Driving the point home

Another indication of just how central global warming is to our ecological and economic future is that it now threatens one of the ways that has been proposed to stretch out oil supplies and reduce oil imports to the US: obtaining it from non-conventional sources such as oil sands (also called tar sands), oil shale, and coal-to-oil processes. The price of oil is high enough that it began to look like these other, expensive, sources might be economically feasible. However, the Christian Science Monitor said last week that,

California has enacted new climate-change policies that make energy companies responsible for the carbon emissions not just of their refineries but all phases of oil production, including extraction and transportation. If that notion catches on – at least two Canadian provinces have already signed on to California's plan – then the futures of oil-sand, shale, and coal-to-oil projects may look less attractive.

The reason: Extracting these alternative sources of oil requires so much energy that their "carbon footprint" may outweigh their benefits.

In fact, according to Drew Kodjak, executive director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, obtaining and refining oil from oil sands, also called tar sands, produces 20%-50% more carbon emissions than doing it with pumped crude. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Western Resources Advocates (WRA) say all three cause more greenhouse gas emissions

with liquid coal posing "disastrous consequences" because its production creates twice as much global-warming emissions as ordinary gasoline.

"Oil-shale development is all talk and no gain," says Bob Randall, an expert with WRA. ...

Even energy-security groups, which want to reduce US dependence on imported oil from world trouble spots, are skeptical of these high-carbon energy sources.

"There is no time for false starts," says Robbie Diamond of Secure America's Future Energy.

You got that right. And it's also no time for half-witted notions that put short-term profit above long-term survival.