Canada’s oil sands blessing

All this energetic criticism is becoming increasingly moot now that the oil sands and heavy oil of Alberta and Saskatchewan are proving themselves to be one of the world’s most stable and productive petroleum sources. It’s a resource that has turned Canada overnight into the world’s major new petro power.

For most people, the Athabasca Sands conjure up the image of a large industrial site with monster trucks delivering oil sand to giant washing machines that belch steam and CO2 into the atmosphere and spew hot waste water into greasy tailing ponds that snare unwary ducks. But that picture is starting to change, since almost 90 per cent of the bitumen is underground and we can’t get the energy out by surface mining.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/reader-comments/Canada+sands+blessing/3009949/story.html#ixzz0ncViKfF6

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