oil sands

The United States hopes to increase its dependency on Oil Sands production as an alternative energy source. With increasing oil prices and new technologies, oil sand reserves are increasingly becoming part of the world’s oil reserves. The production of liquid fuel involves extracting crude bitumen from these oil sands by injecting steam, solvents and hot air into the sands. This process generates two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel as compared to conventional oil; it requires enormous amounts of water and energy to achieve high volumes of oil; the stripping of large tracts of land and forests to mine these areas is required; and there are negative impacts on environmental and human and animal health. The United States already receives 20% of total US imports of this crude oil and other refined products from Canada. In trying to address the need for increased oil supplies and new jobs, the United States is considering expanding these imports in the form of a $7 billion pipeline to run across six US States.