The Dominion - natural gas

A Dead Man’s Prints

Tim McSorley — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 02:03:34 +0000

RCMP request to fingerprint Wiebo Ludwig's corpse refused

HYTHE, AB—The day after controversial eco-activist Wiebo Ludwig died, the RCMP wanted to open his coffin and take his fingerprints one final time. His family refused.

The media-savvy reverend was seen as an "eco-warrior" by his supporters; to his foes he was an "eco-terrorist." He was best known for his run-ins with the oil and gas industry—and the police—because of his objection to poisonous leaks.

The Dutch-born preacher died from cancer of the esophagus on April 9 at his log cabin near Hythe, in northwestern Alberta. Ludwig was 70. The ink had barely dried on his death certificate when his casket was carried to a small cemetery in woods nearby and placed in an above ground concrete crypt. The previous fall I’d walked with Wiebo on a path that curves through the graveyard. At one point he stopped and, pointing with his cane, said, “This is where I’m going.”

The graveyard is a short walk from Trickle Creek, the small Christian community Ludwig founded 26 years ago. Today it’s home to nearly 60 people, a sprawling complex of chalet-type homes, machine shops, greenhouses, barns, woodsheds and a dental office.

Richard Boonstra, Ludwig’s long-time friend and a resident at Trickle Creek, called the RCMP’s request to fingerprint his corpse “odd,” “invasive” and “a terrible disrespect and interference” with human remains. Boonstra suspects the Mounties wanted to see for themselves that Wiebo Ludwig was actually dead. The request showed authorities’ discomfort with Ludwig, according to Boonstra, because, he said, Ludwig had embarrassed the "establishment."

Doris Stapleton of RCMP Media Relations says “a fingerprint is the best way to positively identify someone, and if that person has a criminal record the fingerprints are sent to Ottawa so they’re able to take the record off CPIC.” CPIC is the Canadian Police Information Center where criminal history files are kept.

The family’s attorney, Paul Moreau of Edmonton, informed the RCMP “that wouldn’t be happening.” The Mounties dropped the matter, and the heavy top covering the crypt was never raised. Moreau, a veteran criminal defence lawyer, says it was the first time he’s heard of police lifting prints off convicted criminals to close a file.

The request to fingerprint a dead and buried man came as news to recently retired correctional officer Rick Dyhm. In his 34 years as a guard at federal prisons—where numerous inmates have died—Dyhm says police never showed up to take prints off a dead inmate.

In 2001, an Edmonton judge handed Ludwig a 28-month prison sentence after finding him guilty of oilfield vandalism. He was found guilty of attempting to possess explosives and “public mischief” over $5,000 after two gas well-heads nearby Trickle Creek were damaged. One had been dynamited; the other encased in concrete. Ludwig was released after serving two-thirds of his sentence. What precipitated the vandalism was a series of sour gas leaks that poisoned people and animals at Trickle Creek. The Ludwigs say when they complained to the authorities, nothing was done. The leaks continued and the people of Trickle Creek put duct tape around their doors and windows to try and keep the toxic gas at bay.

Two years prior to his conviction, tensions reached a boiling point when a local girl, 16-year-old Karman Willis, was shot and killed at Ludwig’s farm. Willis had been riding in one of three pick-ups that tore around Trickle Creek in the dead of night. Drivers did doughnuts and tossed empty beer cans, with one truck coming to within a metre of plowing down four children sleeping in a tent. A bullet hit the radiator of one truck and ricocheted off the frame, striking Willis. No one was charged with the shooting; neither were any of the intruders charged with trespassing at night, or impaired or dangerous driving.

In January 2010, about 200 RCMP officers raided Trickle Creek to search for evidence in the bombing of a gas pipeline near Tom’s Lake, BC, about an hour’s drive from Ludwig’s farm. Mounties told reporters they had proof—DNA evidence—that Wiebo Ludwig was connected to the bombings. Ludwig was tricked into thinking he was just meeting with Mounties in nearby Grande Prairie, but was arrested and locked up for 24 hours. He was never charged with the Tom’s Lake bombings.

Boonstra finds it odd the Mounties didn’t get around to meet with Ludwig in his final days. If police believed Ludwig shot Willis—or was behind the BC bombings—Boonstra wonders why investigators wouldn’t want to see him in the hope they might get a deathbed confession.

Ludwig, a carpenter, built his own coffin in February when he realized his battle with cancer was going south.

In his final media interview, published in The Dominion, a weakened Ludwig revealed he was looking forward to what he called crossing over. “[Death] doesn’t bother me,” he offered. “It is apparent to everyone there is an afterlife, even though we repress that in our anxieties. I am eager for redemption, eager to see what’s there. I just hope I die without too much pain.”

He got his wish, thanks to a combination of herbal medicine, oxycontin and morphine. Right up to the day he died, Ludwig went for walks, often arm-in-arm with Maime, his wife of 43 years.

In his last hours, family members made their way to the log cabin where their leader, frail and lying on a couch, blessed them one by one. Wiebo Arienes Ludwig took his final breath at 11:30 am on Easter Monday. On his last day he said “...Think I’m afraid of dying? Hardly.” His last words were a request: that family members not quarrel and that they keep the faith.

No outsiders were permitted at the funeral service, held in the family’s large dining hall. I first learned of Wiebo’s death when Josh, one of his sons, phoned late that afternoon.

