User 229640

Oil Sands: Will the 'Greens' Cause Us to Miss Out?

Jim,

One can ignore the carbon and more general environmental impacts, until legislation changes the rules. But one cannot ignore the fact that in addition to the oil sands themselves, two other resources are required to produce syncrude from bitumen: water and natural gas. There is an unlimited supply of neither. Have you done the math to project the total amounts of those resources required to produce the syncrude supposedly available in Alberta's oil sands?

I suspect the financial viability of the oil sands resource will be limited by the cost to procure water, rather than oil sand. When transport and desalination of seawater are eventually required, it may be impossible to produce syncrude at a net energy gain. (I know that isn't stopping the corn-to-ethanol business - but absent subsidies it would, and in the meantime few involved are making money at it). And good luck maintaining water pipelines that cross the thawing tundra...