Oil Perspective
There they are, the fully-invested environmentalists, fully geared for a full-on war with the oil industry over its attachment to the extraction of oil in Alberta's oil sands. Yes, they were once named the tar sands, but the industry has changed its modus operandi, and taken quite seriously the need for responsible environmental assessments requiring that new and more sensitive extraction modes be developed and practised.Resulting in a number of changes in the industry. A water project at Jackfish, northern Alberta, where engineers developed technology for the use of brine, salt-water unfit for irrigation or livestock, heated and turned into steam, softening the bitumen, allowing it to flow for extraction purposes. The need to use potable groundwater hugely reduced.
A new tailings cleanup system costing $1.2-billion in development over a 7-year period, to clean up oil sands extraction tailings in record time, as opposed to the conventional method which took a prolonged period of time. Resulting in the total land area covered by tailings ponds to drop by 80%, the reclaimed land to be transformed into wetlands and wildlife habitat.
And at Cold Lake, Alberta, a research project aiming to develop an extraction of bitumen without steam; using solvents which themselves, after use, can be extracted. Dramatically reducing the energy cost of extraction, and reducing at the same time the corresponding greenhouse-gas emissions. More projects, diverse and similar are ongoing.
It's estimated that the province has 170-billion barrels of oil to be extracted. With these new methods it is also assessed that Canada is producing "ethical" oil with the ongoing and growing use of new technologies for extraction in Alberta and Saskatchewan, emitting less carbon dioxide per barrel than oil wells in Saudi Arabia.
The "dirty", "unethical" oil that environmentalists are screaming about produces 6.5% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to electricity and heat generation which account for about 14%. Agriculture and forestry industries produce 8.4%, considerably more than bitumen oil extraction, according to data from Environment Canada.
And here's the very best part; the environmentalists are usually just like everyone else, middle-class people, living in houses that require to be heated and cooled in Canada's seasonal climatic extremes; they drive vehicles, purchase goods and foods that have been transported from their places of origin, and we, the people, are responsible for producing about 30% of the country's total greenhouse-gas production.
How's that for perspective?
Labels: Canada, Economy, Energy, Environment
posted by Pieface @ Friday, December 02, 2011
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