Family members wept openly when I played back recordings of the final interviews with Wiebo. I had called Trickle Creek on April 2 for an update on his condition. Ludwig managed to get to the phone. “Why are you calling?” he queried. I joked I was curious to see if he’d died on April Fools Day. Ludwig chuckled. It was the last time we spoke.

What has changed at Trickle Creek since Wiebo Ludwig’s death? Plenty, but much remains the same. Trickle Creek continues to be managed by a council of eight family members, its spiritual core much the way it was when Wiebo was alive.

Trickle Creek remains a strong Christian community, bordering on Old Testament-like values. Meals are followed by readings from the Scriptures. No one is addicted to cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, gambling, or television. The adults work every day except Sundays. Food and herbs are home grown, no one in the community suffers from obesity. The children have chores; they pick berries, help with the harvest, feed the chickens and milk the goats and cows. For kicks, they ride bikes, collect cattails, learn pottery and play volleyball, soccer and hop-scotch.

There are no video games at Trickle Creek. Put it this way: the apple products they admire hang on trees and the twitter comes from birds.

But a few changes have taken place. Wiebo’s log cabin was moved closer to the forest; the inside is now being refurbished and a second floor added. Plans are underway to build another multiple-story house, complete with a turret and an aerial walkway; the idea is that in cold weather people can travel between buildings without having to don extra clothes. A huge barn was recently constructed to store five thousand bales of hay and to give livestock shelter on cold winter days.

Before I pulled out of Trickle Creek I chatted with beekeeper Fritz Ludwig. “Sorry if I seem out of place here,” I explained, “I don’t go to church.” Holding a young child in his arms and swaying from side to side, the bearded Fritz smiled and replied, “neither do we.”

Byron Christopher is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Edmonton, Alberta. For more on his career, click here.

Wiebo Ludwig’s last interview was published in The Dominion on March 16, 2012. See Wiebo’s Final Battle.

Wiebo's Crypt

Wiebo Ludwig, November 2011

What the Tar Sands Need

dru — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:39:45 +0000

Processing requires massive inputs of water, energy, land, labour

Water

For each barrel of oil produced from the tar sands, between two and 4.5 barrels of water is needed. The water is used in the process of extracting bitumen from the naturally occurring the tar sand. The bitumen is later "upgraded" into synthetic crude oil.

In 2007, the government of Alberta approved the withdrawal of 119.5 billion gallons of water for tar sands extraction, of which an estimated 82 per cent came from the Athabasca River. Of that, extraction companies were only required to return 10 billion gallons to the river.

Most of the water used ends up in giant, toxic tailing ponds. As of 2006, tailing ponds covered 50-square kilometers of former boreal forest. By 2010, according to the Oil Sands Tailings Research Facility, the industry will have generated 8 billion tons of waste sand and 1 billion cubic metres of waste water--enough to fill 400,000 olympic-sized swimming pools. Today, the largest human-made dam by volume of materials is the Syncrude tailing pond, a few kilometres from the Athabasca river.

The waste sand and water contain naphtha and paraffin, which are used in the extraction process, and oil leftovers like benzene, naphthenic acid and polyaromatic hydrocarbon, among others. Chemicals found in the tailing ponds are known to cause liver problems and brain hemorrhaging in mammals, and deformities and death in birds.

It is difficult to estimate the volume of toxins that make their way into the Athabsca, but downstream communities like Fort Chipewyan have reported high occurrences of rare cancers, lupus, multiple sclerosis and other diseases in recent years. Local fishermen have reported boils and deformities in fish. One winter, an oil slick was discovered under the ice. Syncrude later admitted that there had been a spill about 200 kilometres upstream.

The Athabasca also feeds Great Slave Lake, Deh Cho (the Mackenzie River) and vast northern watersheds. Water from the Athabasca flows all the way to the Arctic Ocean, and plays an essential role in the lives of indigenous communities and vast areas of Boreal forest.

Energy

Between digging up the tar sand, separating out the bitumen, and subsequently upgrading it to synthetic heavy crude, the extraction process requires vast amounts of energy. Because the tar sand and bitumen must be heated, about 1/6 of the energy provided by a barrel of oil is expended to extract one barrel of oil from tar sand.

Opponents of the tar sands say that burning a relatively clean fuel like natural gas to produce oil undermines any efforts to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions and transition to sustainable fuel sources. According to estimates from the Pembina Institute, the tar sands will account for 25 per cent of Canada's emissions by 2020, if Kyoto targets are reached.

The vast amounts of natural gas needed to extract millions of barrels of oil per day are leading to an anticipated shortage of supply. As a result, several energy megaprojects have been proposed.

Perhaps the most contentious of the proposals is the $7 billion Mackenzie Gas Project, a 1220 kilometre pipeline that runs along the Mackenzie River Valley, from the Arctic Ocean to Alberta's northern border. The project would connect the estimated 82 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Mackenzie River delta with the tar sands extraction plants to the south.

A second project, the Alaska Gas Pipeline would connect Alaska's north slope, home to an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with the Mackenzie valley route.

In part to make up for the natural gas supply taken up by the tar sands, Liquid Natural Gas terminals have been proposed in multiple locations on the west coast, east coast and along the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The terminals would receive natural gas from tankers incoming from the Middle East, Russia and other overseas sources.

Natural gas supply is still not enough to keep up with anticipated growth, leading industry to explore options such as nuclear power. Alberta's first nuclear power plant has been proposed in the town of Peace River, though it has faced some local opposition.

