth first hand, I was not surprised to learn of the $258-million-dollar airport expansion. Growing transportation capacity is, in many ways, a catalyst for broader economic development, and there are few places in North America that have the growth potential of Fort McMurray. As the nexus of Canadian Oil Sands development, Fort McMurray is essentially ground zero in the great energy debate surrounding the resource and the infamous TransCanada pipeline. While the hyperbole surrounding the debate rages on, those responsible for managing growth know that development of the Oil Sands will move forward and they must anticipate and plan for this growth. Air terminals are hubs of economic activity and help spur growth by providing greater access for goods and people. The airport expansion, then, is not a luxury, but a vital necessity.

I met with Melissa Blake, the Mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, a few years ago when I wrote an article on the Oil Sands and its development. At the time, as now, Melissa told me that the Wood Buffalo region, which lies within the Oil Sands and home to Ft. McMurray, had doubled in population in the last ten years and expects the population to double again in the next fifteen. Infrastructure and development are Melissa’s passions. Essentially, as is pointed out on the Fort McMurray Airport Authority website.

“The Ft. McMurray Airport (YMM) is the fastest growing airport in Canada with a passenger growth rate of 27% year to date in 2012.YMM served over 958,000 passengers and facilitated over 80,000 takeoffs and landings on our runway. With an existing terminal building built to accommodate 250,000, YMM is significantly undersized for the existing passenger demand…YMM is an important economic generator for the city and region, generating over $363 million in economic activity…The Fort McMurray Airport forms part of the gateway to this region and it is the key to the transformation of Fort McMurray from small town to dynamic city.”

And like the region itself, which has seen 125 percent population increase since 2000, the terminal capacity (currently 250,000) is anticipated to need to accommodate 1.5 million. This is why businesses are working with Municipal leaders to serve the needs of the travelling public.

Increasing their ability to reach out to the world, Fort McMurray residents and carriers, via expanded air-route capacity, chose Denver as one of their first nonstop destinations. At the inaugural flight ceremony, Kim Day, the Denver International Airport Manager remarked, “Denver was selected as Fort McMurray’s first U.S. destination because of our unique geographical location in the center of the U.S. and a robust network.” As the world’s 13th busiest airport, DIA has facilitated economic growth to the tune of $22 billion dollars and the airport sees 50 million passengers pass through their gates annually. Not only does the airport provide access to goods and services, human talent is also of paramount importance. Denver and the Front Range are in the middle of an energy renaissance and many large energy companies like Anadarko, Encana, Noble Energy, etc., have regional or North American headquarters located in Denver. Therefore, Denver was the easy choice for carriers like United, who started the first daily nonstop flight from Fort Mac to Denver this last June.

I spoke with Martin Kammerman, Senior Manager of Network for United, and asked him about the decision to open up the only daily nonstop flight into the U.S. from Fort McMurray. Essentially, the decision was threefold:

So number one, we’re helping to accommodate customers by providing something that didn’t exist until today, which is basically, a flight south. Number two; it just so happens that the places United flies to happen to be very energy oriented. Denver has easy connections to Houston. And, surprisingly, people go to North Dakota from Denver because the drive to the northern U.S. States (from Canada) is too difficult otherwise. My third point, and one worth noting, is that when people are travelling to or from Fort McMurray, they have to make multiple connections, especially going to the U.S. and beyond. So what this flight to Denver does is it allows you to make a single connection, rather than a double or triple connection, to 57 places. So there are 57 destinations that are suddenly much easier to get to or from than there were before there was a flight to Denver. It’s all about finding something that customers want to fly on and finding ways to accommodate them.

Since Fort McMurray is also one of those places where incomes are rising, there will continue to be an influx of retail and service providers to support the growing population and their disposable income. Thusly, the expansion of a transportation hub facilitates not only the growth of the Oil Sands industry, but of all the support networks needed to help the energy revolution flourish.