____________ University
Introductory remarks
Alberta oil is one of the largest oil fields in the world. According to Simon Dyer, “The Canadian oil sands are the second largest proven oil reserve after Saudi Arabia” (Dyer, 2009). The commercial development of the Alberta oil sand had begun in the late 1960s. By the time World War I had arrived, and after the war was over, Canada was almost entirely dependent on oil from foreign countries. Canadians, after the war, began to wonder if the nation had any oil resources of their own. This interest led to the creation of the Alberta Research Council, which job was to research oil sand. Over the years, many companies attempted to extract the oil from the sand. Today, development have progressed, and two mining methods are used in the oil extraction. However, the future outlook of oil sand does not look very promising due to the environmental impact the mining methods have on Canadian ecology.
Assess the development and future outlook of Alberta Oil
As an energy resource, the oil extracted in Alberta is 81% of all energy resource in Canada. Being able to produce and even exporting energy is an essential skill for a country for producing financial resources for initiating a sustainable economic development. Alberta has accomplished being a global leader in the energy sector through innovations in energy production.
The reserves in Alberta are extracted under comparatively harder conditions due to geography and climate conditions. The producer companies and other research institutions in Alberta could manage to develop techniques to extract oil. Alberta produces scientific knowledge and develops the necessary human resources with required skills for extracting oil.
The Alberta state has developed a network, and a number works between the universities and the producers in Alberta. The Canadian government provides suitable economic and legal conditions for developing the oil business in Alberta. The specialists expect a rapid rise in oil production from 2.1 million barrels to 4.1 million barrels until 2023. The development studies on oil extraction business are still continuing in Alberta. Reducing the adverse influence of oil extraction on nature, developing better ways for a sustainable oil extraction business relatively, and developing infrastructure for oil business are the main areas for these studies.
The oil extraction and related businesses in Alberta produced a revenue of 33 million $ in 2013, and this number is increasing rapidly. In 2023, the specialists expect number double times more than 33 million $. More than 100,000 people are working in the oil extraction industry and 8,600 companies in this sector. Therefore, oil extraction has an essential place in entrepreneurship and labor market in this region.
Oil business creates significant opportunities for increasing finance for a sustainable social and economic development in Canada. Canada is accepting immigration, and the immigration strategy Canada employs is filtering candidates. Mostly, highly skilled technical workers are admitted as immigrants to the country. If the financial resources produced thanks to oil production are used efficiently for developing sustainable development, Canada might increase its importance in the global world (Alberta Government 2016).
Environmental effects of Alberta Oil
The sand oil of Alberta has a huge impact on the environment. Unlike conventional oil which needs drills to retrieve it from the inside of the Earth, sand oil is located on the surface. Extracting the oil from the sand produces a lot of carbon. According to Simon Dyer, "The production and upgrading required to produce synthetic crude oil from oil sands mining results in greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 62 to 164 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per barrel" (Dyer, 2009). In other words, sand oil produces more greenhouse gasses than conventional oil production. In addition to producing a lot of carbon gasses, a lot of water is needed in the production of sand oil.
Even though water recycling is taken into account, two to four barrels of water which are fresh is needed to retrieve one barrel of synthetic crude oil from the Alberta oil sand. "Companies are currently licensed to withdraw over 590,000,000 cubic meters of water per year, which is roughly equivalent to what a city of 3 million people would require” (Dyer, 2009). The water usually comes from the Athabasca River and cannot be returned to the river due to the oil production making the water toxic. Instead, the now toxic water is held in tailing ponds.
The toxic by-product of mining for oil sands is held in tailing ponds. These toxic materials are harmful to both mammals and aquatic life forms. "There are currently over 720 billion liters of toxic tailings on the landscape in the Athabasca oil sands area" (Dyer, 2009). Since there is no technology available right now to reclaim any of the water or lands from tailing ponds, the number of tailings are expected to rise by 2040. One major downfall of tailing ponds is the leakage of toxic water which can contaminate the soil around the tailing ponds as well as the fresh water. Apart from issues with tailing ponds, oil sand has disrupted some animals in the area.