Much to the dismay of environmentalists, there is also discussion of building new coal-burning power plants into future tar sands upgrading facilities.

Labour

The Conference Board of Canada predicted in 2006 that Alberta would face a shortage of 332,000 workers by 2025. The figure has been dismissed as exaggerated (it is based on the current rate of growth continuing unimpeded), but it seems to be an accurate reflection of the concern Alberta's industrial sector has shown recently.

That tar sands require a massive influx of labour is not disputed. Another estimate says that 20,000 new positions will be created in the tar sands over the next three years.

The signs of a labour shortage are already apparent in Alberta. Workers from Newfoundland and the Maritimes are offered flights to and from Fort McMurray for the duration of their work term. Grocery stores and fast food joints offer hourly wages in the double digits, and sometimes offer signing bonuses.

Increasingly, workers are brought in from countries like China and the Philippines. In 2006, Immigration Canada issued 15,172 new "temporary work permits" in Alberta, bringing the number of temporary workers to 22,392.

Temporary workers differ from immigrants in that they have no access to immigration services, and can effectively be sent home. According to some reports, the workers' temporary status leaves the door open to abuse. In one case, 12 men brought in by a trucking company were charged $500 per month to live in a three-bedroom bungalow.

The temporary foreign workers program has sparked a debate over the development of the tar sands.

"Most skilled workers would prefer to have 20 years of stable employment rather than seven or eight years of frantic development," writes Gil McGowan of the Alberta Federation of Labour. If the pace of development was slowed, he writes, the need for temporary foreign workers would diminish.

Currently, development is heading in the opposite direction, with plans to increase production fivefold in the next twenty years. Regulations are being "streamlined," and plans are in place to further increase the number of foreign workers.

Land

Open pit mining of tar sands, according to the Government of Alberta, involves "clearing trees and brush from a site and removing the overburden - the topsoil, muskeg, sand, clay and gravel - that sits atop the oil sands deposit." The "overburden" that is removed is up to 75 metres (about 25 stories) deep, and the underlying tar sands are typically between 40 and 60 metres deep.

After trees and brush are clearcut and either burned or sent to sawmills, the area is drained, and any local rivers are rerouted. Giant trucks then remove soil, clay and sand to uncover the prized tar sands. The sands are then removed and taken to plants to be processed. In the end, an average of four tonnes of earth must be removed to render one barrel of oil.

In addition to tailing ponds (see "Water"), vast amounts of waste sand are generated. These sands, still containing traces of bitumen and other chemicals, are inhospitable to life. Near Syncrude's extraction plant, for example, a vast desert stretches over the horizon. The expanse shows no signs of life, and carries the overpowering smell of asphalt.

The tar sands cover an estimated 141,000-square kilometres, of which approximately 3,400-square kilometres will be strip mined if currently-approved projects go forward.

Government regulations require the strip-mined land to be "reclaimed," and returned to a "stable, biologically self-sustaining state." According to Syncrude's web site, this means "productive capability at least equal to its condition before operations began." Syncrude envisions "a mosaic landscape dominated by productive forests, wetland areas alive with waterfowl and grasslands supporting grazing animals."

So far, Suncor says it has reclaimed 858 hectares, accounting for less than 9 per cent of the land it has mined since 1967. Syncrude has mined 18,653 hectares, a little under a fifth of which it says it has reclaimed.

None of the land, however, has been officially certified as reclaimed by the government. Both corporations have billboard advertisements in Fort McMurray proclaiming the success of their reclamation programs. In the end, it is not clear that land will be fully reclaimed, and government agencies have been criticized as lax in enforcing regulations.

Water

Roughneck, Bruised Head

dru — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:15:55 +0000

A tale of women, toughness and safety in Alberta's gas fields

Chantal Desharnais is no stranger to the outdoors or manual labour. Still, the 24-year-old Quebecker, who had previously worked in construction and spent a summer living on the banks of a B.C. river picking fruit for income had reservations about going to Calgary to work in the natural gas industry for the summer. But it was the moral dilemma of working in an industry she has ethical disagreements with, not the physical labour, she was concerned with, says the student in international relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal. As many before her, though, the lucrative work provided an opportunity to make enough money over the summer to cover her tuition fees and help with student loan debts.

But while she says she was prepared for the physical rigour of the work, she never expected the sexism she would face–or the serious injuries she would sustain. After one month on the job, Desharnais would need to be transferred to an office job in Calgary after suffering a concussion, receiving five stitches to the back of her head, and a severely spraining her shoulder.

Despite what seems to be an ample need for workers in the Alberta oil and natural gas fields (the natural gas industry in Canada alone employed 151,327 people in 2006 and is growing), Desharnais found it difficult to get hired once she hitchhiked her way out to Calgary. Company after company refused to grant her an interview. While most companies were coy about the reasons why, she says it was clear that they weren’t interested in hiring women. Eventually, however, she started asking companies outright if they had a policy of not hiring women. While she says she sensed hesitation when she first contacted Geokinetics, her eventual employer, their human resources and personnel manager claims the company never refuses to hire women.

“We never refuse to hire someone if they are a woman–we’re an equal opportunity employer,” says Stephen Menchuk, who hired Desharnais and is familiar with her case. “We have so many positions to fill, sometimes we even hire 50, 60-year-old men. They don’t necessarily work out in the field, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done at the base-camp that isn’t as physically demanding.”

