Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009

EDMONTON — Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace say they have seized a giant dump truck and shovel at Shell’s Albian Sands open-pit oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray. A news release from the group says about 25 protesters from Canada, the U.S. and France entered the mine site at 8 a.m. and blockaded the truck and shovel by chaining together pickup trucks. Two groups of activists then scaled the machines and chained themselves down while a third unveiled a giant banner reading: “Tar Sands: Climate Crime.”

Greenpeace wants oilsands operations shut down.

This protest apparently is linked to an upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Greenpeace calls Alberta’s oilsands extraction project the biggest industrial project on the planet, occupying an area the size of England. A recent Greenpeace report projected the oilsands greenhouse gas emissions could soon more than triple to 140 million tonnes a year, making them equal to that of Belgium, a county of 10 million. The project is also criticized for local environmental degradation and the destruction of boreal forest.

Fort McMurray is about 450 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

Edmonton Journal