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All Documents in Energy Tagged tar sands

Going in Reverse: The Tar Sands Oil Threat to Central Canada and New England
Report
Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. appears to be reviving a previous pipeline plan that would take tar sands oil to central Canada and New England. Under the plan, the pipeline would carry Canadian tar sands oil, the dirtiest oil on the planet, through some of the most important natural and cultural places in Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Keystone XL: A Tar Sands Pipeline to Increase Oil Prices
Report
One of the most misunderstood issues surrounding the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is the project’s impact on U.S. gasoline prices. Pipeline supporters cite high gasoline prices as a reason to build the project. The truth is that Keystone XL is likely to both decrease the amount of gasoline produced in U.S. refineries for domestic markets, and increase the cost of producing it, leading to even higher prices at the pump. Get document in pdf.
Voices Against Tar Sands
Real People, Real Stories About How Tar Sands Affects Us

Overview
Big Oil is pushing a web of pipelines from strip-mining of Canada's dirty and costly tar sands from under the Boreal forest. But people on the front lines are speaking out, taking a stand against dirty energy. We’ve captured their stories here to show how Keystone XL and other tar sands pipelines, as well as tar sands extraction and refining will have real impacts, on real people.
Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline: Raising US Oil Prices
Fact Sheet
Although the White House rejected the presidential permit for Keystone XL in January 2012, pipeline backers have cited high U.S. gas prices as a reason to expedite pipeline approval for the section from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. There is no credible evidence, however, that gas prices would decline if Keystone XL was constructed—especially not the southern segment. The truth is, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline could actually add to our nation's pain at the pump. Get document in pdf.
The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Hinders Climate Change Progress
Fact Sheet
The proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would pump 900,000 barrels of extra-dirty oil daily through the fertile breadbasket of the United States to the Gulf Coast from where it can be exported overseas. The pipeline would hobble the steps the country is making in its ongoing battle against climate change. Americans are already experiencing the consequences of climate change, at home and in their pocketbooks, with more frequent and stronger storms, raging wildfires, and drought. The costs associated with extreme weather events due to climate change will only increase in the coming years. Tar sands will only make these consequences worse, while expanding dirty oil mining practices, discouraging investment in a clean-energy economy, and razing virgin Boreal forestland that has the natural capacity to store carbon. Get document in pdf.
The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will hurt not help job creation in America
Fact Sheet
Proponents of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline are engaged in a major disinformation campaign in a desperate attempt to win approval for the 2000-mile pipeline though America's heartlands. Get document in pdf.
Encircling the White House to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline
A public outcry halts the proposed tar sands pipeline

Action
The November 6th rally at the White House in Washington, D.C.  Thousands encircled the White House to ask President Obama to reject Keystone XL.
Stop the Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline
The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will hurt not help job creation in America

Overview
Proponents of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline engaged in a major disinformation campaign in a desperate attempt to win approval for the 1,700-mile pipeline though America's heartland. The facts reveal this pipeline was never in America's national interest.
The Proposed Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Why Mayors Are Challenging This High Carbon Project

Fact Sheet
As conventional sources of oil decline, oil companies are focusing on exploiting sources that are more destructive to extract and result in higher greenhouse gas emissions. The leading source of "higher carbon" oil is tar sands -- or bitumen -- that is strip-mined or drilled from deep under Canada's great Boreal forest. Currently, the United States imports approximately one million barrels of tar sands per day from Canada, but the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would lock the country into nearly another million barrels per day of this risky, high-carbon fuel. Mayors from all regions of the country are challenging this project and its potential for undermining local community efforts to move toward a healthier and more sustainable clean energy future. Local communities are at the forefront of reducing U.S. demand for oil and know that we have cleaner choices for our transportation needs than tar sands oil. Get document in pdf.
Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks
Report
Tar sands crude oil pipeline companies may be putting America's public safety at risk. Increasingly, pipelines transporting tar sands crude oil into the United States are carrying diluted bitumen or "DilBit" -- a highly corrosive, acidic, and potentially unstable blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate -- raising risks of spills and damage to communities along their paths. The impacts of tar sands production are well known. Tar sands extraction in Canada destroys Boreal forests and wetlands, causes high levels of greenhouse gas pollution, and leaves behind immense lakes of toxic waste. Less well understood, however, is the increased risk and potential harm that can be caused by transporting the raw form of tar sands oil (bitumen) through pipelines to refineries in the United States. Get document in pdf.
Say No to Tar Sands Pipeline
Proposed Keystone XL Project Would Deliver Dirty Fuel at a High Cost

Fact Sheet
The Canadian pipeline company TransCanada has proposed a tar sands pipeline that could bring as much as 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of costly and polluting fuel to the U.S. Gulf Coast. This pipeline, called Keystone XL, will lock the United States into a dependence on hard-to-extract oil and generate a massive expansion of the destructive tar sands oil operations in Canada. In addition to the damage that would be caused by the increased tar sands extraction, the pipeline threatens to pollute freshwater supplies in America’s agricultural heartland and increase emissions in already-polluted communities of the Gulf Coast. Get document in pdf.
Repower America with Clean Energy
Don't Choose Dirty Fuels Such As Tar Sands, Oil Shale or Liquid Coal

Fact Sheet
The United States stands at an energy crossroads. We now face a choice: to develop dirtier unconventional sources of transportation fuel derived from fossil fuels -- at an even greater cost to our health and environment -- or set a course for a more sustainable energy future of cleaner, renewable fuels and other clean transportation solutions to fuel our cars, trucks, and airplanes. America needs clean energy solutions, not dirty fuels such as tar sands, oil shale, and liquid coal. Get document in pdf.
Tar Sands Invasion
How Dirty and Expensive Oil from Canada Threatens America's New Energy Economy

Fact Sheet
The oil industry is currently planning a massive project to export millions of barrels more per day of dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the United States. Tar sands strip-mining and drilling in Canada’s Boreal forest is the largest and most destructive project on Earth. The decline in oil demand and the rise of alternative energy puts North America on the verge of a phenomenally important step forward toward a new, clean energy economy. Expanding reliance on tar sands is unnecessary, undermines our progress as a nation, and is severely destructive. We have a choice: we can move forward towards a clean energy future with greater national security or remain stuck with the dirty fossil fuels of the past. Get document in pdf.
Stop Dirty Fuels
Overview
As cheap, plentiful conventional oil becomes a luxury of the past, we now face a choice: to set a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels, or to develop ever-dirtier sources of transportation fuel derived from fossil fuels -- at an even greater cost to our health and environment. Looking for fuel in all the wrong places puts wildlands, air, water and climate at risk.
Protect Our Friendly Skies
Gassing up on tar sands, liquid coal, and oil shale would sharply increase aviation emissions

Fact Sheet
The aviation industry should not use dirty fuels and should instead focus on emission reduction techniques. Get document in pdf.
Driving It Home: Choosing the Right Path for Fueling North America's Transportation Future
Choosing the Right Path for Fueling North America's Transportation Future

Report
North America faces an energy crossroads. With the world fast approaching the end of cheap, plentiful conventional oil, we must choose between developing ever-dirtier sources of fossil fuels -- at great cost to our health and environment -- or setting a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels.

For additional policy documents, see the NRDC Document Bank.
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