Tar-Sands

Editor’s Note: this first appeared on EcoWatch. By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International Dozens of environmental activists have signaled that the expansion of the tar sands in Utah will not happen without a fight. Yesterday, about 40 protestors disrupted the work on the Utah tar sands strip mine, the first to be built in the U.S., located in the Book Cliffs wilderness area. A person is pulled by police from atop a tripod during a site-wide work blockade at the U.S. Oil Sands tar sands strip mine Monday. Photo credit: Peaceful UprisingThe activists blocked a road using two tripods trying to stop traffic on the road which the tar sands firm, U.S. Oil Sands, is constructing south east of Salt Lake City. ...

Map of oil shale and tar sands deposits in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. While the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline and the Alberta tar sands has galvanized the environmental movement, far less attention has been paid to a related story here in the West. The state of Utah has begun making preparations for its own major tar sands and oil shale extraction projects. According to one U.S. government report, land in the region could hold up to three trillion barrels of oil — that’s more recoverable oil than has been used so far in human history. Critics say Utah is sitting on a tar sands carbon bomb. The Utah Water Quality Board has recently begun giving out permits for companies to extract from the state’s tar sands reserves. We speak to Taylor McKinnon, energy director of the Grand Canyon Trust. ...