Alberta Research Council Warns Tarsands Industry To Cut GHGs [View All]

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CALGARY - Oilsands growth will be stunted unless the industry voluntarily cuts greenhouse gas emissions, Alberta Research Council president John McDougall warned Wednesday. "Unless we deal with this (output of waste carbon dioxide) environmental pressures will accumulate and gather that will at best slow the pace of development and at worst stop it," McDougall predicted in an interview.

"It's not going to do us any good if we have five million barrels a day of oilsands production but we can't breathe," said McDougall, a past president of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta. Current technology lets emissions increase on a scale that matches oilsands megaprojects, he told a business conference held by Insight Information. "It is a very significant issue," he warned the industry.

Oilsands carbon dioxide emissions, if allowed to continue at today's rates, will climb to 145 million tonnes a year if production grows five-fold to its forecast potential of five million barrels per day, ARC projections show.

The clouds of airborne oilsands waste alone would exceed Alberta's total 1990 greenhouse gas emissions from all sources by 10 per cent, McDougall said. Ratings of the industry's potential anticipate production of 1.5 million barrels daily from mines and 3.5 million barrels a day from in-situ plants, with upgraders converting two-thirds or more of the bitumen into premium refinery-ready oil.

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http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=2047675e-321e-4fb1-b3af-51e9ca9d78ae&k=21298