Costly fix : power, politics, and nature in the tar sands

Urquhart, Ian T. (Ian Thomas) 1955- (author.).

Summary: "Costly Fix addresses core questions about the Alberta oil sands boom that started in the 1990s: Why did this flood of investment pour into the oil sands of northern Alberta? What role has government played with respect to the oil sands rush, and why? Who benefited and who or what has paid the costs of exploiting the oil sands? By analyzing the interest, ideas, and institutions involved in the oil sands boom, Ian Urquart charts its development from the beginning to the present. In this process, we learn about the state's role in making the oil sands profitable, the environmental dimensions of oil sands development, and First Nations' roles in both opposing and supporting the industry. The final chapter examines the extent to which Alberta's new NDP government, in its first eighteen months, altered the legacies they inherited from the Progressive Conservatives on royalties, tailings reservoirs, and climate change."--

Record details

ISBN: 9781487594619
ISBN: 1487594615
ISBN: 9781487594626
ISBN: 1487594623
Physical Description: print
xiii, 364 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Publisher: North York, Ontario, Canada : University of Toronto Press, [2018]
Copyright: ©2018

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-351) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Machine generated contents note: Boom -- Modern Klondike... If Not for the Role of the State -- Path Ahead -- 1. Market Fundamentalism and the State -- Introduction -- Capital's Privilege in Market Societies -- Economic Liberalism's Resurrection: Market Fundamentalism -- Conclusion -- 2. State, Capital, and the Foundations of Exploiting the Tar Sands -- Introduction -- Alberta's Bitumen -- Early History -- Social Credit Years: The Birth of Great Canadian Oil Sands (Suncor) -- Syncrude -- Confused Seas on the Voyage to Free Trade -- Conclusion -- 3. Building Canada's Oil Factory: Reregulating the Tar Sands -- Introduction -- Struggling to Survive? -- Liberal Renaissance -- Missionary -- State Embraces the Sermon: Alberta -- State Embraces the Sermon: Canada -- "An Era of Unprecedented Growth" -- Conclusion -- 4. Landscape of Sacrifice: The Environmental Consequences of Reregulating the Tar Sands -- Introduction -- State Institutions: No Friends to Environmental Concerns -- Integrated Resource Planning in Name Only: Sacrificing a Potential World Heritage Site -- Cumulative Environmental Management Association: Too Little, Too Late -- Pembina Institute and the Limits of the Reformist Critique -- Conclusion -- 5. First Nations: Resistance and Compromise -- Introduction -- First Nations' Concerns and Objections: Developing a Scientific Critique -- First Nations' Concerns and Objections: The Constitutional Critique -- Compromise: The Other Face of the First Nations' Relationship to the Tar Sands -- First Nations: Partners in Exploiting the Tar Sands -- Building First Nations' Organizational Capacity... with Strings Attached -- Conclusion -- 6. Prison Break? The Political Economy of Royalty Reform -- Introduction -- Politics of Leadership Succession and Petroleum Royalties -- Establishing the Public's "Fair Share": The Alberta Royalty Review Panel -- Industry Strikes Back -- Alberta's 2007 Oil Sands Royalty Changes: Draconian or Reaffirming? -- Conclusion -- 7. Taking Environmental Issues Abroad: Toxic Tailings, Dead Ducks -- Introduction -- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- "The Press Is the Enemy" -- Dead Ducks, Tarred Images -- Bitumen Triangle: Industry, Government, and Universities Unite to Tell a Better Story -- Directive 074 and the Politics of Tailings Ponds Reclamation -- Institutional Framework -- Conclusion -- 8. Tar Sands and the Politics of Climate Change -- Introduction -- Dirty Oil, Climate Change, and the Transnational Environmental Critique -- Congress, the Bush Administration, and the Security of Tar Sands Access to US Markets -- What to Reduce in Alberta? Emissions and/or Emissions Intensity? -- Specified Gas Emitters Regulation: Alberta's 12 Percent Solution -- Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) -- Keystone XL Pipeline -- Conclusion -- 9. Inconvenient Truth: New Government, Same Approach -- Introduction -- Let's Talk Royalties (Again) -- Directive 085: Letting the Fox Guard the Henhouse? -- Alberta's Climate Leadership Plan -- Conclusion -- 10. Conclusion: Market Fundamentalism in the Tar Sands -- Market Fundamentalism and the Character of Exploitation -- Market Fundamentalism and Nature -- Market Fundamentalism and Countermovements -- Future.
Additional Physical Form available Note:	Issued also in electronic format.