Interviewed at the end of June, Desharnais was at work by the beginning of July, flown out to the base-camp in Grand Cache, Alberta, where the company, which specialises in geological exploration, was checking the area for natural gas deposits. She was one of only two women on the crew, and says she felt it right away. Beyond what she saw as a culture of “only the tough survive,” the fact she is a woman seemed to make it all that more thrilling for others to see her fail.

“As people get off the bus, you can tell they’re judging how long they’ll last. Once you’re there for a while, you start to hear the comments too. It’s especially hard for women.”

The challenges started almost immediately, she says. For the first two days she worked with all the new employees on the line crew–the regular work for rookies in the field, following the machines clearing brush to lay the explosive line behind it. But on the third day she was sent out as a trouble-shooter alongside a 15-year company veteran known for taking few breaks and working long hours. While line crew follow tracks already cleared by machine, trouble-shooters clear their own path, going from one trouble spot in a detonation line to another. By the end of the day she was exhausted and demoralised. Upon returning to the camp, two of the older colleagues asked how her day was.

“When I told them I was out with Paddy, they burst out laughing, like it was some inside joke,” she says. None of the other new employees were sent out as trouble-shooters.

Despite the tough day, Desharnais stuck with it and was eventually transferred to work with someone a little more easy-going. Then, towards the end of the month, she was transferred back to line crew. While the work atmosphere was still far from comfortable, she felt the worst had passed. But after only three more days on line crew, she was once again unexpectedly reassigned, this time as a shooter’s helper.

But according to Menchuk, there was another reason for her constant reassignment. “I didn’t want to tell Chantal this to her face, but I’ve been told that she just couldn’t handle the work out in the field. She isn’t very big and it’s tough work carrying 30 pounds of equipment through the field and up mountains. I was told she just couldn’t keep up. Transferring her to shooter’s helper was to give her a chance; she would just need to follow behind and clean up after him.”

According to Desharnais, however, she was constantly at the head of her group and was in fact told, along with one other colleague, to slow down so the others in her group could keep pace. And while working as a troubleshooter or a shooter’s helper meant carrying less equipment, it definitely wasn’t easier when it came either to cardio or to the safety issues involved. “It was clear that they wanted to put me in a difficult position,” she said.

The job of a shooter is to detonate underground explosives sending out seismic waves to see if there are gas or oil deposits; a shooter’s helper is a kind of a sidekick, helping to set up the area, and clear away the wires after the explosion. Desharnais was assigned as a shooter’s helper in the morning, and, according to her, not given proper training except for one colleague who offered her some advice on what equipment to bring. According to Menchuk all employees receive internationally recognised training at the beginning of their employment and are updated in the field. While he wasn’t on the ground in Grand Cache, he says he couldn’t imagine someone being sent out without proper training.

“We always ensure our employees wear the proper safety equipment. Safety equipment doesn’t eliminate hazards, but it reduces them as much as possible.” Attempts were made to contact Desharnais’ on-site supervisor, but Menchuk said he is currently out of the country and not available for comment.

According to Desharnais, upon arriving on site her partner, the shooter, had no time to show her the ropes. After being dropped off by helicopter they walked half an hour into the bush to the site where they would be detonating explosives. When one of their two walkie-talkies died, the functioning one was given to her partner. She stayed back while he went to lay and detonate the explosives. All along, however, she assumed she would receive some kind of warning that the detonation was about to go.

“All of a sudden the explosion went off, with debris in the air. All I remember was being hit in the head and the shoulder,” she says. While Menchuk says he was informed she was 30 m from the explosion (the required distance) and behind a tree, Desharnais says she can’t really be sure how far she was because she was never signaled where the explosion was coming from. Upon returning to find her, her colleague radioed in that she had been injured. “But he would only say I had hurt my shoulder, and not that I thought I was hit in the head. He told me the blood on my neck was just from scratching it on branches when I fell,” she says.

“Even I didn’t really know the extent of my injuries until I got into the helicopter, but I knew I had hurt my head,” she continues. “It was only once I saw the look of the pilot when I took off my helmet in the helicopter and the blood started going everywhere.” The impact of the collision with the rock had cracked part of her helmet and cut her head badly enough that she would need five stitches once back at the base-camp, and would eventually be diagnosed with a severe concussion. “When we got back to base-camp, the medic even said that if he knew I had injured my head he would have flown out to get me instead of waiting back at the camp.”

According to Menchuk, the type of injury sustained by Desharnais is rare in general, and a first for a shooter’s helper (Desharnais disputes this, saying she was told on several occasions of shooters and shooter’s helpers being seriously injured on the job). “We do everything we can to ensure our employees’ safety,” he explained over the phone from Calgary. “But as I tell everyone, in the end you need to be aware of your surroundings. No one wanted Chantal to get hurt, and we’re sorry that she did.”

Desharnais sees something more troubling. “There was a constant diminishing of my concerns,” she says. Desharnais feels that if she was a man perhaps her co-worker would have paid more attention when she said she had injured her head and not just her shoulder. “They just seem to think you complain for nothing.”

Menchuk agrees that it is not always easy for women in the oil industry. “It’s both the work and the atmosphere,” he says. “You’re sending out a woman with a crew of 50 other guys. Issues come up, things like separate bathrooms and you need to share with the cooking crew because there are only three toilets on site.”

