Mining.com.  Here, "Visual Capitalist" helps us to grasp the enormous breadth, depth and wealth of Canada's Oil Sands, which makes a conduit (or, pipeline conduits) through the United States and other Canadian provinces even more valuable to those areas due to associated jobs and property tax benefits.  

Citizens of both states and provinces should not be fooled by environmental activist tomfoolery which seeks to isolate and lock up that wealth for both current and future generations.  Demonizing and then snapping a ball and chain around the legs of reasonable natural resource development can only cripple job creation, economic opportunity and associated North American lifestyles for this and future generations.  

We are grateful to reader, Steve Borell for bringing this lucid analysis to our attention.  

Yesterday we urged readers to consider attending and supporting both mining and oil and gas conferences where policy decisions often originate and achieve decision-maker consensus.  The oil sands project is a perfect example of how mining and Oil & Gas share symmetry.  

Other examples include Alaska's Pebble Project challenges, which, if lost, will eviscerate America's 'rule of law and Constitutional due process guarantees', and empower the EPA through precedent to PRE-EMPTIVELY BLOCK any agricultural, commercial fishing, petroleum, mining, forestry, hydroelectric, federal highway or state bridge or municipal right of way project — BEFORE THAT PROJECT HAS EVEN FILED A PERMIT APPLICATION OR PRESENTED A DEVELOPMENT PLAN.  -dh

Mining.com.  There’s no shortage of discussion on Canada’s oil sands. Even Leonardo Dicaprio has recently toured them while subsequently providing commentary that ruffled the feathers of the province of Alberta.

As a whole, the oil sands are about as big as the state of Florida. The mineable portion makes up about 3% of that total, which is for bitumen deposits less than 75 metres below ground. For perspective, this is about 6x the size of New York City. Meanwhile, the rest (about 97%) must be recovered by “in situ” methods such as SAGD where heavy oil is pumped to the surface.

Surely something with this size and scope must have a big impact in other places – and it does. The oil sands produce more than 56% of Canada’s oil and contains over 98% of Canada’s proven reserves. Over the next 25 years, $783 billion in royalties and taxes will be paid to the government.  (More….)

Consumer Energy Alliance Energy Clips:

The Lufkin News: Keystone XL pipeline a boon for tax rolls The Keystone XL pipeline will funnel more than black tar sands through Angelina County now that it’s on the 2014 tax rolls.
 
Omaha.com: Ruling on Keystone XL could come down to 2 key points The nearly six-year odyssey of the Keystone XL pipeline could turn this week in 30 minutes. The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Friday morning on a constitutional challenge involving one of the most bitterly fought environmental battles in a generation. President Barack Obama is awaiting a ruling from Nebraska before moving closer to deciding the fate of the massive oil pipeline.
 
Bloomberg: Keystone Redux Haunts Trans Mountain as Fight Shifts to Climate
The next fight over oil pipeline development in Canada is starting to look like Keystone XL version 2.0. This time the target is a $4.9 billion project by Houston billionaire Richard Kinder’s energy empire.
 
The Canadian Press: Leonardo DiCaprio visits Alberta oilsands to research documentary
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest celebrity to visit Alberta's oilsands. Sources involved with the visit say DiCaprio is doing research for an environmental documentary.
 
Inside Climate News: Keystone Ads Mislead on Canada's Deep Cuts to Environmental Monitoring
Canada has cut nearly $3 billion in spending and up to 5,000 jobs from its science-based departments, according to a union representing federal scientists.
 
KETV- Omaha: Gov. Heineman voices opinion on Keystone XL pipeline's slow process
Later this week the Nebraska Supreme Court will hear arguments about the Keystone XL Pipeline.
 
The Globe and Mail: TransCanada’s Energy East faces hurdle as U.S. oil boom swamps market
As TransCanada Corp. prepares to file for regulatory approval for its $12-billion cross-country pipeline project, booming U.S. oil imports are creating a new challenge: a domestic market saturated with low-cost crude.
 
The Guardian: As Shell gears up to drill the Arctic, investors must ask serious questions
The oil company has filed plans for offshore drilling but past safety blunders and operational failings in the region make it a high cost, high risk venture.
 
Huffington Post: No New Oil Drilling in Our Oceans
Labor Day represents the end of summer– and nothing says summer quite like a trip to the beach. At the beginning of summer, my family spent a few wonderful days exploring the beaches lining a small South Carolina coastal town. Enjoying the catch of the day at a local crab shack, we gazed at a sign across the road at a grocery store that pleaded "Don't ruin our ocean with sonic cannons." As we talked to long -time residents, we were struck by the deep concern they have that drilling for oil offshore would kill this community's tradition of great seafood, clean beaches, and sea turtle nesting.
 
