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Tar sands oil is America’s number one source of foreign oil and tar sands oil is the world’s most harmful type of oil for the atmosphere, emitting high volumes of greenhouse gases during development, which contribute to global warming.
Tar sands oil and greenhouse gas pollution
- Tar Sands projects are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution in Canada.
- Production of oil from tar sands bitumen produces between 3 and 5 times the greenhouse gas pollution of conventional oil production.
- By 2015, the Tar Sands could emit more greenhouse gases than the nation of Denmark (pop. 5.4 million).
Tar sands oil pollutes water
Tar sands oil uses significant amounts of water (2-4.5 barrels per barrel of oil produced), which ends up in toxic tailings lagoons that have never been successfully reclaimed. An analysis using industry data estimated that these lagoons already leak over a billion gallons of contaminated water into the environment each year.
Tar sands oil production uses huge amounts of energy
The term “tar sands” refers to thick oil called bitumen that is mixed in with sand, clay, and water. Intensive energy is required to process the sands into crude oil.
Tar Sands operations currently use about 0.6 billion cubic feet of natural
gas a day. By 2012, that level could rise to 2 billion cubic feet a day
– more than the nominal capacity of the
proposed Mackenzie Gas Project. At the
NWT-Alberta border, the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline would connect to a TransCanada
pipeline, which would carry the gas onward to feed oil extraction in Alberta’s
Tar Sands. The Mackenzie Gas Pipeline will likely fuel accelerated Tar
Sands development, not provide clean fuel to heat homes in Canada and
the U.S.
Tar sands oil production destroys the Boreal Forest
A pristine forest covering over 65,000km2 (equivalent in size to California's Mojave desert) is slated for tar sands expansion. This expansion will destroy some of Canada’s Boreal Forest, the world’s largest terrestrial carbon storehouse and home to the largest forest wetland ecosystems left on the planet.