According to the Pembina Institute, the tar sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. More than 40% of the increase in Canadian greenhouse gas emissions between 2003 and 2010 is projected to be as a direct result of new tar sands developments.

Tar sands developments release greenhouse gas emissions and spur climate change in a number of ways:

• Energy is required to extract the tar sands.

  Tar sands are currently produced by either mining the bitumen or injecting steam into the tar sands deposit to heat the bitumen so that it can flow to the surface. Both of these processes use energy and release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere: mining requires the use of primarily diesel-powered heavy equipment to dig and transport the massive volumes bitumen to upgrading facilities and pipelines; while steam injection utilizes energy primarily from burning natural gas, coal or other petroleum products. The National Energy Board of Canada projects that natural gas requirements of tar sands will quadruple over the next 10 years.

• Energy is required to upgrade the tar sands.

  Not all refineries have the technologies needed to process heavy oil and bitumen. Therefore, bitumen is sometimes upgraded prior to sending it to a refinery. Upgrading creates a lighter “synthetic crude oil”, which can be used by most refineries. To do this, large amounts of natural gas are used to produce hydrogen, which is used in a number of bitumen upgrading processes. The Pembina Institute estimates that if nine proposed upgraders are built to process tar sands in Alberta, by 2020 these facilities will produce about 1/6 of Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions.

• Energy is required to ship tar sands crude.

  All types of crude oil require an extra “push” to move it long distances through a pipeline. Centrifugal pumps are situated at 20- to 100-mile-intervals along the length of the pipeline. Pipeline pumps may be powered by burning diesel or natural gas, or by using electricity (which may have come from burning natural gas or coal). McCann and McGee (Oil and Gas Journal, 1999) estimated that for a Chicago refinery to produce 6.3 barrels of transport fuel from tar sands crude, 0.051 tonnes (112 lbs) of CO2 would be released just to ship the required synthetic crude feedstock via pipeline from Alberta to Chicago.

• Energy is required to refine tar sands crude oil.

  Synthetic crude oil and bitumen are refined at Canadian and U.S. refineries. Bitumen, which is made up of large hydrocarbons, must undergo energy-intensive processes to break down these hydrocarbons and remove contaminants such as sulfur and heavy metals (upgraded synthetic crude has already gone through most of this). Then, additional energy is required to convert and transform the smaller hydrocarbons into desired end products.

• Energy is required to dispose of waste products.

  There are large quantities of liquid and solid waste products created during the production of tar sands. These wastes must by moved to their final disposal destination. This often required shipping via rail, truck or barge. Additionally, waste products from refining tar sands may be burned to produce energy. For example, a by-product known as petroleum coke is produced from refining bitumen. Burning coke to produce energy releases more CO2 than most other types of fossil fuels.