Tar Sands Oil

Dear Friends,

The United States State Department has granted its approval for a pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico for crude oil from Alberta's tar sands.  Other approvals are required from the United States government, but the Obama Administration seems inclined to grant them.  Here is the link to the article by The Guardian.  In addition to the usual problems that can happen with a 1,700 mile pipeline, there are many more issues related to the Alberta tar sands and the crude oil that are produced there.

The tar sands crude is produced by open pit mining which destroys wetlands, creates huge open pit minds, uses lots of chemicals and produces lots of toxic tailings.  In addition, the crude oil that is produced is more corrosive than regular crude.  In January, The Economist published a good article that gives a lot of good background information (here). 

As with many issues, the facts are not as clear as they ought to be.  Oil companies, of course, claim there is no problem and that we need the oil.  Environmentalists point out all the problems.  In this case the environmentalists have been joined by some Republican politicians along the route of the pipeline.  Based on the small amount of research that I have done, I think the environmentalists probably have the facts on their side.

What really should happen is that we should actually resolve the issues of whether this type of crude oil is more damaging to the environment that other kinds and whether it makes sense in light of the environmental risks to produce more oil much less this kind of oil.  Reuters recently published an article entitled "Seeking answers on oil sands crude corrosion" (here).  The point is quite simple, let's find out what the facts are.  I agree before we create more air pollution, destroy more wetlands, dump more toxic tailings into our rivers and water supplies, build a pipeline that will spill corrosive crude and give off more greenhouse gases, lets see what the facts are.

Unfortunately, in today's political climate, the facts really do not matter and even the Obama Administration has bought into that idea.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal