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n the old-growth boreal forest of Canada's Alberta Province, a sprawling network of bogs, lakes and rivers provides a pristine breeding ground for millions of North America's songbirds and waterfowl. Lynx and caribou roam undisturbed among the forest's dense stands of aspen and poplar. But in recent years, soaring demand for oil has driven energy companies to strip bare thousands of acres of this thriving wildlife habitat to produce fuel from buried tar sands -- an immensely polluting and energy-intensive process even by oil industry standards. To protect the boreal forest's diverse wildlife from this assault, NRDC is pressuring major U.S. and Canadian airlines to publicly oppose the use of jet fuel made from tar sands and to support investment in cleaner fuels throughout their industry. "As one of the biggest corporate consumers of fuel, the airline industry is well positioned to lead the way in stemming demand for dirty fuels," said Liz Barratt-Brown, a senior attorney with NRDC's international program.
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Seventy-five percent of the oil from Alberta's tar sands is bound for the United States.
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