Diagnosed with a sprained shoulder and receiving five stiches to the back of her head, it was unclear for three days, before she was able to return to Calgary, whether she had a concussion. While she was X-rayed in Grand Cache, there wasn’t a head trauma expert at the hospital who could tell her the extent of her injuries.

Desharnais’ troubles didn’t end with the injuries. According to Menchuk, Desharnais “declined” to go back out to the site when safety personnel went with her partner to examine the area in order to file an incident report. Desharnais remembers it differently. “They asked if I wanted to go with them, and I said yes. I wasn’t feeling well [from her injuries] and went to lie down. I found out later that they had gone without me.” The ensuing reports, except for the one she wrote herself, were based mostly on the shooter’s account of the incident and downplayed the lack of training she received and the lack of communication on site. She still has copies of the reports she refused to sign because of her disagreement on the facts.

It is clear that many may think that Desharnais’s complaints are simply sour grapes because she was hurt on the job. Menchuk claims he isn’t sure why Desharnais is still pursuing the matter. “We treated her the way we would treat any employee. She decided to quit her modified work load [an office job in Calgary given to her at full pay after her injury] and go back to Grand Cache to try and convince her supervisors to change their reports. We’re sorry for what happened, but there isn’t much we can do now.”

But in an industry that is continuing to grow in Canada, Desharnais feels stories like hers need to get out. It isn’t about the fact that the work is hard, she says, or even so much that she got hurt–even though she still suffers from headaches and concentration problems from her concussion and has mobility problems with her right shoulder. It’s about the fact she wasn’t properly trained and her safety wasn’t ensured in the field, and that in large part she believes this was because she is a woman. “I may keep looking into this and talk to lawyers. But really I just don’t want to see this happening to anyone else,” she says.

Roughneck

Last Gas

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:53:38 +0000

Can natural gas reserves keep up with soaring consumption?

Liquefied natural gas tankers will soon be docking in Canada.

"Less polluting than either coal or petroleum," natural gas is the "fossil fuel du jour," reports Resources, an American magazine examining energy policy. Although domestic oil and gas extraction cannot keep up with demand in the US, roughly 60 per cent of natural gas reserves can be found outside the Middle East, meaning that importing it may not carry what Resources calls, 'the political burdens associated with oil."

But importing natural gas across oceans requires liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to receive it, and communities in the United States are fighting to keep them out. The fight has now moved north to Canada where opponents argue that LNG terminals threaten local economies and eco-systems, and take energy policy in entirely the wrong direction.

Currently, there are five Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals in North America -- all built before 1980. As of July 5, 2006, however, an additional 23 terminals have been approved for construction, 22 have been proposed for construction, and 21 potential terminal sites have been identified by project sponsors. In total, there are 67 approved, proposed and potential LNG terminal sites in North America, where for decades there were only five.

As the third-largest natural gas producer and second-largest gas exporter, Canada has never had a need for LNG terminals, but that is about to change. Eight of the approved, proposed and potential LNG sites are in Canada, six of them in eastern Canada. In addition, three more terminals have been proposed for the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay, a location that would require tankers to enter Canadian waters off the coast of New Brunswick.

One might wonder if natural gas consumption in the Maritimes is set to skyrocket, but according to Julian Darley, the gas is not intended for local markets. Darley is the founder and director of the Post Carbon Institute and author of High Noon For Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis. The LNG terminals are a response to rising energy demands in the US, says Darley, and the reason the terminals aren't being built closer to their market is because, "Americans don't want them and are fighting hard to keep them out."

Motivation for opposing the terminals varies from community to community, but often revolves around concerns that an LNG terminal and the huge tankers that service it will pose a threat to a coastal ecosystems and tourism by industrializing small communities, tribal lands and resort towns. LNG terminals could also make the area vulnerable to terrorism or an accidental spill resulting in an uncontrollable fire, opponents say.

Over the past two years, residents of Maine have fought to keep LNG terminals out of five separate communities, and won each time. Proposals for three LNG terminals have now moved further north to the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay. Although in the US, this location would arguably affect more New Brunswickers than Americans, as the Canadian side of the Bay is more densely populated. "This is seen as the soft underbelly of the Maine coast," says Janice Harvey, co-chair of Save Passamaquoddy Bay Canada, which calls the terminals "inappropriate development for a rural area where the economy is based on fishing, agriculture and tourism."

Further north, David Thompson is fighting a similar battle, but this one is in the city of Saint John where an LNG terminal is already being built by Irving Oil Ltd., and its Spanish partner Repsol. "A lot of companies were having a great deal of problems [getting permits] to build [LNG terminals] in the states. They've been rejected in many places," explains Thompson. "It's pretty easy for Irving to get a permit in New Brunswick."

JD Irving Ltd., owns all of New Brunswick's major English-language newspapers, as well as an oil refinery, pulp and paper mills and hundreds of other small- and medium-sized businesses. The company employs about eight per cent of the province's population.

"When Repsol got hold of Irving, they lucked in," says Thompson.

Residents have now learned of a proposal to have the natural gas exit the LNG plant through a pipeline that will run under part of the city and through Rockwood Park, the largest urban park in Canada.

"What right do these companies have to do it?" asks Thompson. "The community belongs to the community, not huge companies like Repsol and Irving.

