Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Toxic Tar Sand Oil Kills

image: Climate Change -- Foreign Policy Blogs

The odds are clearly in favour of the oil sands coalition, which holds enormous political influence and has won major legislative victories on several fronts. But the green coalition, especially with Barack Obama in power, has more clout than its limited resources might suggest.  
This policy war rages as North Americans grow increasingly aware of the huge environmental impacts associated with Canada's oil sands. Those include strip-mined Boreal forests, mass duck graves and sprawling toxic lakes. But most importantly, from a global perspective, are the massive levels of greenhouse gases released each year. Extracting and refining crude oil from the oil sands requires much more energy than conventional operations, generally releasing many times more emissions. Despite recent technological advances, the industry has become Canada's fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. It's also now America's number one source of petroleum, far surpassing Saudi Arabia. Major oil sands expansions -- those planned and underway -- appear set to assure that dependence for decades.
That is a quote from Tyee, "In America's Capital, a Fierce Fight over Oil Sands" -- a story very much worth your time.

While opposition to tar sand oil grows, with so much money flowing into Congressional campaign coffers from the oil industry, the war might be lost, and citizens might need to bow to corporate greed one more time.

Call or e-mail your representatives. Tell them, "No toxic tar sand oil, thanks."

Find your representative here: congress.org

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