If another Enbridge spill were to happen tomorrow, the company might respond more quickly, but huge volumes of
heavy tar sands crude would still pour out of the pipeline.
To put this in perspective, the Keystone XL pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of
heavy tar sands oil per day (303 million barrels / year), enough to supply the energy for over 38 million cars, or the equivalent of 1.8 QBtu annually.
In 2013, Global applied for a permit to allow it to handle
heavy tar sands crude oil at the same facility.
The spill required years and more than a billion dollars to clean up, and it highlighted the hazards of pumping
heavy tar sands oil through pipelines.
A spill of
heavy tar sands oil from the pipeline could create a major loss of jobs in America's heartland.
Even after decades of increasingly dire warnings, the US has still not passed comprehensive federal legislation to combat global warming; Canada has abandoned past pledges in order to exploit its emissions -
heavy tar sands; China continues to depend on coal for its energy production; Indonesia's effort to stem widespread deforestation is facing stiff resistance from industry; Europe is mulling pulling back on its more ambitious cuts if other nations do not join it; northern nations are scrambling to exploit the melting Arctic for untapped oil and gas reserves; and fossil fuels continue to be subsidized worldwide to the tune of $ 400 billion.
When the Keystone XL Pipeline, slated to bring especially carbon -
heavy tar sands from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast, was killed thanks to years of fierce environmental protests, the stakes were raised for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Not exact matches
The pipeline would connect Canada's
tar sands with refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast that specialize in processing
heavy crude oil.
Experiments at the Philadelphia thermal depolymerization plant have converted
heavy crude oil, shale, and
tar sands into light oils, gases, and graphite - type carbon.
Human emissions of the potentially harmful trace metal vanadium into Earth's atmosphere have spiked sharply since the start of the 21st century due in large part to industry's growing use of
heavy oils,
tar sands, bitumen and petroleum coke for energy, a new Duke University study finds.
Trans Ionics, based in the Woodlands, Tex., is focusing on so - called
tar sand, or bitumen, an especially
heavy and sour oil of which the Western Hemisphere holds 65 percent of the world's reserves, primarily in Canada and Venezuela.
Nathan says high prices have made it increasingly economically viable to extract more unconventional forms of oil, in particular the asphaltlike
tar sands (also known as oil
sand, or extremely
heavy crude oil) plentiful in northern Alberta, Canada.
Aerosols from the production of
heavy oil is a growing climate and pollution concern because new
tar sands developments are on the drawing board in Venezuela, Utah and elsewhere, the study says.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, showed that the production of
tar sands and other
heavy oil — thick, highly viscous crude oil that is difficult to produce — are a major source of aerosols, a component of fine particle air pollution, which can affect regional weather patterns and increase the risk of lung and heart disease.
This is a practical impossibility due to increased amounts of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere from the growing global production and burning of coal,
tar / oil
sands,
heavy oil and bitumen.
However, greatly increased future production of
heavy oil,
tar / oil
sands and bitumen in Canada and other countries with huge anounts of these carbon intensive fuel resources is now in full swing.
Around two tons of
tar sand must be processed to produce one barrel of
heavy bitumen - based crude oil.
Finally, Alberta is exporting well over a million barrels of
heavy oil every day from these carbon - rich
tar sands to the U.S..
Not only does Q fail to consider the carbon to be released by burning coal but he also totally ignores the
tar sands, oil shales, and
heavy oils that are being targeted to supplement remaining oil supplies.
Lorne Stockman, a senior research analyst at Oil Change International, said much of the US petcoke was left over from the refinement of
heavy oil from Canada's
tar sands.
In March 2008, he told the World
Heavy Oil Congress why the Athabasca
tar sands require innovative thinking.
Rubin tells us the
heavy oil from the
Tar Sands (or «oil
sands» as the industry tries to say) costs more to refine, and gets less on the market — perhaps forty something a barrel, versus the 50 or 60 dollars a barrel we hear quoted as «the price of oil».
Human emissions of the potentially harmful trace metal vanadium into Earth's atmosphere have spiked sharply since the start of the 21st century due in large part to industry's growing use of
heavy oils,
tar sands, bitumen and petroleum coke for energy, a new Duke University study published in the Proceedings... Read more →
Furthermore, there are thought to be large amounts of non-conventional oil (e.g.,
heavy oil,
tars sands, shales) and gas (e.g., methane hydrates).
Vast amounts of water and energy are needed to strip - mine and drill Canada's
tar sands deposits — a
heavy black substance mixed with
sand and clay — and turn the extracted bitumen into usable crude oil.
We do not need
tar sands coming to our area and increasing the
heavy toxins in our environment,» Kelley commented.
The spill, which leaked
heavy, viscous
tar sands oil, emanates from the Pegasus Pipeline, which was built in the 1940's.
Tillerson has also overseen an expansion of Exxon's investment in developing Alberta's
tar sands, some of the most carbon -
heavy fuel in the world.
It is designed to capture around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from a plant that turns
heavy Canadian
tar sands into useable products.
Dilbit — the
heavy, solvent - laced
tar sands crude that oozed into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 and across Mayflower, Ark., in 2013 doesn't count, technically, as «oil.»
In its report, EPA seemingly compliments the State Department for confirming that Canadian
tar sands oil is carbon intensive when compared to other
heavy crudes, due to increased emissions associated with extracting and refining it.
Wabasca
Heavy Diluted Bitumen is considered by the Alberta Government as
tar sands.
The pipeline carries
heavy crude from the
tar sands of Canada to refineries near the Texas Gulf coast.
«Don't pick winners and losers among all the
heavy oil being produced in the world: Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela, not to mention California
heavy crude that has a higher greenhouse - gas footprint than our
tar sands oil.»
Instead of transporting
heavy crude from Canada's
tar sands, the pipeline would tap into the booming Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota.
In addition,
tar sands crude contains very high levels of
heavy metals, which don't break down easily.
«
Tar sands bitumen is a low - grade,
heavy substance,» says Anthony Swift, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Canada Project.