This is from a source that is not necessarily impartial:

Using a gasifier instead of a coker will allow the upgrader [the North West upgrader, across the highway, west from Agrium, south of Redwater, Alberta, that will commence production in 2014] to capture 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, shipping the liquefied gas through a pipeline to central Alberta, where it will be used to recover more oil from depleted conventional oilfields.

And when that much CO2 is taken out of the upgrading process, Alberta diesel from North West will be the greenest in the world, even better than Saudi medium crude, North West chairman Ian MacGregor told the Heartland Association last month.

(Read more at [1] Deal gives go-ahead to upgrader, Edmonton Journal, 2011 02 15, pp. D1 and D6)

Outgoing premier Ed Stelmach, a source whom many consider reliable but who is not necessarily impartial either, concurs:

Alberta takes ‘bold step’ into oilsands upgrading

Evoking the spirit of pioneers, outgoing Premier Ed Stelmach said Albertans know success comes from having the courage to take risks, and the $5-billion North West upgrader/refinery announced Wednesday is just the latest “bold step” in that direction….

“I have always said, shipping bitumen out of the province is comparable to selling the topsoil on a farm. This is fulfilling a commitment I made in 2006 to the province during the leadership (race),” he said at the ceremony.

Stelmach added he is keen on ensuring Alberta is a world leader in carbon dioxide reduction, which is why the government announced a $2-billion program two years ago, and has agreed to fund four innovative projects.

“So today we take another bold step in the area of value added with this historic agreement with North West and Canadian Natural for a project that will use carbon-capture technology from Day 1.”….([2] Full Story)

That enthusiasm at the taxpayers expense will not colour Alberta’s diesel green, unless “green diesel” is tinted by the colour of money.

Alberta diesel will not be the greenest in the world.  Given that Ed Stelmach has thrown $2 billion dollars at “four innovative projects” for oil production (of which [3] Shell’s Quest CCS Project, is one of the “innovative projects”, with a contribution of $780 million, due to Ed Stelmach’s generosity funded by Alberta’s taxpayers obligations) that will do exactly zilch for addressing local or the world’s climate trends. Alberta diesel will not be the greenest but will without a doubt be the most expensive to produce in the world.

Mind you, one must consider the veracity of the source.  Amongst many other illogical panaceas, Ed Stelmach tried to initiate a program for switching the driving- and passing-lanes on Alberta’s highways to postpone the need for road maintenance work (a move that was fortunately stalled and eventually defeated through massive public opposition) and he also asserted that, with respect to the hurtful impact of rapidly rising utility costs in the wake of Ralph Klein’s program for the deregulation of the utilities,

We will continue to monitor energy supplies and pricing and take appropriate action when necessary in the best interest of all Albertans.
The Alberta Government is committed to putting more money back into the pockets of Albertans.

Ed Stelmach (PC), Alberta Minister of Transportation,
MLA Vegreville-Viking, 2002 04 19,
in his response to an open letter on utility pricing policies.

That is a little confusing, isn’t it?  That tug in your pockets, is that from the increased weight of the money that the Alberta Government is committed to putting back into the pockets of Albertans, or is that from Ed Stelmach’s hands pulling out more money “required” to increase the price of motor fuel in order to make it the “greenest” or rather the most expensive in the world?

If increased levels of atmospheric CO2 cause global warming, should we not by now see some increasing warming in the Edmonton temperature trends?

[4]

The Edmonton weather or temperature trends are not representative of  global temperature trends, you say.  Yes, that is correct, but what about the global trends?

Take a look at [5] global CO2 and its dispersion over time.  Can you by any chance detect Alberta’s role in that?  Not very likely, but it is quite obvious that if CO2 could accumulate in the atmosphere due to mankind, there would not be such very large seasonal fluctuations.

Other than that, given that the North West upgrader will capture and sequester 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 a year and that man-made global CO2 emissions are being generated at the rate of [6] 957 tonnes of CO2 a second, the carbon capture and storage scheme associated with the North West upgrader will compensate for 21 minutes of man-made global CO2 emissions a year.  Do you think that is worth spending about $500 million on?  That is just what Ed Stelmach wants to devote of our tax revenues to the cause, for no other good effect than to be favorably mentioned in the history books.  Annual operating costs, and initial contributions by North West and from federal sources are not included in that. What will history have to say about that 30 years from now?

However, in order to determine whether it is truly necessary to increase the price of Alberta diesel or of any fuel anywhere, we really need to know whether rising CO2, globally, causes rising global temperatures.

First take a look at temperature trends over time:

[7] Hockey Stick over Time - Narrated

Here is another view of global atmospheric CO2 versus temperature.

CO2, Temperatures, and Ice Ages
Posted on January 30, 2009 by Anthony Watts

Guest post by Frank Lansner, civil engineer, biotechnology.

It is generally accepted that CO2 is lagging temperature in Antarctic graphs. To dig further into this subject therefore might seem a waste of time. But the reality is, that these graphs are still widely used as an argument for the global warming hypothesis. But can the CO2-hypothesis be supported in any way using the data of Antarctic ice cores?

At first glance, the CO2 lagging temperature would mean that it’s the temperature that controls CO2 and not vice versa.

([8] See Graph, [9] Full Story)

Carbon capture and storage, what a scam!  Just think of what could be done with $2 billion dollars to fix, say, the Alberta Health-Care system; but Ed Stelmach had to cut back on that, to save enough for carbon capture and sequestration.

The nine most-feared words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” (Ronald Reagan)