While the U.S. Congress fiddles and de-claws any effective measures from current energy, carbon, and climate legislation – the U.S. State department has approved a Presidential Permit to Canadian company Enbridge for the $3.2 billion 1,000 mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, which will carry oil-sand derived crude oil from Alberta to Wisconsin.  A Presidential permit triggers an environmental review of the proposed project
 
Oil sands or tar sands, are considered "unconventional oil." These deposits are referred to as bitumen and occur naturally in the U.S., Venezuela, and to the greatest extent in Canada.  They are dense, difficult to mine and extract, and not friendly to existing pipelines. Alberta, Canada's Athabasca Oil Sands is the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world, comparable in magnitude to the world's largest reserve of conventional petroleum.

Mining these deposits is economical only when the price of oil is high.

And like all mining operations, oil sands operations have a strong impact on the environment:

• The Canadian oil sands lie under boreal forests which are decimated by mining operations
• The extraction process uses a host of toxic chemicals.
• The residue or tailings form vast lakes of toxics near waterways.
• The numbers differ whether you believe oil companies or environmentalists – but the water intensity of developing these unconventional oils is very high.  Oil Sands Watch, a conservation-minded group, claims that approximately 12 barrels of water are required to produce each barrel of oil from bitumen.  Up to 70 percent  of this water is reused, but that still means two to four barrels of water are used to produce each barrel of oil from oil sands mining. Greenpeace gives the number as 349 million cubic metres per year, twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary. 
• And in the end we burn the stuff to power our transportation.

Excerpts from the State Departments press release:

• The Department found that the addition of crude oil pipeline capacity between Canada and the United States will advance a number of strategic interests of the United States. These included increasing the diversity of available supplies among the United States’ worldwide crude oil sources in a time of considerable political tension in other major oil producing countries and regions; shortening the transportation pathway for crude oil supplies; and increasing crude oil supplies from a major non-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer. Canada is a stable and reliable ally and trading partner of the United States, with which we have free trade agreements which augment the security of this energy supply.

• Approval of the permit sends a positive economic signal, in a difficult economic period, about the future reliability and availability of a portion of United States’ energy imports, and in the immediate term, this shovel-ready project will provide construction jobs for workers in the United States.

• The administration believes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are best addressed through each country’s robust domestic policies and a strong international agreement.

We have to balance our national security determinations and the threat of peak oil with the long term green house gas impact of tar sands. Unfortunately our security and short term energy jones is always going to win out.  A strong tax on carbon would slow the momentum of tar sands. This pipeline isn't a slum dunk – there is already plenty of environmental group oppostion to the permit in the works.

The only good point I can point to about tar sands is they employ really cool trucks to transport the stuff.  If you know any other good points about tar sands – chime in.