Mired in Canada’s Oil Sands

[cory777]

Source: NY Times

CONKLIN, Alberta — Beneath the subarctic forests of western Canada, deep under the peat bogs and herds of wild caribou, lies the tarry rock that is one of America’s top sources of imported oil.

There is no chance of a rig blowout here, or a deepwater oil spill like the one from the BP well that is now fouling the Gulf of Mexico. But the oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses other environmental challenges, like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.

In addition, critics warn that American regulators have waived a longstanding safety standard for the pipelines that deliver the synthetic crude oil from Canada to refineries in the United States and have not required any specific emergency plans to deal with a spill, which even regulators acknowledge is a possibility.

Oil sands are now getting more scrutiny as the Obama administration reviews a Canadian company’s request to build a new 2,000-mile underground pipeline that would run from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast and would significantly increase America’s access to the oil. In making the decision, due this fall, federal officials are weighing the environmental concerns against the need to secure a reliable supply of oil to help satisfy the nation’s insatiable thirst.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/business/energy-environment/19sands.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Vincardog]

1. They better look at the horrible environmental impacts of tar sand oil.

[polly7]

2. They are, only it's the wrong people.

We've been fighting this since the beginning. It's an environmental catastrophe, and needless.

[neverforget]

3. Our addiction to oil is killing the Earth.

[Dave From Canada]

4. Leave our oil sands alone. Instead, go tell Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Venezuela,

Brazil, Egypt, Lybia, Kuwait, Mexico, Argentina, Norway, etc to stop drilling for their oil. We extract our oil with far better environmental concerns and practices than most other countries, if not all.

Mind your own business.

[Nihil]

5. If that was sarcasm, you could do with tuning it a little.

If it was serious, you could do with learning a lot.

:shrug:

[Dave From Canada]

6. I'm completely serious. You guys should mind your own business. n/t

[Nihil]

7. Let me guess ... you also club seals and tell people to "mind their own business" there too?

> We extract our oil with far better environmental concerns and practices
> than most other countries, if not all.






> Mind your own business.



> You guys should mind your own business.



> Leave our oil sands alone.



Shame you haven't got a cousin in Florida to protect Halliburton,
TransOcean & BP down there and tell everyone to "mind your own business" ...

[polly7]

8. Are you protesting this? Calling your representatives to

boycott this oil? I hope so. As long as you're demanding so much of it from the rest of the world, you're really not helping us stop it. Take a look at all the environmental damage in the places you buy your oil, not to mention the millions of lives snuffed out or harmed because nationalized oil doesn't work for the Big Oil companies you depend on in the ME. We protest loudly, as long as the demand is there and you have no problem using it, it won't stop.

[Nihil]

12. I have no problem with Canadians in general ...

... just the ones who claim to "extract (the) oil with far better environmental
concerns and practices" and who whine "mind your own business" when anyone points
out the environmental devastation of tar sands extraction.

Those of you who protest loudly (including more than a few of my Canadian relatives)
are to be admired & praised (and I do so, willingly). Those of you who dismiss
any complaint about the tar sands with a "mind your own business" are called on it.
My comments upthread were directed to one individual who was most definitely in
the latter group and not intended to offend the majority of Canadians who are in
the former group.

:hi:

[polly7]

10. Nah, not many of us club seals, mainly the native fishermen and

those who depend on the food and sales to live. It's also been studied and regulated so as to be done in the most humane way possible. Watch Food, Inc. and let me know how humanely the meat industry is there, here or anywhere else. What this has to do with the Tarsands from which you get YOUR oil, is beyond me. I guess it's easy to bring up strawman arguments when you're perfect. Although I have been reading of a very sad BP spill recently. And I do mean sad, especially for those men who died and the impact it will have for decades. We're all guilty of abusing this precious resource and being superbly lazy when it comes to real alternatives, picking out one country for supplying it while ignoring the impact of the rest is disingenuous and pissy.

[Nihil]

13. No, not many of you enjoy the environmental abuse of the tar sands either ...

... so please don't feel that I was aiming that comment at all Canadians.
I apologise to you (and any other Canadian reader not involved in this thread)
if it read as too broad a brush stroke. I intended it as a direct response to
the "defence" of the tar sands as being somehow environmentally friendly.

FWIW, I don't pick out "one country for supplying it while ignoring the impact
of the rest" nor do I overlook the incredible apathy shown by most Americans
with regard to oil pollution before the media-fest of this recent event.

I will debate the seal "hunt" elsewhere because, as you noted, it isn't relevent
to the body of this thread but was added as a question to the person who doesn't
seem to recognise the problems with tar sands (wherever they are). Again, sorry
if I cause offence to you by not making that clear.

[arikara]

11. I know people from Alberta

that say the whole town is sick with tumors and cancers... from the oil extraction. The tar sands are an environmental disaster. Our record is no better than anyone else's, the same corporations running the show are just as greedy and cut as many corners as anywhere else.

[polly7]

9. Boycott this dirty oil. Do something besides using it while criticizing.

Then maybe take a look at all the protesting we've been doing up here since the beginning.