[R-G] Canada’s Tar-Sands Oil Can Be ‘Clean,’ Obama Says

[Gregory Meyerson]

apart from the cost, wouldn't sequestration only apply to the process  
off separating the oil from the sand, etc.?


what about when the oil becomes gasoline for the car?



g
On Feb 18, 2009, at 6:18 PM, Macdonald Stainsby wrote:

> Obama wants carbon capture and sequestration [CCS]. Just like Eddie
> Stelmach, premier of Alberta. This means status quo on the world's  
> most
> dangerous, destructive and largest industrial project ever. CCS  
> does not
> really exist and to use it in North America would require more money
> than the federal bailout; we are looking at TRILLIONS, as essentially
> the entire North American oil and gas grid would need to be replicated
> for pipelines and more. Not at all feasible.
>
> --Macdonald
>
> Canada’s Tar-Sands Oil Can Be ‘Clean,’ Obama Says
> By Jim Efstathiou Jr.
>
> Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oil extracted from tar sands in Canada can be
> made a clean energy source, and the U.S. will work with its northern
> neighbor to develop the technology, President Barack Obama said.
>
> A joint effort by the U.S. and Canada, its biggest trading partner, on
> ways to capture and store carbon dioxide underground would “be good  
> for
> everybody,” Obama said yesterday in an interview with the Canadian
> Broadcasting Corp. Obama will make his first journey as president
> outside the U.S. tomorrow to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
> Harper.
>
> Conservationists on both sides of the border have called on Obama to
> reject any bid to exempt tar-sands oil from proposed climate- 
> protection
> rules. Government officials in Canada say restrictions on exports  
> would
> increase U.S. dependence on oil from unfriendly countries. The oil is
> separated from sand and clay with intense heat in a process that
> releases more greenhouse gases than pumping conventional crude.
>
> “The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we have our own
> homegrown problems in terms of dealing with a cheap energy source that
> creates a big carbon footprint,” said Obama, who has backed “clean- 
> coal”
> technology in the U.S. over skepticism about its prospects from
> environmentalists such as former Vice President Al Gore.
>
> Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from energy sources such as coal and
> oil sands will promote economic growth in both countries, Obama said.
>
> ‘Ceiling’ on Growth
>
> “If we don’t, then we’re going to have a ceiling at some point in  
> terms
> of our ability to expand our economies and maintain the standard of
> living that’s so important, particularly when you’ve got countries  
> like
> China and India that are obviously interested in catching up,” the
> president said.
>
> Two oil-sands producers, Chevron Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources
> Ltd., were among nine companies singled out today by Ceres, an  
> alliance
> of investor and environmental groups, that said the producers aren’t
> accounting for changes brought on by global warming or emerging
> climate-change regulations. The group includes the Sierra Club and the
> United Nations Foundation and says it represents investors with $1.9
> trillion in assets.
>
> “Investors have a message for President Obama on the eve of his  
> visit to
> Canada: please do not forsake long-term prosperity and long-term
> shareholder value for short-term energy independence,” Ceres president
> Mindy Lubber said in a statement.
>
> Kurt Glaubitz, a spokesman for San Ramon, California-based Chevron and
> Corey Bieber, a spokesman for Calgary-based Canadian Natural, weren’t
> immediately available for comment.
>
> 780,000 Barrels
>
> The U.S. imported about 780,000 barrels a day of tar-sands oil in  
> 2008,
> 60 percent of total production, according to the Canadian  
> Association of
> Petroleum Producers. Petro-Canada, the country’s third-largest oil
> company, and other producers expect to more than double industry  
> output
> to 3.3 million barrels a day by 2020.
>
> Alberta’s oil sands may hold the equivalent of 173 billion barrels,
> enough to supply the U.S. for 24 years, according to some government
> estimates. Only Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization
> of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has more reserves.
>
> “Canada’s energy industry is willing to invest money, technology,
> know-how and time in this effort, but we really can’t do it alone,”
> Petro-Canada Chief Executive Officer Ronald Brenneman told reporters
> last week in New York. “It will take the combined efforts of the
> industry, government, regulators and consumers.”
>
> Environment Minister
>
> Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said Canada and the  
> U.S.
> should work together to develop systems to capture and sequester
> underground carbon-dioxide emissions. The total “life- cycle” of
> emissions released, all the way to filling a car’s tank with gasoline,
> are 20 percent more than conventional oil, the Rand Corp. research
> organization of Santa Monica, California, said in a 2008 report.
>
> Carbon capture would help “transition from a high-carbon present to a
> low-carbon future while avoiding a disruptive and dislocative period,”
> Prentice said on Jan. 20.
>
> Obama backs slashing emissions of heat-trapping gases to 1990 levels.
> The new president will have to square his environmental agenda with  
> his
> call to trim dependence on oil supplies from the Mideast and with the
> U.S.’s longstanding policy to treat Canada as a commercial and  
> strategic
> ally.
>
> “Would I rather rely on Canada for my energy security or would I  
> rather
> rely on Hugo Chavez?” Gordon Giffin, U.S. ambassador to Canada during
> President Bill Clinton’s second term, said in an interview,  
> referring to
> Venezuela’s president. “What Canada is saying to the United States  
> is we
> now believe that we ought to be developing a North American  
> approach to
> energy and to the environment. Our energy issues are not identically
> connected, but they’re logically connected.”
>
> To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New  
> York at
> jefstathiou at bloomberg.net
>
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