Monday, April 11, 2011

Forget Fracking

A Canadian company is eyeing America's Tar Sands, which are essentially deposits of petroleum covered sand. The company estimates that there are 12 to 19 billion barrels of Petroleum in Eastern Utah alone. Canada produces most of its oil by refining large Tar Sand deposits (it reportedly has the second largest deposit of oil in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia). Environmentalists insist any attempts to refine the Tar Sands would irrevocably alter the environment.

4 comments:

TJE said...

Tar, baby, tar.

ND said...

By irrevocably, Ian, you mean carrying away thousands of tons of earth. Here's a how to:

1) Clear cut forest
2) Remove all topsoil covering oil sands
3) Scoop up 2 tons of sand
4) Process with noxious chemicals and 4 gallons of water to one gallon of oil
5) Make one barrel of oil

Let's tar, baby, tar. But let's also tax, baby, tax.

ND said...

That, by the way, is the suggestion of Kevin Hassett, AEI.

PBM said...

Nat, which do you think is worse, mountaintop removal, or tarsands extraction?

Also, I think if we put half the effort we put into fossil fuel extraction into renewables, we'd be a long way towards weaning off these environmentally destructive fuels.