Over two thirds of currently planned expansions of U.S. oil refining capacity are intended to accommodate heavier, dirtier crude oil from Canadian "tar sands," according to data on U.S. oil refinery permitting activity under the Clean Air Act ("CAA") recently compiled and analyzed by the Environmental Integrity Project. Out of the approximately 1.6 million barrels per day ("bpd") of increased refining capacity currently in the pipeline, about 1.1 million bpd will be devoted to refining tar sand oil. In addition, more than 800,000 bpd of existing conventional crude capacity is planned to be modified to process oil from tar sands, so that the total increase in tar sands capacity is over 1.9 million bpd, while conventional crude capacity is undergoing a net decrease of over 300,000 bpd. This is equivalent to constructing more than sixteen new refineries dedicated to tar sands. Refining tar sand oil will result in higher air emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid mist, and nitrogen oxides, as well as toxic metals such as lead and nickel compounds. The consequences of tar sand oil extraction include the clear-cutting and strip-mining of huge portions of intact boreal forest ecosystem, the creation of vast un-reclaimable toxic lakes of wastewater, the consumption of enormous amounts of water and energy, and the production of three times more greenhouse gas as extracting conventional crude oil.

To view the Press Release, please click here.

To view the Tar Sands Report, please click here.

To view the Facts At A Glance Sheet, please click here.

To listen to the streaming audio, please click the link below:
mms://www.hastingsgroupmedia.com/EIP/canadiantarsandsreport040608.wma