Tar Sands 101
Tar sands are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen
– a heavy thick black hydrocarbon with the consistency of tar.
The largest deposits of tar sands in the world are in Canada.
Spanning about 55,000 square miles – an area roughly the
size of Florida – these deposits are located in the Athabasca,
Cold Lake and Peace River regions of northern Alberta within
traditional First Nations’ territories.
For decades, the oil industry virtually ignored tar sands oil
because it was so much more expensive, dirty, and difficult
to produce than conventional oil. But continuing addiction
to fossil fuels has encouraged the oil industry to pursue even
the most desperate and inefficient sources of oil.
The tar sands represent around half of Canada’s
total oil production.40
Alberta
Tar Sands
Over 99 percent of exported Western
Canadian Crude goes to the United States.41
Approximately 10 percent of U.S. crude oil
is imported from Canada.42
Tar sands are about four percent of total U.S. oil
consumption at 800,000 barrels per day as of
2008.
Alberta’s oil exports – over half of which are from
the tar sands – reach the United States through a
network of more than 10,000 miles of pipeline.43
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would bring as
much as 900,000 barrels a day to the Gulf Coast.
Chapter 3
expensive oil and the myth of energy security
Canadian officials and oil executives claim
that tar sands oil is a boon to U.S.
energy security because it comes from a neighboring country friendly to the United States.
Scratching the surface of this claim reveals that, in reality, tar sands oil cannot substantially enhance energy security be-
cause it is too expensive and there isn’t enough of it. In fact, tar sands oil presents a risk to American energy security be-
cause it perpetuates oil addiction and requires resources that could be devoted to new, clean energy projects that would
create jobs.
Seven Reasons Why Tar Sands Can-
not Enhance U.S. Energy Security
1. Tar sands cannot break the power of OPEC.
The oil cartel, the Organization of the Petroleum Ex-
porting Countries (OPEC), controls the world market
for oil, and this will remain true with or without tar
sands. The International Energy Agency forecasts show
that OPEC’s share of the market is set to increase with
or without tar sands growth.54 Even if the United States
were to greatly increase its consumption of tar sands
oil, it would not change the dynamic of the market or
challenge OPEC control.
2. Tar sands are expensive. Oil from tar sands is
among the most expensive on earth because it re-
quires enormous amounts of energy to extract and
extra processes to refine. Tar sands oil is only profitable
when gas prices are high. In fact, the industry cannot
be profitable in a world of low or volatile prices. If
you are putting tar sands in your tank, it’s because gas
prices are high.
We cannot drill or mine our way to low gas prices
because oil prices are set on the world market. If the
United States produces more, OPEC, which controls
more than 75% of world’s proved oil reserves and 44%
of global production, will simply decrease its output
commensurately.55 The total oil supply will remain es-
sentially the same and the price of fuel will continue to
increase unless we get off oil.
3. Tar sands cannot help if there is an embargo,
climate event or armed conflict that disrupts
oil shipments. Because of huge infrastructure and
capital investments, it takes years for tar sands projects
to come on-line and the industry carries no spare ca-
pacity. During the so-called tar sands boom between
2003 and 2008, tar sands producers spent five years
and $50 billion raising tar sands production a mere
350,000 barrels a day.56 By comparison, Hurricane Ka-
trina knocked out 367,000 barrels a day of production
in a single day.57
4. Tar sands are not needed for rising U.S. oil
consumption, because (good news!) U.S. oil
consumption is not rising. There is a myth that
U.S. oil demand will rise for decades, but the good
news is that oil consumption is expected to decline.
All major forecasts now agree that U.S. oil demand has
peaked and will level off under existing regulations
aimed at tackling oil consumption.58 Moreover, many
forecasts have yet to take into account the full transfor-
mational potential of hybrids, electric cars, and other
efficiency measures such as smart growth planning
that could vastly reduce U.S. oil consumption.59 With
policies that encourage this reduction, there will be no
need for tar sands oil, and much of the predicted rise
in tar sands production will not materialize.
Tar sands oil represents a tiny drop in the bucket on
the world oil market, and is not worth the costs to for-
ests, water, and human health.
