CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Use Blimps to Move Stuff to the Tar Sands

First up is the Skyhook JHL-40 Rotorcraft. A cross between a dirigible and a helicopter, Skyhook prez Peter Jess says the patented craft will be capable of hauling 40-tonne loads up to 320 kilometres in areas without basic infrastructure such as roads. Boeing will build them for Skyhook, and says that "the blimp would be environmentally friendly because it would eliminate the need to build roads and rail lines to remote locations, where transportation can be costly, inadequate or unreliable." Right. So how are they going to get the crap out? ::Calgary Herald



Put a Dome over the Tar Sands

Bucky thought he could put one over Manhattan; oil company Petro-Canada wants to put a giant inflatable dome over the tar sands. According to the Globe and Mail,

Measuring 200 metres by 200 metres, and 50 metres high, the proposed "superdome" would allow work to continue even during northern Alberta's punishing winter months, when the cold grinds construction to a standstill.

Petrocan is looking at whether the inflatable structure would cut transportation and construction costs by allowing more key work to be done on site, Neil Camarta, the company's vice-president of oil sands, told investors at an energy conference.

"Working up north can be kind of inhospitable and looking at this kind of technology is something that we're constantly doing," said Petrocan spokesman Peter Symons. ::Globe and Mail