Pumping in Dirty Oil From Canada's Tar Sands
| Thu Aug. 20, 2009 3:18 PM PDT
Today, the State Department announced that it has okayed a new oil pipeline between Canada and the United States. A press release hails the decision to break ground on the Alberta Clipper Pipeline for sending "a positive economic signal, in a difficult economic period, about the future reliability and availability of a portion of United States’ energy imports" and for providing "shovel-ready" jobs. What it doesn't mention is that the pipeline between Alberta and Wisconsin will be pumping oil from Canada's tar sands—some of the world's dirtiest petroleum. As Mother Jones' Josh Harkinson reported in a gripping first-hand dispatch from the "Tar Wars," Canada's oil boom is exacting a heavy toll on the rural areas surrounding the massive pits that comprise the largest industrial zone in the world. For every barrel of oil produced from the tar sands, another two of toxic waste are left behind. Indigenous Albertans worry that their water and wild game have been dangerously contaminated. And that's not all: Squeezing oil from tar sands emits 151 percent more greenhouse gases than the production of conventional oil (including 80 percent more CO2). The official justification for the new pipeline echoes the Bush administration's policy, which put "energy independence" ahead of environmental considerations. Yet the State Department insists that the US is still committed to taking "ambitious action to address climate change" and getting Canada to follow suit. Sounds like a pipe dream.
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Comments
Once we let these folks
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Aug. 21, 2009 11:52 AM PDT.
Once we let these folks control the frame and language of the argument, there is no turning against energy "independence." See also the Astroturf - Exposing Fake Grass Roots and reference API's "Energy Citizens." Folks, we have to wake up to the fact that big industry is actively and quietly killing any argument against global warming, true energy sustainability, and the mechanisms by which this information can be made available to the public. Instead, we have meme control, language control (linguistic pillage a la Gingrich), and lobbyist cum "grassroots" cum shouting match for attention in the national spotlight. It's a shame too, there was never ANY drive to produce oil from the tar sands before, being an age-old problem that boils down to profit margin. There is NO credible cause to (re)invigorate with cloudy science or intense lobbying of any form the proliferation of dirty energy (whatever the current price of petroleum) in whatever form (see also "America's Power) and throw in a dash of recent mercury news in fish in US streams. Totally absurd. How can anyone not laugh and snarl at the same time? Thanks for exposing MOJO!
our own oil
Submitted by sirreal (not verified) on Sat Aug. 22, 2009 6:14 PM PDT.
Yeah,we can drill for our own oil. We have a whopping what, three percent of world supplies. All the oil in the ANWR would be gone in about three months,then what, back to our good friends and allies the Saudis? Where will we be when the earth is ruined for animals,including the human type? Literally,up Shit Creek without a paddle.
Humans have survived because of their ability to learn from their mistakes, adapt and thrive in adverse conditions. Our stubborn refusal to move from carbon and oil to a clean, renewable and sustainable source of energy may mean the extinction of mankind.
We have at hand the technology to transform the way we live. All that seems to be lacking is the will to do it.
C'mon ! Dirty Oil? There
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Aug. 21, 2009 12:44 PM PDT.
C'mon ! Dirty Oil? There is no clean oil just like there is no clean coal.
Nope. There's no clean oil.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Aug. 21, 2009 1:11 PM PDT.
But there's even dirtier oil. And oil from tar sands is even dirtier.
Dirty Oil
Submitted by JimS. (not verified) on Fri Aug. 21, 2009 8:07 PM PDT.
The problem is not that the oil is dirty, but that there is too little left to keep America running.
If the U.S. cut its oil usage to the level that it produces oil, it could become independent.
Unfortunately, that would take 70% of the oil off the market. I lived through the energy shortage of 1979, in Texas, and saw what a 10% shortfall does.
A 70% cutback would destroy America as we know it.
JimS, The 70% cutback will
Submitted by Trippp on Fri Aug. 21, 2009 8:45 PM PDT.
JimS,
The 70% cutback will destroy America as we know it.
