According to The Associated Press, Utah regulators have just approved what would be the first commercial tar sands project in the United States. An Alberta-based company Earth Energy Resource, Inc. wants to raise $35 million to mine crude bitumen in eastern Utah and truck it to Salt Lake City for refining, and even after plenty of protests and controversy, it appears the state's guardians are okay with it.
The mine would sit in the Colorado River watershed, where 30 million people live and which happens to be in a serious water crisis even without a new thristy and polluting land use. To produce one barrel of oil from tar sands (and its cousin, oil shale, also being considered in Utah) requires three whole barrels of water. One barrel of tar sands oil is associated with three times the greenhouse gas emissions of a conventional barrel of oil. In Alberta, residents are experiencing heightened and suspicious incidences of cancer and fish are being found pocked with lesions and tumors.
For all of that, after 7 years of mining, the entire project would produce enough oil to meet 7 whole hours of U.S. demand. That's not even a full work day. We oppose Tar Sands in Utah.
SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/utah-oil-sands-canadas-infamou_n_716225.html
Ted Wilson
Energy Plan Director
c/o Ashlee Buchholze
Office of the Governor Utah State Capitol
Suite 200
Salt Lake City
UT 84114-2220
telephone 801-538-1621
email abuchholz@utah.gov
According to The Associated Press, Utah regulators have just approved what would be the first commercial tar sands project in the United States. An Alberta-based company Earth Energy Resource, Inc. wants to raise $35 million to mine crude bitumen in eastern Utah and truck it to Salt Lake City for refining, and even after plenty of protests and controversy, it appears the state's guardians are okay with it.
The mine would sit in the Colorado River watershed, where 30 million people live and which happens to be in a serious water crisis even without a new thristy and polluting land use. To produce one barrel of oil from tar sands (and its cousin, oil shale, also being considered in Utah) requires three whole barrels of water. One barrel of tar sands oil is associated with three times the greenhouse gas emissions of a conventional barrel of oil. In Alberta, residents are experiencing heightened and suspicious incidences of cancer and fish are being found pocked with lesions and tumors.
For all of that, after 7 years of mining, the entire project would produce enough oil to meet 7 whole hours of U.S. demand. That's not even a full work day. We oppose Tar Sands in Utah.
