Summary

FTG FOR BILL WEIR CS VO ON CANADA'S OIL CALLED BITUMEN, OIL THAT HAS TO BE STRIP MINED OR STEAMED AND PUMPED FROM THE EARTH, PRODUCING THIS TYPE OF OIL, CREATES TWO TIMES GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION OF CONVENTIONAL CRUDE / FOR EVERY BARREL OF OIL THEY USE UP TO FOUR BARRELS OF WATER, WHICH IS THEN DUMPED INTO MANMADE TOXIC RESERVOIRS. TAR SANDS. Weir/Herman Calgary, Canada Crew: Layne Bauer, Mike Myrden 6/24/08 Tape 4 Interview with Dan Woynillowicz, Pembina Institute - Continued Set up shots 4:00:30 low angle, ducks in foreground, Bill/Dan in background 2:09 walking from under bridge to camera 02:20 Dan- Well, and at the end of the day for us, you know, we're non-partisan, we're not ideological, and you know, we kind of say, we don't care if you're big government or small government, we want good government. You know, and there is a lot a government can learn from the business sector around, you know, being more efficient, but ultimately, we need some leadership to say, "What are the most effective policies? How do we actually." 2:42 rack focus from leaves to Bill/Dan walking on path 02:40 Dan- They might have, you know, 10 to 20 wells. They've got 2 above ground pipelines that've got a road going up to it. So you've got this spider web effect where the forest becomes so fragmented that it's no longer useable habitat for any of the species that live in the Boreal. //Right// So you're, you're essentially sterilizing the forest, so yeah, you still see more trees than an open pit mine, but your end effect is the same. [Dan and Bill walk through park] 2:59 tilt down to shoes 03:01 Bill- Yeah, and how about natural gas, how much of that do you have to burn? 3:22 move from leaves to both walking 03:23 Dan- It's really reverse alchemy-it's taking gold into lead. We're taking our cleanest burning fossil fuel and reusing it to produce one of our dirtiest, and so are there better uses for natural gas within our economy. 03:45 Dan- And so one of shell's [man says ok in background] projects was the best project, but they had some of their other projects rank closer to the bottom. And what's troubling is that the project that ranked the best was their first, and it was their more recent ones where they're sliding a little bit in their environmental performance. And I think that's actually a very good example of the fact that they stuck their necks out with that first one. They did more than they had to do, um, the government didn't come along and say, oh, you can do that, but we're going to make everybody else do that too. The government left the bar low, and so, you know, I think shell said why are we going to spend more money again as costs are rising if we can do less, and still be allowed to get this oil out of the ground. //Wow.// So that's, you know, a clear example of where the government didn't show leadership to say hey, it's technologically and economically feasible to achieve this superior level of performance that's the new standard. 4:00 wide shot walking from bridge, push in to tighter shots - walk by Interview with David McColl, Canadian Energy Research Institute 05:30 Bill- From a global, historical perspective, how big is this boom going on up here. [Hear cars in background] 05:36 David- We're talking big. The oil sands was a, a dream 30 years ago, and now we're looking at a resource that's internationally recognized [cars zoom] 270 billion barrels of oil that's recoverable, and we've seen resources just move north all throughout, you know, the United States, up to Canada, everybody is moving to Fort McMurray to get this resource out of the ground, 'cause let's face it, we need hydrocarbons to power our economy and to have the cars that we so desperately rely on to move on the streets. 06:06 Bill- People are getting very rich, very fast. 06:09 David- Well, I think a lot of people are, and that also applies to the Alberta economy. The Alberta economy is getting very wealthy, and so is the Canadian economy. Eighty percent of the total investments that go into the oil sands happens in Alberta. The rest is spread throughout Canada and some to the United States. And I think as more and more companies move to the oil sands, the benefits will spread more evenly across Canada and the rest of the world. 06:34 Bill- Uh, you touched on a little bit, but this , is this kind of considered a pool of errand(?) 20 years ago, these oil sand speculators up here, everyone thought they were crazy, or what? 06:45 David- Well, I think 30 years ago, 20 years ago, some people might have thought, this doesn't make too much sense. I remember 10, 15 years ago talking about Suncor and saying, you know what that's going to make a lot of sense in 15 years, and lo and behold, here's where we are. We're running out of cheap oil, we're not out of oil, but out of cheap oil, so that means that we have more expensive oil. And the Alberta government invested heavily in helping to develop this resource and it's a phenomenal success story of government and industry R&D cooperation. 07:13 Bill- But there is some costs to. I mean, what are, what are the most egregious costs to this boom? 07:19 David- Well, we know that there are social issues. That's one of the costs--how do you manage rapid development and the pressures in place on a regional infrastructure, and also provincial infrastructures. We have some labor shortages, there are some drug addiction problems, and the cost of living in Fort McMurray is exorbitant when you think about just the rent that some people pay-a thousand plus dollars a month for a very, very tiny hole in a garage almost. 