The Beaufort Gazette: SC policymakers push for offshore drilling despite environmental, tourism concerns
When Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling scans the horizon of his city, he doesn't see a place for oil rigs. He fears the impact offshore drilling operations could have on South Carolina's coastal tourism.
 
Bloomberg BNA: McConnell to Intensify Push to Roll Back EPA Regulations if Republicans Flip Senate
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will make it a top priority to derail Environmental Protection Agency regulatory efforts through the appropriations process if Republicans retake the Senate this fall, the senator and several former congressional aides say.
 
The Energy Collective: EPA's Clean Power Plan: Texas's Last Stand or Last Hope?
August has been an eventful month here in Texas. And, no, I’m not referring to news about Governor Rick Perry, rather some of his appointees. The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Railroad Commissioners (RRC) Barry Smitherman and Christy Craddick, and State Representative Jason Isaac held a joint session to discuss the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new Clean Power Plan (CPP).
 
Reuters: From Seoul to Mexico City, pressure mounts to ease U.S. oil export ban
Washington is facing growing international pressure to ease its long standing ban on crude oil exports, with South Korea and Mexico joining the European Union in pressing the case for U.S. oil shipments overseas.
 
The New York Times: Desperately Dry California Tries to Curb Private Drilling for Water
The small prefab office of Arthur & Orum, a well-drilling outfit hidden in the almond trees and grapevines south of Fresno, has become a magnet for scores of California farmers in desperate need of water to sustain their crops. Looking at binders of dozens of orders for yet-to-be-drilled wells, Steve Arthur, a manager, said, “We’ve got more stacked up than we’ll do before the end of the year.”
 
Reuters:  Why the shale revolution is not about to end
Doubts about the sustainability of the North American oil and gas boom center on rapidly declining output from many shale wells after they are initially drilled. Shale skeptics point to the need to drill an ever-increasing number of new holes just to replace the declining output from existing wells, let alone expand production. At some point it will become impossible to keep up, they argue.
 
The Hill: White House reviews federal-land HF rules
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has started to review new regulations for hydraulic fracturing on federal land, the last step before the rules can be made final. The rules for the oil and gas drilling process, also known as fracking, were proposed last year after a mid-2012 proposal was pulled back.
 
Houston Chronicle: Water resources a problem worldwide, report finds
The great conundrum of the drilling revolution unfolding in the United States and now being exported to other nations is that some of the countries with the biggest oil and gas resources also have the least amount of water to dedicate to extracting them. According to the analysis by the World Resources Institute, 38 percent of the earth’s shale gas and tight oil resources are in areas that are either arid or under high levels of water stress already _ a scenario that does not mesh with the high water demands of today’s extraction techniques.
 
Saint Louis Post Dispatch: 'Fracking' one step closer to breaking ground in Illinois
Friday, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources officially released proposed rules to govern the controversial oil-extraction process. It now will be considered by a state legislative committee, which will decide within 90 days whether to go forward with the proposed rules—which have already garnered some 30,000 comments from the public.
 
The State Journal: Hydraulic fracturing could improve geothermal energy
A recent issue of The Economist had an article titled “Geothermal Energy, Hot Rocks, Why Geothermal Is the New Fracking.” The month before, a New York Times article titled, “Geothermal Industry Grows, With Help from Oil and Gas Drilling.”
 
Philadelphia Inquirer: Marcellus Shale gas boom sparks land disputes
The Marcellus Shale natural gas discovery has triggered an associated boom in Pennsylvania land disputes, as formerly valueless mineral rights are now potentially worth millions.
 
State Journal: WV workforce lacks oil and gas expertise — for now.
“It is amazing to consider how rapidly production has risen in recent years: For instance, the 33 percent rise in production that occurred just between 2012 and 2013 is significantly higher than anyone would have expected a few years ago,” said John Deskins, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. “More generally, performance has been consistently outstripping expectations in recent years.
 
Longview News-Journal: Texas shale keeps gas prices affordable.
Whenever overseas turmoil has pushed energy prices higher in the past, John and Beth Hughes have curbed their driving by eating at home more and shopping locally. But the crises in Ukraine and Iraq did not stop the Hughes family from making the two-hour drive to San Antonio to visit the Alamo, have a chicken-fried steak lunch and buy fish for their tank before driving home to Corpus Christi.
 
Houston Chronicle: As more oil travels along rail, safety concerns come up.
Across the country, intense scrutiny has descended on rail transit of crude, a partnership that built the national energy system in the age of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. As traffic has surged, a series of accidents, including a spectacular derailment that killed dozens of people last summer in Canada, has led to outcry from fire marshals and assurances from rail industry officials.