THE PATCH: THE PEOPLE, PIPELINES, and POLITICS OF THE OIL SANDS about the oil sands industry written by Canadian author Chris Turner looks at the social aspects, political aspects and environmentalism.

This book is very interesting and educational, a product of Turner's intensive research. He tells the history of the Patch - of the first people interested in the land and the discovery of the oil in Northern Alberta right up to present day conflict between the industrialists and the environmentalists. Chris Turner 'sheds light' on particulars previously left unsaid or intentionally ignored by each side.

"...the whole world is connected in this enterprise. And it requires us to ask the question: In order to both fuel the world and to save it, what do we do about the Patch?"

Special thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book and giving me the opportunity to read it and write my own thoughts about it.
4.5 stars

The Patch is a novel about the oil sands in Northern Alberta situated near Fort McMurray. It delves into the science, politics, misinformation and outright lies regarding the oil sands. Chris Turner talks about the impact the oil sands has had on the environment (local and global), individuals lives (from Native Americans living on nearby reserves to people living in Atlantic, Canada) and the world political spectrum.

Overall this was a well researched, very in-depth novel into the oil sands. Although I found it very informative I did have a few problems with it. Chris Turner talked far too much about certain individuals lives or histories. This did add a more humanizing touch to the subject but it also dragged the novel in in certain parts. I also wish Turner would have compared Canadian oil sands to other sources of oil in the world (Russia, Venezuela oil sands, USA shale deposits or offshore rigging) in terms of carbon output (he does briefly mention this), water usage, jobs created and overall environment damage. Or how North America needed a local source of oil after the middle east cuts it's shipment here in the 1970's. Or how the rest of Canada benefits from Alberta oil through provincial equalization payments.

Anyone interested in the Canadian oil sands should read this novel as it gives great information, shows a side celebrities don't want everyone to see and generally does a great job of displaying a lot of the misinformation going around about the oil sands. It does show the bad side to the oil sands too so it isn't just one sided.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgally for this ARC.

Having read other books by Chris Turner, I anticipated a biased, polemic read.
I was wrong. While the first chapter indicated that the book might be a bit apocalyptic, the remainder, I thought was treated in a very even-handed way. Turner has written a balanced look at a controversial industry.
In spite of the fact that execs from only three oil sands company would speak to Turner, he seems to have done his research thoroughly.
The history of oil sands development is fascinating. He gives a human face to Fort MacMurray and the people that earn their livelihood there.
His treatment of Indiginous concerns is especially poignant, something not given nearly enough notice elsewhere.
Highly recommended for everyone.

I read to escape, for the most part. I prefer books to TV or movies. I read newspapers every day; please don't get me wrong. This stuff is DRY. My sodden brain was spinning by page 10. Reality sucks! What can I do to stop this catastrophe? Big oil is pillaging our countryside, selling our oil internationally, while we pay disproportionately high prices for a domestic resource! Pardon my language, but get the f&%$ out of Canada until you can figure out a way of utilizing the oil sands with ZERO environmental impact. Not possible? Oh well, too bad, so sad; go find a another sucker.

https://stephenrees.blog/2017/09/10/book-review-the-patch/

I requested a review copy of this book ahead of publication from NetGalley. That means I got a document – as opposed to an ebook – which was not in its final format, and is awkward to quote from. That also means some of the information and hard data was missing. And I did notice that several passages seem to be repeated: for instance, the anecdote about the Fort McMurray WalMart being too busy to stack the shelves – and too short of staff – that goods were simply left on pallets in the aisles. In fact a lot of the book is composed of stories and anecdotes, most of them engagingly told. I found it easy to get absorbed and stay engaged – so it would be a good choice if you have a long flight.

The publisher’s blurb is clear

“The Patch is the story of Fort McMurray and the oilsands in northern Alberta, the world’s second largest proven reserve of oil. But this is no conventional story about the oil business. Rather, it is a portrait of the lifecycle of the Patch, showing just how deeply it continues to impact the lives of everyone around the world.”

So it is not a polemic. Even though the author ran as a candidate for the Green Party, he does his best to remain even handed. Though my feeling was that perhaps he tries a bit harder to defend the “ordinary people” who work in the Patch, and clearly feels that they have not necessarily been treated well by the media or the opponents of fossil fuels. There is very little about the people who are actually responsible for the current direction of development. The Koch Brothers get a passing mention, as does Warren Buffet, but by and large the main characters are the people who deal the actual work or are directly impacted by it. One of the leading characters is a bus driver, for instance. Another belongs to a local First Nation, who tries to combine working in the patch with a some maintenance of the traditional hunting for food.