07:43 Bill- Right, uh, if it continues at this current spring, what's the worst that can happen? 07:50 David- Well, I think the worst that will happen is that it'll just go down. Market factors already come in place-we're seeing increase in costs of labor, increase in costs of living, there's only so much labor to go around, it's only so mobile, so we just see a slow down. I think what we'll see is a slow down in the development in the resources. That's, that's the worst that'll happen. [Motorcycle, cars] There are social issues that surround this, but we're really going to see a slow down and a slight contraction, if we can't get the labor, if costs continue to skyrocket. 08:18 Bill- Uh, there's the infamous, I guess, paragraph 5 26 in the US energy policy, you got the council of mayors saying we don't want your dirty oil, what will happen if Canada's biggest customer right next door decides we don't want this stuff any more? 08:35 David- Well, that's the beauty of a fungible commodity. It will go somewhere else. You know, China needs oil, India needs oil. So that can be sent elsewhere. But what I think is important on that issue of the oil, is this is often being done under the guides of dirty oil. So what I think is really important is, first of all, acknowledgement-yes, the oil sands produce about 80 percent more greenhouse gases than conventional oil, but keep in mind, you know, Canada has an excellent track record for regulation. You know, people can intervene and challenge the developments and say, "Hold on we think you need to do something differently." Now compare that to OPEC, compare that to Algeria, and Angola, you know, those are nations who are really producing blood oil. Think about blood diamonds, conflict diamonds, this is conflict oil from these countries. So it's one thing to take a step and say, you know what, there's 80 percent more greenhouse gas emissions we don't necessarily want this oil. But on the same token, if you're filing up your gas tank with blood oil, a red barrel. 09:35 Bill- Right, we're scraping the bottom off of the tarry muck, at least it comes from friends. 09:41 David- Well, I think , it makes sense, it's viable to [inaudible from cars] prices, you know, oil, [mumbles] we've run out of cheap oil, we're running out of cheap oil, so it does make sense, and there are a lot of technological advances that will hopefully take place over the next 10, 20 years 'cause, remember, a lot of the oil sands are still what the economists would call an infant industry. You know, they're still learning the process. So as we learn and as we improve, hopefully we'll be able to reduce the energy that eventually goes into producing a barrel of bitumen, and therefore, reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. 10:12 Bill- Yeah, um, what price you know what is the dollar per barrel price that it would have to stay in order for this to make sense from a business perspective? 10:24 David- Well, we've looked at it for a reasonable rate of return of about 10 percent. You know, it's going to vary from company to company. But you're probably sitting around 70 to 80 dollars, US equivalent, barrel range. Now that's over a 30 year period. But what it also assumes is that you're going to have a stable price and stable costs. As costs continue to rise, you know, it costs you more money to fill a tank of gas [car noise] it also costs more money for an oil sands operator to run their facility. So we're probably setting 70, 80 dollars and if costs continue to push, it'll eventually be 90 dollars. 10:56 Bill- Right, we're standing in front of a gas station, we've got a fine Canadian gas station. And if I do my metric conversation correction. A buck 33 a liter, that's about 5 dollars a gallon. Why isn't it cheaper here if you've got all of this fantastic oil? 11:13 David- Well, when you think about it, oil is a global commodity. So it's priced on a global market. A lot of refined petroleum products, again [car] we have very integrated markets within North America. What really pushes up the prices here in Canada to a degree is taxation, so the level of taxes actually impacts the final price at the pump. Now in the US, you might see really expensive gas-well, it's far more expensive in Canada. But when look over to Europe, and you see the amount of taxes that on their petrol or gasoline, this is really cheap gas here. So while it is expensive, again we do have to keep in mind that there's a whole set of factors in there. The feed stock (?), the price of oil goes up, their inputs are going up [cars]. So it really is trickling through the economy. 11:57 Bill- Uh, this is a very American sort of egocentric question. But what is all of this mean to me-what does it mean to us, American drivers? 12:07 David- Well, a lot of people talk about switching to electric vehicles, switching to hydrogen powered vehicles, that's a long ways away. That's a long way down the chain. And until we get there, you're still going to need oil. You're going to need oil to (lead to?) gasoline and to do that, you need less feedstock. And again, Angola, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, these countries can't really increase their production to the degree that's needed. The oil sands, 172 billion barrels. Right now, we're producing just over a million barrels, we could go up to 5 million barrels a day in 20 to 30 years depending on how things happen. So what does it mean to the American consumer? It means, you actually have a stable supply source of oil entering into the US to help support the economy. And you can even take that the next step further and say well, ok, maybe we can get our oil from elsewhere. There's also technological innovation that will come. What we learn in the oils sands, specifically in the carbon(age?), a lot of that could actually should be parallel to the oil shale in the US so suddenly, you know, Canada and the advancement of technologies here in extracting the resources, ends up helping and extracting your own resources. 