I fixed it for you.
I lived through the oil crisis of 79 myself, delivering pizzas of all things. The thing is, the cutback is coming whether we like it or not. Yes, America as we know it will no longer exist.
The questions is what will replace it?
Change is inevitable, no matter how hard conservatives try to return us to the past. Friggin' reality just does what it wants to whether we see it or not.
Tripp
America as we know it
Submitted by greenknight on Sat Aug. 22, 2009 3:51 AM PDT.
You mean the place where folks commute 50 miles to work long hours at high-stress jobs so they can afford health-destroying fast food loaded with sugar, grease, and chemicals; buy cheap, throwaway crap (mostly made from petroleum) at Wal-Mart; drive a big, gas-guzzling SUV so they can tow their power boat, their jet skis, and their snowmobiles; keep their huge suburban lawn like a putting green with lots of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, water, and frequent clipping with their big riding lawn mower - that America? By all means, let's destroy that America, or at least change it drastically. It's doomed anyway, but if we make changes before they're forced upon us we might avoid destroying the world as we know it!
All those things you mention
Submitted by Healthcare is a TAX on Sat Aug. 22, 2009 12:44 PM PDT.
are the rewards for hard work and innovation. That's the reason why we have them and other countries do not. We DESERVE them by virtue of our achievements. Do you know where we end up when all that is taken away? We end up in Africa or Central America where they can't even afford to keep the water clean enough to drink, grow enough food for everyone and diseases long since eradicated here still kill millions. You'd better think long and hard about the consequences of dismantling our civilization unless you have a clearly better alternative that doesn't cause the death of millions of our own people in the transition.
We deserve nothing
Submitted by Bob Lawblaw Lobs Law Bomb (not verified) on Sun Aug. 23, 2009 7:29 AM PDT.
that's just the point... there's too many people. We need the death of millions... yes a few billions people. One of the few ways for us, as the dominant species on earth to live sustainably is to decrease our population drastically. An unfortunate aspect to that is that those who are least fit to survive in the Darwinian sense are, in all likelihood, going to be the ones who survive.
Just remember, YOU and your
Submitted by Healthcare is a TAX on Sun Aug. 23, 2009 4:24 PM PDT.
Just remember, YOU and your family might be among the billions to die if it comes to pass. Kinda gives you a different perspective on things when it's your own life in danger instead some nameless, faceless mass of people from thousands of miles away,eh?
Nice to know that we are the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Aug. 26, 2009 1:39 PM PDT.
Nice to know that we are the only DESERVING country in the world because we work hard and innovate.
Clearly you have never lived anywhere else in the world. (are you even on the same planet?)
The real problem with
Submitted by Healthcare is a TAX on Sun Aug. 23, 2009 5:40 PM PDT.
The real problem with turning bitumen into a more usable form is that the price of oil has to be very high for it to be profitable otherwise it's not worth removing it from the ground. There is also more energy expended to process it than liquid oil, so much of the energy trapped in the bitumen is effectively lost in the processing. Venezuela has high concentrations of bitumen, but theirs is a little different on the molecular level than the bitumen found in Canada. They can pump hot steam into theirs and force it into a pipeline, Canada cannot, so it's a dirtier and less efficient process to extract and transport it.
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Submitted by casino on net (not verified) on Mon Aug. 24, 2009 9:01 PM PDT.
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Everything in our life
Submitted by Teo Watchmaker (not verified) on Tue Aug. 25, 2009 4:53 AM PDT.
Everything in our life repeats and sooner or later there will be accidents, new epidemics which will carry away hundreds, thousand of lives, sad isn't it. This is life!
What is unsaid
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 12:18 AM PDT.
Is the fact that it is not as if the oil-bearing sands are easily accessible, or even visible, if you were to do a flyover of the area.
These sands are UNDER an arboreal forest. The mining of the sand requires the complete destruction of an entire ecosystem; the forest, the animals, streams, springs, EVERYTHING!
But, small price to pay, right? After all, f*ck the world, we got ours.
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