Is There Such a Thing as 'Ethical Oil'? Canada Claims it Has Lots and the US Is Buying It

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Common sense would suggest that this demanding process can’t possibly be very good for any people, plants, or animals nearby. Even the oil workers are discomfitted by the sights and smells. When a young electrician at Suncor told me about river rafting in the summer, I asked if she meant on the Athabasca, and she looked at me like I was crazy: “Uh, no -- that would be scary.”

Exactly how scary is a matter of heated debate. David Schindler, a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, has been studying the tar sands since the 1970s and has identified a number of concerns. The upgrading process takes about three barrels of water to make one barrel of oil, and Schinlder says the water withdrawals from the Athabasca River are unsustainable. A research team coordinated by Schindler has also found indications that the tailings ponds are leaking into the river. Perhaps most worrisome, Schindler said, are the airborne emissions that land on vegetation, are eaten by animals, and then bioaccumulate up the food chain until they reach people. “We found polycyclic aromatic compounds and mercury and lead and arsenic and all sorts of other metallic contaminants, and we could detect them up to a 50 kilometer radius from the upgraders,” he said. “There’s a lot of pollution, and a lot of it lands on the river. We know that what lands on the snowpack ends up in the water.”

In addition to the regional ecological and public health concerns, environmentalists worry about the tar sands’ contribution to global climate change. Because of the laborious processes involved, the tar sands have an especially high carbon footprint. According to a report from Cambridge Energy Research Associates, getting a barrel of oil from the mines to your car involves 40 to 70 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than does an average barrel. The oil companies say they have made major improvements to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity, but because of the overall increase in tar sands production, emissions from the mines have tripled since 1990, according to Environment Canada.

Industry and government officials -- while conceding there are environmental impacts -- say the risks are manageable. Preston McEachern, an official at Alberta Environment, told me his office is working hard to keep up with a rapidly growing industry: “We’ve been doing very well in increasing the monitoring of the oil sands.” He also questioned whether all the increase in heavy metals can be attributed to the oil extraction: “Yes, there are contaminants in the environment, but how much of it is coming from the oil sands is unclear.”

Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the industry is doing everything it can to reduce the impacts. “Continual improvement is the order of the day,” he said, “and that extends to how we monitor, how it’s regulated, and how we run our businesses going forward.” Davies then offered the central defense of the tar sands extraction -- Americans continue to demand oil, and it’s better to get it from Canada than the Middle East. “This is a critical part of the Canadian economy and the North American energy mix,” he said. “We have the largest energy trading relationship in the world. We are the Americans’ number one supplier of crude.… There is a case to be made for doing business with good neighbors.”

The sands have become a kind of hydrocarbon Rorschach test: They are either viewed as an economic engine providing a vital resource, or as an unrivaled environmental disaster. During a 2008 visit, Maude Barlow, head of the public interest group Council of Canadians, said the mines made her think of the blasted wasteland of J.R.R. Tolkein’s Mordor. When he traveled to the mines last fall, US Senator Lindsey Graham said the site was “like an industrial ballet.” Even the resource’s name is in dispute. Environmental organizations say “tar sands.” Industry representatives and government officials prefer “oil sands.” (I’ve chosen “tar sands” based on the argument of Alberta author Andrew Nikiforuk, who points out that saying “oil sands” is like calling a tree lumber, describing not the thing itself, but the human artifact.)