Canadian Oil Sands and the American Empire

Abstract

North America is in the midst of an energy revolution1—centered on unconventional petroleum (i.e., oil shale and oil sands) and unconventional natural gas (i.e., gas shale). Unfortunately, this revolution threatens to completely unhinge the global climate.2 This concern is especially acute with the Canadian oil (or tar) sands. The Canadian tar sands are a high carbon substitute for crude oil (i.e., conventional petroleum).3 (The Canadian oil sands are reputed to hold 170 billion barrels of petroleum.4) Bringing the oil sands to market significantly contributes to the global warming phenomenon in two ways.5 First, oil sands are “processed” onsite. Oil sands (a.k.a. bitumen) is diluted into dilbit (diluted bitumen) for purposes of transportation, and this requires energy—which results in greenhouse gas emissions.6 Second, apart from the energy used to make the oil sands transportable, more energy is needed to refine the tar sands into end use products (e.g., jet fuel) than is used to refine most conventional crude. The extra energy required to refine oil sands results in additional greenhouse gas emissions.7