Raise Oil Sands Tax, Save Alberta (and Our Climate)

From:  The Tyee 

By Mitchell Anderson, 4 Jun 2013, TheTyee.ca 

Province's citizens deserve more return, planet deserves a chance. 

While many environmentalists and some prominent scientists are trying to limit the ultimate climate damage of the Alberta oil sands by opposing pipeline approvals, there may be a more direct way to moderate the reckless pace of extraction of this massive carbon deposit: taxation.

Higher taxes on bitumen would not only shrink the climate footprint of the oil sands, but increase revenue to provincial coffers and improve the lives of Albertans.

The oil sands are such a low-grade resource they remained unexploited for almost 100 years after they were first documented in 1875. Even today only 10 per cent of the known resource is considered commercially viable at current technology and oil prices.

Almost 80 per cent of these identified bitumen reserves are accessible only through underground steam injection methods or "in-situ recovery." The Alberta government considers deposits with as little as three per cent bitumen to be economic, and recovery rates using in-situ methods average less than 10 per cent. At the end of the age of oil, the oil sands are truly the bottom of the barrel. MORE