Canada
Chevron is involved in two separate projects in the tar sands, the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and the Ells River Project. The energy intensive process generates three to five times more global warming pollution than does conventional oil production; requires four tons of earth and as many as five barrels of water per just one barrel of oil, most of which ends up in vast toxic lakes. Despite rising production costs and plummeting oil prices, Chevron remains committed to increasing tar sands production. On January 26, 2010, Chevron announced its $21.6 billion capital and exploratory budget for the coming year. The press release listed the expansion of its Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Canada as one of the company's major upstream projects for the coming year.
Indigenous communities living downstream from the tar sands have become increasingly vocal about the threats posed by expansion of tar sands mining operations on water quality and community health.
Chiefs from dozens of First Nation communities in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories have passed resolutions calling for a moratorium on tar sands development. "Our message is plain and clear," said Alan Adam, Chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, "We have to slow down industry to let us catch up. ... If we continue to let industry and government behave the way they've been behaving the last 40 years, there will be no turnback because it will be the total destruction of the land."
More information on Chevron in Canada can be found in the Alternative Annual Report
