More on Canada Tar Sands Understanding

13.12.19: More details on what tar sands are and impact on the environment.
David Olive's article in the Toronto Star on Dec 13th, 2013, provides a lot of detail on the fading appeal of shale oil.
1. Most costly oil to produce
2. Requires a high oil price to be viable
3. Alberta shale oil get approx $58 a barrel - well below conventional oil prices
4.Fracking, required to get the heavy oil out of shale, is very expensive and high environment impact
This Wikipedia site outlines how Athabasca oil (Alberta Tar Sands or Alberta Shale oil) is produced either by fracking the deep deposits or surface mining the smaller deposits near the surface.   

This site has important information about the very large tar sands deposits in Alberta.
The really important info at this site is the Reality Check. Take a look.
Three facts that stand out:
1. federal taxpayers subsidize oil industry 1.4B/year.
2. 71% of tar sands production is owned by foreign shareholders 
3. tar sands production emit 3 to 4 times the greenhouse gases of crude oil production

No wonder Harper is not supporting the environment!!!

We must do our best to replace him with someone who supports a much cleaner environment ... someone who the rest of the industrial world respects.
In fact, I am coming to the conclusion ANYONE will be better.

But, we must DEMAND more from our political leaders.
I really haven't been impressed with any significant party leader's environmental position to-date. 


As far as coal is concerned, it may be worse than oil but not as bad as tar sands. BTW, there is no such thing as "clean coal".

Maybe we will see environmental specifics when the next federal elections get into gear. If we don't, we need to make demands!