Oil Sands: Destroyer or Savior?

NEW YORK

Accomplishing that, however, is a profoundly expensive, dirty and energy-intensive affair. Huge inputs of natural gas, for example, are needed to separate and process the bitumen, and according to one study by RAND, production from oil sands generates perhaps 30 percent more greenhouse gases than conventional oil extraction.

The question in the United States, then, is how to weigh the disadvantages against the very real benefit of securing access to a substantial