Politicians do get get quite a bit of attention, as do some of the people who made the initial discoveries and technical advances. But financial and boardroom battles are generally treated lightly. This is not investigative journalism or muck raking, but it is frank about some of the rather cavalier attitudes towards issues like clean air, clean water and climate change. He is actually tougher on the environmentalists, who are given somewhat harsher coverage, I think. He is no fan of Bill McKibben, for example. He is quite clear that the Patch got chosen to be the poster issue for climate change responsibility when in fact he feels we all share equally the responsibility for the daily choices that make the burning of fossil fuels inevitable.

It is also quite clear that Canadian politicians made the key decisions that created the present situation. The extraction of usable fuel from the tar sands was always a very dodgy proposition – technically and financially. It was never really an easy choice to make given that there were at most times other sources of usable petroleum easier and cheaper to extract and market: but mostly in other places. The oil industry – and the politicians – both wanted to be able to secure supplies closer to their markets, and under the control of governments that would be if not always friendly at least understanding and amenable. Dealing with regimes in places like the Middle East and West Africa is not an easy way to make a fortune.

On many occasions the companies engaged in developing the Athabasca tar sands had to review falling prices, rising costs and seemingly endless production problems. The book deals with these in a breezy, informative way without too much jargon or technical bafflegab. Many times it must have looked like it was a losing proposition that had already cost a fortune, looked unlikely to be profitable even in the long term and was not going to be simple to remedy. Huge sums have been invested, and still need to be spent, to make the process of extraction and processing possible if not exactly viable. What has always made the critical difference has been politicians willing to commit public funds where skeptical commercial decision makers saw huge risks and doubtful rewards. As we have seen in BC with LNG recently, this is not an unusual position for Canadian politicians to take. And it is not confined to energy either: there are always people only to ready to detect possible boondoggles where public funds are being used for major capital projects. Indeed, I think that kind of mindset may be one of the things behind the popularity of public/private partnerships. As we have seen only too clearly, too often the private sector has been the major beneficiary of unwillingness to go for the conventional public sector route.

The key decision in the book is the one made by Jean Chretien in the mid 1990s to provide tax breaks to rescue the industry, in particular the two major oil sands producers, Suncor and Syncrude Canada Ltd. He also persuaded Ontario to join with Alberta and the federal government in making capital investments when one of the original investors dropped out. Indeed one of the recurring themes is how often the uncertainties of the extraction process and a drop in oil prices almost stopped development, but how local and national politicians remained committed to seeing the development of the industry – both for the jobs and the revenue streams it promised.

There is a widespread misconception that oil and gas dominates the Canadian economy. In fact it is (with mining) around 8% of GDP and less than 15% of exports. Neither figure appears anywhere in this book. Indeed, much of the time, the usual story of how dependent we are on fossil fuels – and especially oil – is emphasized. There is no mention of the possibility that this is in the process of changing – and changing rapidly – thanks to the improving technology and falling cost of renewables like solar and wind power. Nor the rapidly increasing sales of electric vehicles for both private and commercial uses, and the decline of car ownership and use in urban areas threatening the dominance of oil for transportation energy.

I was quite taken aback by the number of times some phrases and dates recurred in the text. “On any given day” and “2015” were frequently cited. That’s because most of the story is set in Fort McMurray – and everything changed there, very dramatically, with the fire in 2016. That, of course, gets its own chapter.

When I was reading the book the news was full of hurricanes – Irma was demolishing Barbuda and threatening havoc in Cuba and Florida. We were enjoying – at long last – a refreshing break from a summer of heat and smoke from wildfires. Climate change does get attention – but somehow more with the connotation that it is the obsession of a minority rather than the concern of everyone – which of course is quite understandable when written from a North American perspective and where the most recent official policy in Canada and Alberta is that the oil patch is considered an essential component of an orderly and economically viable transition to renewables, in due course, in the fullness of time, with due regard to the realities yadda, yadda.

Again there is no mention that the horizon for taking effective action to limit climate change to a point where human life is even possible is getting much closer – three years is the most recent estimate . This is not a matter where we can give both sides equivalence. Yes, there will still be motor vehicles and they will still need liquid fuels. The probability that we can change fast enough to avoid 2ºC of global warming – and all the tipping points that get triggered along the way – is by no means assured. And the consequences of failing to slow the current rapid increase of fossil fuel consumption are going to be dire.

It does not comfort me at all that the key decisions are going to be made by the current generation of politicians, and I do notice that Canada has not only fallen far behind the leaders in dealing with climate change but shows no sign at all of tackling the problem with the urgency it demands. So the conclusions of this book that we will have to put up with political necessity and unsatisfactory compromises is both true and truly depressing.

That doesn’t mean I don’t recommend this book as a worthwhile use of your time. But do not expect to get anything more from it than the idea that somehow we will muddle through. Frankly, I do not think that is Good Enough this time. I think we need a more trenchant critique of Trudeau and Notley – and a more hopeful look at some of the alternatives. And actually in areas like wind power Alberta is actually far ahead of BC. Not that that is saying much either.