The Alberta area is home to a wide range of wild animals. In recent times there have been studies that shown a decrease in the caribou population. It was assumed by many people that wolves were the problem. However, more recent studies have shown it is not wolves that are to blame for the decrease in caribou but humans. After analyzing caribou droppings for stress, scientists found "what bugged caribou was people. Pressure increased the closer the animals got too busy roads and also during times when humans were nearby" (The Canadian Press, 2011). While the population of caribou is higher than previous predicted, scientists have suggested that humans need to change their ways in areas in and around oil sand fields, or the caribou population will disappear in that area in a matter of years.
Potential benefits and costs of carbon tax in Canada
Many countries across the world including Canada have considered imposing a carbon tax on their citizens. A carbon tax is a fee imposed on people who uses fossil fuels. Since fossil fuels release carbon and damages the environment, the fee is used to encourage people to switch to energy that is regarded as cleaner than fossil fuels. Moreover, a carbon tax is used to help people to lower the emission of greenhouse gasses which has been known to have a negative impact the weather and environment. For Canadians, the benefits of the carbon tax have a positive effect on the environment.
The benefits of a carbon tax are huge for Canadians. Carbon taxes would raise a large amount of money for the Canadian government that could be put towards cleaning up wastes and lowering the contribution to the world's greenhouse gasses. An example of this would be to find a way to retrieve fresh water from the toxic waste left behind in tailing ponds from the oil sand production. Furthermore, the money can go towards funding projects that create new technology that is both sustainable and energy efficient. The new technology would be clean enough to be used in the production of synthetic oil made from the Alberta oil. Additionally, the environment would be able to begin to heal itself as more and more people switch from the harmful fossil fuel to clean energy. There would be an increase in endangered animal species as well. Even though there are many benefits to imposing a carbon tax, there are some disadvantages as well.
There are some disadvantages to a carbon tax in Canada. The overall cost of imposing the carbon tax on Canadians is expensive for some Providence. In 2008, British Columbia was the first Providence in Canada to impose the carbon tax on its residents. However, only 70 percent of people who live in British Columbia is exposed to the carbon tax of $30 per ton. Additionally, Alberta will be the highest carbon tax per ton program in Canada by the year 2020. It will cover almost 78 percent of the Alberta economy. Additionally, can become difficult for the Canadian government to measure the carbon emission from companies. Imposing high carbon taxes on companies may lead to fraud as well as tax evasion because a company may attempt to hide its carbon emission. Moreover, as a result of demand being price inelastic, to reduce the demand, high taxes may have to be imposed. The high taxes may lead to companies feeling that alternative may be limited, but this is only in the short term. In the long term, elastic demand will create more alternatives.
Concluding remarks
The second largest oil reserve in the world, Alberta oil, has great importance to the world. However, extracting the oil is not without its controversy. However, the mining of oil sand is harsh on the environment. Tailing ponds take up a lot of lands and possible seepage of the toxic water can ruin the land and water in the surrounding areas. Animals have also suffered from the mining of oil sand. In particular, caribou population has declined over the years. To counter the effect of the mining and greenhouse gasses, Canada has introduced a carbon tax. Moreover, the future of oil sand mining looks to be slowing down due to investors choosing other types of oil production.
References
Alberta Government, (2016). About the industry | Alberta Canada - Alberta, Canada. Albertacanada.com. Retrieved 29 July 2016, from http://www.albertacanada.com/business/industries/og-about-the-industry.aspx
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. (2015). Oil sands development. Retrieved from http://www.capp.ca/canadian-oil-and-natural-gas/oil-sands/oil-sands-development
The Canadian Press. (2011, June 22). Oilsands activity is blamed for caribou decline - Technology & Science - CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/oilsands-activity-blamed-for-caribou-decline-1.1080268
Dyer, S. (2009, September 22). Environmental impacts of oil sands development in Alberta. Retrieved from http://www.resilience.org/stories/2009-09-22/environmental-impacts-oil-sands-development-alberta
Fawcett, M. (2015, September 8). Why the oil sands may never see another new mining project built - Alberta Oil Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2015/09/mining-project-oil-sands
