Got Tar in Your Tank?
Chances are you have some dirty tar sands oil in your car's gas tank. Find out why you should care... and how to stop it. More
Tar sands oil is spreading across the U.S. thanks to an expanding network of refineries. More
Uncle Sam wants you to take the No Dirty Energy pledge. Use your consumer power! More
Peak energy: promise or peril?
The notion that we're running out of fossil fuel is gaining support in some unexpected quarters. But is peak energy good or bad news for the climate? Kurt Kleiner reports.
The most effective way to cut our dependence on dirty fuels -- like tar sands oil -- is to use less gasoline and diesel. If all vehicles in the U.S. averaged 40 mpg, there wouldn't be a need for tar sands oil.
Energy News
Keep smoking kids. We need the tax revenue. Trust us, we will cure cancer by the time you get it.
So goes our national political leaders' myopic view of the tar sands. The argument from tar-sands defenders in both the Conservative and Liberal ranks can be fairly summarized as follows: "We know this is bad for us but we have faith that a technological fix called carbon capture and storage will make everything better."
The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States ‹ most of them unregulated and unmonitored ‹ that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.