Aerial Photos Show The True Magnitude Of The Tar Sands Developments {LARGE IMAGES}

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/louis-helbig-aerial-photos-alberta-tar-sands-2014-9?op=1

Helbig started the project in 2007, when, he says, the expansion was not yet world news. It was, however, the topic of many conversations in Alberta, especially among those who wanted to head to the Oil Sands to find work.



Helbig, looking to see what all the buzz was about, decided to visit. "I thought I would go up there and do some aerial photography and see what was hidden in plain sight," he recently told Business Insider.



When he first flew over the Tar Sands with his now wife, Kristin Reimer, the sheer magnitude of what he saw amazed them.



"All the operations, the open pit mining, the large, oily tailing ponds, the refineries, the whole thing situated somewhat incongruously in the boreal forest, is stunning," he explains.

[eShirl]

1. gross

[JPZenger]

2. Koch Brothers are heavily invested in Alberta tar sands lands

"Koch is also long on the richest – but also the dirtiest and most carbon-polluting – oil deposits in North America: the tar sands of Alberta. The company's Pine Bend refinery, near St. Paul, Minnesota, processes nearly a quarter of the Canadian bitumen exported to the United States – which, in turn, has created for Koch Industries a lucrative sideline in petcoke exports. Denser, dirtier and cheaper than coal, petcoke is the dregs of tar-sands refining. U.S. coal plants are largely forbidden from burning petcoke, but it can be profitably shipped to countries with lax pollution laws like Mexico and China. One of the firm's subsidiaries, Koch Carbon, is expanding its Chicago terminal operations to receive up to 11 million tons of petcoke for global export. In June, the EPA noted the facility had violated the Clean Air Act with petcoke particulates that endanger the health of South Side residents. "We dispute that the two elevated readings" behind the EPA notice of violation "are violations of anything," Koch's top lawyer, Mark Holden, told Rolling Stone, insisting that Koch Carbon is a good neighbor.

Over the past dozen years, the company has quietly acquired leases for 1.1 million acres of Alberta oil fields, an area larger than Rhode Island. By some estimates, Koch's direct holdings nearly double ExxonMobil's and nearly triple Shell's. In May, Koch Oil Sands Operating LLC of Calgary, Alberta, sought permits to embark on a multi-billion­dollar tar-sands-extraction operation. This one site is projected to produce 22 million barrels a year – more than a full day's supply of U.S. oil."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924#ixzz3EVlx7b5x

[newfie11]

3. This land will never recover

Maybe in millions of years.

[onethatcares]

4. only when we're gone

what a mess we've made of our bed

[newfie11]

5. +1 Nt

[99Forever]

6. The Dakotas are getting the same treatment.

The Oil Monsters WILL destroy this entire planet are never give it a second thought.