13:18 Bill- You discover some technological gadget that allows us to get all of that oil shale. 13:23 David- Yeah, and I think there are some parallels, they're not identical, but there are some parallels that may actually help the development of that resource. Only time will tell, but at the end of the day, American needs oil, and Canada is a well-regulated entity, especially here in Alberta, to provide that oil. It is clean in the sense of, this isn't conflict oil. There are emissions, yes, but there's ways to actually deal with those emissions. 13:48 Bill- But, aside from the emissions, it is trashing the environment out here. Ten, 15, 50 years will it have been worth it, if all of Alberta looks like mose(?) gate? 14:00 David- Fortunately the oil sands are spread out throughout Alberta. But when you think about the moonscape, typically that's the tailings ponds you see. Now it's actually very timely that you ask that question, because the Alberta government sent out a proposal today, a request for proposal, to actually look at ways to reduce the tailing ponds. How can we actually clean up those tailings ponds, clean the muck that is left over, to really return the landscape to reasonable use? You know, from a Boreal wetland to a Boreal forest for example, and it's going to take time. When you think about uh, you know, coal-fired power plants. They came on, they were very dirty in the industrial revolution. It took time to clean them up and reach the point today where we could potentially sequester some of the emissions from those plants. 14:45 Bill- That, those are viable plans you think. that could happen soon? 14:48 David- I think it can happen in time. You know, it's not going to happen overnight. And patience is required in understanding that these are multi-billion dollar projects. There's huge investments, and they're going to be around 30 to 60 plus years. So there's a lot of time for the government and for industry to start reinvesting in economic rents (?) that they have taken that was part of exploring this resource, into cleaning up these tailing ponds and improving the environment. 15:16 Bill- What are oil sands doing with the huge amount of royalties in Alberta? The manufacture loses in the east, does this help, you know, the inflation here. What's it doing overall to the Canadian economy? 15:30 David- Well, we have a hunch that it's actually you know, shifting a little bit of it. In a sense, you know, years ago, you do a lot of the manufacturing you couldn't do in Alberta, so now because of rising costs and labor shortages in the provinces, we're actually moving some of that investment out into Ontario. So while there might be shut down at General Motors in plants in Ontario, it's possible that some of those skilled laborers could potentially come to Alberta and help advance resource, and then bring in some more, uh, money for their families, and there can be some trade-offs with that. And I think that the way the oil sands is helping Canada, we know the Maritimes out on the west coast, or I'm sorry, our east coast, a lot of their workers have come over here and are helping to advance this resource. And it's a win-win story. It's a question of how can government and industry work together to find a solution. McColl set up shots 16:37 reverse shots to Weir 16:47 David [his back to camera]- There's no silver bullet. It's a case of testing, trying new methods, sorting things out. And again, it's going to take a long time. And that's, that's the challenge that you have is well, what options are there? People have looked at nuclear, there's challenges, there's problems with it. It would get rid of all of the emissions but it doesn't fit for a lot of the applications, so you're out of luck there. What's your next option? [Camera alt focus between Bill and board w/ gas prices in background] 17:19 David- That's the challenge, it's take the time and saying, what will work and really making sure, because there is no silver bullet. That's the problem. And you know, everyone is focusing in on the oil sands because it's the easy to pick on, it's here in North America. But at the same time, there's all the challenges associated with those..The environmentalists are more than happy to say, oh, stop producing this fuel, but take a stop and say ok, what do you want us to do? [Camera moves back and forth from bridge to Bill and David]. 17:24 camera pans to traffic 17:53 traffic shots 18:08 wide shot to McColl, Weir on overpass Gas station 19:19 Front of pump 19:45 man filling up, prices Broll at park 21:06 ducks on water, 22:32 goose 22:58 pan of park and water Construction 23:30 crane cab 24:12 workers packing and leaving site 24:31 pan of rebar 24:40 pan across crane, slightly out of focus 25:04 pan across three cranes 25:29 reflection of crane in office building 26:15 rebar rack focuses Oil Company buildings 27:35 Shell logo on top of building 28:18 Suncor exterior 30:20 BP exterior 31:38 Shell exterior PetroCanada ---------------------------------------------------------------