Confession: over the past decade I have read story after story of Canadian companies with rights to US resources. I don’t view Canada as the enemy so it didn’t bother me much.
Now I see this story where the US is ripping out all of the oil shale in Canada. Maybe WE were the bad guys.
H2oil animated sequences from Dale Hayward on Vimeo.
I know many Iowans will watch this. please give me your feedback.
Do we not do this in the US as well? I thought I once read that in areas of the Rocky Mountains we are (or are exploring ways to) extract shall. However at this time it just isn’t cost effective given both the drain on resources and the tough terrain. I think I read about this during the declining oil prices so it may now be more cost effective.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that it takes up to four barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of shall oil, my first thought was geez… oil is trading at $75/barrel (right?) what is a barrel of fresh water going for? It must still be cost effective and a positive contribution on Canada’s economy to extract and export shall correct? Maybe Canada should also focus on finding a means to turn salt water into fresh water in a cost effective matter.
Does extracting oil in the Middle East have no environmental impact? We don’t ever hear about it if it does, or is this because we don’t care because it isn’t North America?
Either way, shall oil is just a band aid on the real problem.
Chad
I keep meaning to do a blog post about this: I have never seen a single oil rig. If you drive around Oklahoma or Texas you see them everywhere, but living in the middle east I have yet to see ONE!
ReplyDeleteThe "four barrels of water for one barrel of oil" doesn't really concern me. While fresh water is lacking in many parts of the world, it is not in short supply in Canada.
As far as the environmental impact here, I haven't read anything about oil. The one story that does get coverage is the Persian Gulf becoming more salty as Gulf countries use desalinate it to make drinking water and dump salty sludge back into the Gulf.
Wow... think about the volume of salt it takes to make the Gulf "more salty".
ReplyDelete