Stop Dirty Fuels

photo: David Dodge, The Pembina Institute Suncor's Millenium Oil Sands Mine east of the Athabasca River.

North America stands at an energy crossroads. 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.

The United States is the world's top oil consumer and thus the primary driver behind the development of new forms of dirty transportation fuels in North America. These fuels are derived from lower-grade, difficult-to-access raw materials, including tar sands, oil shale and coal. Moving down this road has enormous consequences for the air we breathe, the water we drink, our climate, our wildlands and wildlife. NRDC is actively working to fight the infrastructure that would support increased production and use of these fuels, such as tar sands pipelines, refineries, and mining equipment transportation corridor expansions; oil shale mines; and liquid coal production facilities.