Josh Mogerman's Blog
Want High Gas Prices? Invest in Tar Sands!
June 18, 2008
Posted by Josh Mogerman in Moving Beyond Oil
Prices at the pump are hitting us all pretty hard. Everyone is looking for a quick fix. And everyone is looking for someone to blame.
NRDC’s recent win against the ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery air permits gave a target to some folks with a troubling agenda.
Last week a U.S. EPA appeals board sided with NRDC and the American Bottom Conservancy, effectively rejecting permits that were too lax. The decision probably set a precedent that other refinery expansions will need to live up to from here on out to keep more dangerous pollutants out of the air in nearby communities. While we have a lot of problems with the stuff that this facility will be refining, the case was all about forcing this $4 billion expansion project to live up to the rule of law. At a time of record oil company profits, we really should not ask kids in East St. Louis to pay the refinery's environmental costs with asthma and the folks in Alton deserve the same environmental protections enjoyed by Californians. The law says best available technology is required---and that is where you will find it.
But some knee jerk reactionaries kept trying to link this to gas prices even though this refinery is years away from its planned completion. They said it was an effort to keep gas prices high… Or to make Americans drive ox carts to work… Huh?
Our challenges have done absolutely nothing to affect the current price of gas, but there certainly is a connection between prices at the pump and Midwestern refineries. Throughout the region, oil companies are undertaking huge expansion projects to refine more and more oil from Canadian tar sands. An investment in tar sands is an investment in high gas prices since the stuff is only profitable when a barrel of oil trades at the insanely high prices we have seen only recently. That is because tar sands oil is exactly what it sounds like, oil boiled from sand. Besides the frighteningly high environmental costs (in CO2 emitted, forests ripped to the ground, and water-intensive production), the stuff comes from one of the most expensive ways to extract oil there is…it ain’t cheap to squeeze goo from pebbles and sand.
Adding a dirty fuel source will hasten climate change, but it won’t fix the problem at the pump.
Tar sands will not make it easier for folks to fill their tanks right now. Unfortunately, very little will in the short term aside from tuning our engines, inflating our tires, and focusing on conservation. Only an embrace of efficient technologies can move us out of this hole---we cannot dig our way out of this mess.
NRDC is pushing for clean and renewable energy sources that will help stimulate the economy, create jobs, and help to ward of global disaster.
And the oil sands folks, what are they pushing for? I mean besides oil profits?
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Comments
Joe Bumphil — Jun 21 2008 03:21 PM
There is zero, nada, zippo, nothing you can do about the price of gas.... or is there? I'm not sure how your crystal ball see's future gas prices but I have to say, my magic 8 ball keeps saying, "try again later". Here is a site I came across that could make a difference. The site is GasBankUSA located at http://www.gasbankusa.com and discusses fixed price gasoline and locking in a price even if gas goes up.