Trying to clean up dirty oil sands

Anti-pipeline rally outside the White House

[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/EW-10-05-12-Carbon-Capture.mp3|titles=EW 10-05-12 Carbon Capture]

Our neighbors in Canada are sitting on an enormous energy reserve. The Canadian oil sands, located in Alberta, cover a swath of land the size of England. It is estimated they contain 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil, second only to Saudi Arabia.

We import 200 million barrels of oil sands-derived crude each year. The proposed expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, a system that transports oil sands products to American refineries, would increase this number. North American fuel sound like a good idea, but we need to think about the big picture.

From an environmental perspective, oil sands-derived crude is dirty fuel. Unlike conventional wells, that provide a flow of oil, it takes a lot a lot of energy and water to extract bitumen—a semi-sold petroleum—from oil sands. Typical oil sands are 10% bitumen and 90% sand. Once extracted, bitumen has to be further upgraded into synthetic crude oil. It is estimated that ‘well-to-refinery’ production releases three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil.

Oil sands advocates are hoping technology can clean up their reputation. Last month, Shell announced that it will be using ‘carbon capture and storage’ technology at a new Alberta facility. The billion dollar plant, heavily subsidized by the Canadian government, will pump 1 million tons of carbon dioxide deep underground each year.

That’s a step in the right direction. But oil-sands crude will still be dirtier than conventional oil. For the sake of the climate that we all depend on, we need to do much better.