NJ5 said:
1- That's not true. The estimated recoverable amount is 173 billion barrels. That's less than Saudi Arabia, let alone the whole Middle East. A conservative estimate by analysts. 2- Those oil sands are not in USA, they're in Canada. They don't count towards USA's energy independence. They are in Montana as well. In any case, I did mention North America which does not limit itself to just the US of A. 3- Production of oil from oil sands is extremely dirty (CO2 emissions and waste water dumping), energy intensive (using a lot of natural gas to boil the sands) and water intensive (about 2-4.5 units of water per oil unit). Production is feasible, but has a lot of drawbacks which conventional oil doesn't. Granted, but there are methods being developed to use less in the refining process. |