Blog

The fire that the locals call “the beast” is back with a vengeance. Last week, the wildfire that ravaged parts of the tar sands town of Fort McMurray in Alberta seemed to have done its worst. But in recent days it has returned and headed to the tar sands camps north of the town, travelling at around 30-40 metres per second.

Fort McMurray, the capitol of the Canadian tar sands industry, was under a “mandatory evacuation order” last night as a massive uncontrolled wildfire engulfed the city, forcing some 60,000 residents to flee.

At the beginning of last week, environmentalists celebrated when the largest energy infrastructure company in North America, Kinder Morgan, pulled the plug on its controversial natural gas pipeline which had been proposed through parts of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire, called NorthEast Energy Direct.

As the saying goes: the stone age did not end due to the lack of stones and the oil age will not end due to lack of oil. It will end due to climate change and the coming clean energy revolution.

It’s a small simple chart which has a huge significance for Canada and the climate.

Written anywhere but the Financial Times, an article on the future of the oil industry might just pass you by.

Desperate times mean desperate measures. Something has to give. With no end in sight to the low oil price, Canadian tar sands companies are having to sell what are being described as their “jewels in the crown” in order just to survive.