Two Articles on Dangers of Tar Sands Expansion

From Yale Environment 360, 17 May 2010

Success of Canada Tar Sands Prompts Oil Sands Expansion Globally

The successful development of the controversial oil sands in Canada has prompted oil companies to invest in similar operations elswhere, including Russia, Venezuela, the Congo, and Madagascar, according to a new report. With the price of crude oil rising, companies — including BP and Shell — are increasingly looking to so-called “unconventional” oil deposits similar to the massive resources of bituminous sands found in Alberta, according to the report by the environmental group, Friends of the Earth. While Canada remains the only major center of oil sands production, BP is beginning to tap into deposits in Venezuela — which has the world’s second-biggest supply — and Shell is targeting a reserve in Tatarstan in the Russian Federation. In its report, the Friends of the Earth urged the European Union to resist supporting further expansion of the industry, calling it more harmful to the environment than conventional oil production because it requires more energy and produces more greenhouse gases.

From IPS News, May 17, 2010

Oil Sands Riskier than Gulf Spill, Say Investor Groups

By Matthew O. Berger

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2010 (IPS) – As the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico destroys habitat and livelihoods, the extraction of oil from Canadian oil sands deposits is having a similar impact on fragile ecosystems and communities deep in the North American interior.

The dramatic impact of oil sands expansion should give the companies involved and their investors pause, cautions a new report commissioned by Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmental groups, and authored by the financial risk management group RiskMetrics.

(Download the Ceres Report here: “Canada’s Oil Sands: Shrinking Window of Opportunity“)

“The long-term impact on the people and environment in Alberta are “arguably greater” than the headline-grabbing disaster still unfolding in the gulf” -  from the Ceres Report

Oil sands development is “kind of like the gulf spill but playing out in slow motion”, said report co-author Doug Cogan, director of climate risk management at RiskMetrics. He called it a “land-based” version of the gulf disaster.

The value in the oil sands is bitumen, a thick, heavy form of petroleum with a tar-like consistency that requires energy-intensive processing to separate it from clay and sand. The bitumen is not drilled for but mined, and that mining has led to the razing of boreal forests and fouling of water supplies in parts of the 140,000 square kilometres of Alberta in which the oil sands are found.

Cogan drew the connection between the huge amount of seawater being polluted in the Gulf of Mexico and the huge amount of freshwater that is polluted in the course of extracting oil from the oil sands.

It takes up to four barrels of water to obtain one barrel of oil, as opposed to one barrel of water to one barrel of oil for more conventional oil extraction.

That water is then left in tailings ponds that currently cover 80 square miles. Those toxic ponds pose a hazard to migrating birds, risk contaminating nearby soil and water resources, present health problems to downstream communities and, the report notes, pose the risk of “a catastrophic breach”.

The particulates in the mining waste take decades to settle out in the ponds. “After 40 years of production, no oil sands companies have yet fully reclaimed tailings ponds created by development,” says the report.

The report also notes how expansion of oil sands in Alberta is turning one of the world’s largest carbon sinks – the province’s vast boreal forests – into a fast-growing emitter of carbon dioxide.

It argues the water- and energy-related risks – combined with the added costs of emerging climate change regulations and the potential for litigation from affected communities – should make expansion of oil sands development unappealing to investors.

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