"The gas has nothing to do with the surrounding communities," continues Thompson. "It's a way to get foreign gas to markets in the US"

Although the campaigns that Thompson and Harvey are waging are focused on local impacts, both recognize that the terminals are part of a larger trend that will have repercussions far beyond the communities where LNG sites are situated.

Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than oil or coal, but the environmental benefits of this will only be felt if natural gas replaces more polluting fossil fuel. If, on the other hand, natural gas is used in addition to other fuels, the environmental impacts will only worsen. According to Thompson, consumption trends indicate that the latter will be true. "What seems to be happening is that the natural gas won't displace other fuels, but just increase consumption," explains Thompson.

This apparently insatiable energy market is part of what's spawning the rash of LNG proposals, but natural gas -- much like oil -- will not be able to fuel North American consumption forever, and according to Darley, may disappear far faster than anticipated. "Demand is on an upward trend, extraction in North America is on a downward trend, and supply of natural gas worldwide is in question."

"I see this as the last desperate gasp of the fossil fuel industry and the governments that support it," says Harvey. "It's a race to see who can get into the market quickest before the market collapses or the supply runs out.

"The bigger trend is disturbing in that it postpones the real grappling with our energy and climate change issues," continues Harvey. Rather than pouring resources into LNG terminals, communities should be focusing on how to decrease energy consumption and how to harness cleaner renewable sources of energy, like wind and solar, she says.

"This is a catastrophic waste of money," says Darley. "It's a huge investment in something that's going to run out."

Although the public may pay in the future, some are making money now.

Threatened with losing the LNG terminal and the economic boost that may come with it, in March 2005, Saint John City Council enraged many city residents by voting in favour of a tax deal on the land where the LNG plant is now being built. Under the deal, Irving and Repsol will pay one tenth of regular property taxes on the LNG site for the next 25 years, saving the companies $100 million over that period. More recently, during July's G8 summit, LNG got another 'boost,' according to the Globe and Mail, with a proposed $1.5 billion US deal between Petro-Canada and Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom. In the same month, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. sold the site for a new LNG terminal in Nova Scotia for $140.7 million to a US company.

"It's not an energy game," says Harvey. "It's a money game."

Hillary Bain Lindsay asks why Eastern Canada is being flooded with proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals, and why so many communities are resisting them.

Saint John city official backs secret tax deal for LNG plant

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:05:44 +0000

Saint John city manager Terry Totten has announced that the mayor's secret deal to grant Irving Oil and Repsol of Spain a generous break on property taxes was a good idea. The deal was made last March to help the energy companies build a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant in New Brunswick's largest city.

According to CBC News, the companies will pay $500,000 per year in property taxes for the next 25 years, about one-tenth of what the land could have brought in.

Mayor Norm McFarlane went ahead with the decision despite opposition from city councillors, including Deputy Mayor Michelle Hooton. City Councillor Ivan Court said the deal was fiscally irresponsible, highlighting the fact that "[the municipality] gave a preferential rate to a company and it cost the taxpayers of this city $112.5 million over 25 years."

At the time of the deal, McFarlane told council that the companies gave him a midnight deadline to make the secret deal, or the plant would not be built. Totten said the loss in property taxes would be offset by investment and employment opportunities at the facility.

Provincial NDP Leader Elizabeth Weir says the proposed tax break for the LNG plant violates the fundamental principles of equal opportunity. Weir told CBC News that just as Irvings was negotiating this special deal, many New Brunswickers were receiving notices in the mail that their own property taxes were going up.

Once completed in 2008, the plant will link up with a controversial pipeline that has prompted opposition by a coalition of anti-LNG protestors, environmental activists and citizens opposed to having the 30-inch diameter pipeline run through the city.

Bolivia on a Tightrope

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:51:38 +0000

The struggle for control of resources and the current crisis

Social movements mobilize in La Paz to demand the nationalization of natural gas. Photo: Bolivia Indymedia

On June 6th 2005, after months of steady road blockades and protests demanding the nationalization of the country's natural gas reserves, President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to congress, explaining he was incapable of presiding over such a tumultuous country. This was one of many climactic points in a series of popular uprisings over the destiny of the second largest gas reserves in South America. At this writing, the fate of the gas, and the geopolitical future of the country, is still very much in question.

A Recent History of Division

Bolivia's reserves constitute an estimated 1.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, which at current market prices, are worth more than US$1.5 billion. The unpopular ex-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, commonly referred to as "Goni" in Bolivia, pushed to privatize the nation's gas reserves in a deal with foreign companies such as British Gas, Exxon-Mobil and Spain's Repsol in 2003. Under the deal, the Bolivian government was to receive a meager 18% of revenues. This percentage struck a raw chord with many Bolivians. For centuries, foreign companies had been exploiting the nation's natural resources such as coal, copper and tin, making enormous profits while Latin America's second poorest country struggled on. In recent gas-related uprisings, many Bolivians have been trying to make sure history didn't repeat itself.

Outraged by Goni's privatization plan, activists took to the streets in what has been called Bolivia's first "Gas War." From September to October of 2003, protests, road blockades and strikes paralyzed the country. Often without sufficient political representation, protest groups have become adept at directing political and media attention to their demands by shutting down the economy with road blockades and strikes. Protesters demanded that the natural gas reserves be nationalized, and run by the government so that profits from the business could go to poorer sectors of society, helping to build much-needed hospitals, roads and schools.

