Dirty Oil from Canada

Canada is one of the top three sources for U.S. oil. That’s neighborly when it comes to energy supply, but not so neighborly when it comes to the environment.

Canada has oil reserve second only to Saudia Arabia and is exporting more than 2,400 million barrels a day to the United States. The problem is that 95 percent of the reserves are in Canadian Tar Sands, much of them located under Boreal Forests.

To extract the oil from the tar sands, the forests, which provide a sink for carbon dioxide, would have to be clear-cut, and natural gas and water would be used to steam the oil out of the tar sand.

The process of extracting the oil pollutes nearby areas and burning oil from tar sands produces more carbon dioxide emissions than burning conventional oil. Relying on oil from tar sands for fuel is a formula for heating up global warming not cooling it down.

According to official U.S. Government Statistics, the use of natural gas in the extraction of oil from tar sands makes relying on this source for future energy supplies a risky business. Synthetic crude oil prices would need to be at 30 to 40 dollars a barrel to make it worth while. Any increase in natural gas prices or dwindling supply puts this source of energy in jeopardy. As Canadian petroleum geologist David Hughes puts it: “Using natural gas to produce oil from tar sands is akin to turning gold into lead.”

Let your national representatives know that you want a country that runs on clean, safe energy, not dirty oil from Canada.

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