Currently viewing the tag: "Tar sands"
Shell wants to increase oil production from the Canadian tar sands by expanding its Jackpine Mine. The company says it can do so responsibly. But opponents resist the high pace of tar sands development, demanding stronger safeguards for health and the environment in northern Alberta.
Canadian rock singer Neil Young has joined the opposition to oil sands expansion in Alberta. With his ‘Honour the Treaties’ tour, Young has drawn attention to criticism of the industry. His strong rhetoric has come under fire from supporters of the oil sands.
The train disaster in Lac-Mégantic has exposed a creeping trend in North America: an exponential increase in the transport of crude oil by rail. Railway companies like the booming business, but critics say the risks of the oil trains are too big.
In Texas and other U.S. states, opposition is growing against a proposed pipeline to transport heavy crude oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Proponents of the Keystone XL project see economic growth, critics fear an oil spill and warn of pollution.
The Canadian oil sands are an enormous reserve of non-conventional oil. Because of the high oil price, the difficult extraction process has become economically viable. Energy companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, are investing billions of dollars. The regional economy is overheating – and opponents point to environmental damage.
Because of growing oil production in Canada, the Canadian dollar is increasingly seen as a ‘petro currency’. The loonie rises with the oil price, causing the competitive position of Canada’s industrial exports sector to erode. As a result, the Canadian economy has been diagnosed with ‘Dutch disease’.
Canada is home to one of the largest oil reserves in the world, the Alberta oil sands. Extracting oil from the vast resource is tricky, costly and hard on the environment. Still, oil majors are investing billions of dollars in the tar sands, as exploitation “now makes economic sense.”
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