In 2003, protesters also demanded the resignation of President Sanchez de Lozada, who had continually channeled state resources toward foreign investors and international donors instead of social programs to address the needs of Bolivian people. Sanchez de Lozada's heavy-handed protest control tactics also left nearly sixty dead in the month long Gas War, the large majority of them protesters. At the end of the conflict, Sanchez de Lozada fled the country, leaving the administration in the hands of Vice-president Carlos Mesa.

Mesa knew that if he was to survive the political climate, he would have to concede to some of the diverse demands of the protesting sectors. Among his promises were plans for a national referendum on the gas exportation issue and justice for the victims of the 2003 Gas War.

On July 18th, 2004 the referendum took place. Voters were to choose yes or no to five questions including whether to repeal Sanchez de Lozada's gas exportation plan, increase revenue with a new plan, use the gas as a strategic way to gain access to the sea from Chile, and use most of the profits from the exportation plan for the development of schools, hospitals, roads and jobs. Unfortunately for Bolivian protest groups, the referendum did not include the nationalization of the gas as an option.

Many voters did not understand the convoluted wording of the questions, which were not only pointed towards a "yes" vote, but also left open opportunities for corporate exploitation of the gas. Citizens were also reportedly forced into voting by a harsh new law which called for the imprisonment of any person who refused to participate in the referendum.

The controversial referendum led to divisions among activist leaders in Bolivia. Jamie Solares from the Bolivian Worker's Union and Felipe Quispe, the director of the Bolivian Farm Workers Federation, led blockades and protests against the referendum, but were not able to generate enough grassroots support to stop or impede the voting. Congressman Evo Morales, leader of the Movement Toward Socialism Party (MAS) and a major coca farmers' union, supported the referendum. Some viewed Morales' endorsement as a strategic move to gain urban middle support for a presidential bid in the next election.

After the polls closed on July 18th, it was announced that seventy five percent of the voters said "yes" to all five questions. Yet for months, gridlock in congress, pressure from foreign investors and protesting groups postponed any major decisions on what to do with the gas.

The violence of the 2003 conflict still hasn't been fully investigated, and members of Bolivia's security forces have not been charged. However, Mesa has differed from his predecessor in one significant way: he has refused to call upon the use of lethal security force to break up the many protests and road blockades. In the year and half that Mesa has been in office, though confrontations between protesters and security forces have resulted in injuries, no deaths have been reported.

Gas War: 2005

In March of 2005, protest groups made up of unions, farmers, civil society organizations and students, were tired of waiting for the government to nationalize the gas. Through both independent and coordinated efforts, protesters marched, blockaded vital highways and shut down four oilfields near the central city of Cochabamba.

On March 6, after facing an estimated 800 protests during his term in office, Mesa stated that the country had become "ungovernable" and offered his resignation. He blamed Evo Morales for the chaos in the country and used the resignation announcement as a threat to hand power over to the President of the Parliament, Hormando Vaca Diez. Due to his ties to foreign investors and the main right-wing party in government, Vaca Diez was highly unpopular with Bolivian leftists and was likely to respond more violently to protests than Mesa.

Mesa was hoping the gesture, which many called a plea for sympathy, would force the left to back off. Yet not only was Mesa's resignation rejected by congress, but his announcement backfired. During Mesa's show of weakness, diverse protest groups led by Morales, Quispe and Solares came together to re-launch a past protest front known as the People's General Staff. The group, formed to unite the country's social movements, called for continued strikes and demanded that governmental royalties from the sale of the gas be raised to a minimum of 50%.

On May 17th 2005, the Bolivian Congress passed a gas law which imposed a new 32% tax on production on top of the existing royalties of 18%. However, it fell short of the protesters' demands as they said it would be easy for the oil companies to evade the 32% tax. This set off another round of marches and road blockades. The legislation also agitated foreign investors, who claimed it gave far too much control to the government. The law increased taxes for foreign companies and stated that indigenous groups would have to be consulted about further use of gas in their areas and would receive compensation for the use of their land. Many foreign investors had been pumping money into Bolivia's gas industry since 1996 and felt that the new law was confiscating their investments. Some threatened to sue the Bolivian government in international courts.

Jefferey Webber published an article in ZNet, which quoted US Treasury Department's Assistant Secretary of International Affairs Randal Quarles as saying that, if the new gas law were to go into effect, it would be a "sure thing that the first measure would be the suspension of investments, at minimum while Bolivia continues this uncertainty." Quarles also suggested that the law might influence the amount of financial support that organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank offer to the Bolivian government.

The day before the law was passed, 100,000 protesters, primarily from El Alto, a working class community near La Paz, the country's capital, rallied outside parliament demanding Mesa's resignation. In the proceeding days, other sectors joined the El Alto protesters. The La Paz teachers' union called a strike, peasant unions across the country organized road blockades, and the National Congress of the Miners' Union also began marching in La Paz. The MAS party organized a massive march from the city of Cochabamba to La Paz, a distance of 190 kilometers.

In an article on ZNet, Nick Buxton quotes a miner named Iriaro who had traveled six hours to join protests in La Paz as saying, "People are suffering to get here as they have so little money. But I decided to come because we need to reclaim our natural resources. We have been robbed for centuries and our government is robbing us again."

Not all protesters shared the same goals. Evo Morales said that Bolivia should receive 50% of the royalties from the sale of the gas, a demand which had been previously supported by protesters but by this point was viewed by many as too moderate. As the perhaps strongest leftist presidential candidate, Morales and his positions are often highly scrutinized. In an article in CounterPunch, Forrest Hylton explained that "Morales poses as the defender of democracy in hopes of winning over the urban middle class... Though the U.S. Embassy, the weak and divided Bolivian elite, and the London Economist see Morales as a wolf in sheep's clothing, a strategic radical disguised as a tactical moderate, in rhetoric and fact Morales is the strongest defender of Bolivian democracy as presently configured. Neither he nor MAS want to see the constitutional order unravel, as both have had their sights set on the 2007 elections since 2002, when Morales nearly won the presidential race."

By May 24, tens of thousands of protesters had again descended into La Paz from El Alto. They were met with rubber bullets and tear gas from security forces. Six protesters were reportedly injured in the clashes. Road blockades were set up on main roads across the country, shutting down routes to La Paz, the nearby international airport, and roads to the borders with Peru and Chile.

On June 2nd, as a last ditch effort, Mesa announced plans to re-write the constitution in a national assembly. With such an assembly, Mesa hoped to calm the protests by offering marginalized indigenous people a larger voice in the government. Under his decree, members to the constitutional assembly would be elected on October 16, 2005. According to a June 3rd report by the AFP News Service, Evo Morales, stating that Mesa's proposal could easily be rejected by congress, said it had "good intentions, but is unconstitutional... a new show put on by the government [to demobilize the protests]."

Photo: Bolivia Indymedia

Protesters were not satisfied with Mesa's proposal, as it didn't offer an immediate response to their demands for nationalization of the country's gas. Protest groups pledged to continue road blockades and marches until the gas was nationalized and plans for the constitutional assembly were passed by congress.

Mesa also proposed a referendum on the autonomy of resource-rich areas in Bolivia, such as the province of Santa Cruz, where much of Bolivian gas is located. There is a strong drive in this region to privatize the gas. Protest groups are deeply against right-wing demands for such autonomy, as it would thwart any plans for full nationalization.

On June 6th, after another full day of protest and road blockades, Mesa again offered his resignation to congress. "This is as far as I can go," Mesa stated in a televised address. The Andean Information Network reported that Mesa also said that he had done his best, and that he asked Bolivians for forgiveness if he shared responsibility for the profound political crisis that was gripping the nation. Although the MAS party demanded Mesa's resignation, it was not a key demand of many groups; most primarily advocated for the nationalization of the gas. For many protesters, the issue wasn't who was President; it was who was in control of the nation's gas. As such, Mesa's resignation is unlikely to offer a solution to Bolivia's crisis.

Promising not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor, Mesa did not call upon the use of lethal force by police to quell protests. However, should Mesa's resignation be accepted, the presidency would then go to Vaca Diez, who has often advocated the use of force to stop the protests. During the Sanchez de Lozada administration such crackdowns only fueled national discontent.

Even before Mesa offered his resignation, Vaca Diez said that the idea of having early elections is "gaining momentum as a way out of the problem". Morales also told reporters that holding early elections "is the only way we will find a political solution." If early presidential elections do take place, Morales may have a solid chance of winning. He lost to Sanchez de Lozada in 2002 by less than 2% of the vote. Whoever ends up becoming president will continue to face similar pressure from foreign investors, international donors and a largely discontented majority of citizens.

As the conflict has proven so far, only full nationalization of the gas is likely to satisfy protesters. Marches, blockades and strikes are expected to continue across the country. Meanwhile, the second largest natural gas reserves on the continent remain in the ground.

Benjamin Dangl worked at the Andean Information Network in Bolivia in 2003. He is the editor of Upside Down World, an online magazine about activism and politics in South America. Contact: Ben@upsidedownworld.org. Thanks to April Howard for editorial help with this article.

» Jeffery Webber: Nationalization! The first two Days of Bolivia's Second Gas War

» Jeffery Webber: Bolivia Erupts

» Bolivia Back to the Streets? Natural Gas and Popular Struggle

» Forrest Hylton: A Radical Democracy Movement Mobilizes

» BBC: Bolivian protesters reject offer

» BBC: Bolivian president offers to quit

» Agence France-Presse Bolivian president sets date for votes in bid to quell unrest

» Federico Fuentes: Bolivia: A nation holds its breath

Benjamin Dangl explains the ongoing struggle for control of Bolivia's natural resources and the current uprising.

British Company to Raise Private Battalion

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 23:24:35 +0000

The Iraqi government's Army Transportation Command has awarded Aegis Defense Services of London a $293 million contract to raise a private battalion to provide armed protection for reconstruction projects in Iraq. The agreement charges retired Scots Guard Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Spicer with providing roughly 800 soldiers to act as 'close protection teams' for companies involved in oil, gas, and infrastructure development in Iraq.

Aegis Defence Services, which offers salaries up to three times that available in the British Army, is typical of the growing trend towards out-sourcing military services by nations. Some observers worry that an increased reliance on mercenary forces enriches those with political connections while eliminating avenues of accountability in the case of human rights abuses. Raising of military units by individuals at public expense has been a historical rule that was only broken by the nationalism leading up to the Second World War. Canada's own Lord Strathcona's Horse armoured regiment, which recently served in Afghanistan, began life as a cavalry regiment raised privately during the Boer War by businessman Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona. Others see the reliance on mercenaries as signifying the emergence of exceptions to the previously unquestioned global military dominance of the United States.