Some more Stupid

My previous entry about Stupid to the Last Drop didn't mention the huge amount of energy burned to produce oil in northeastern Alberta. In his book, William Marsden points out that the volume of natural gas Syncrude burns to produce one barrel of oil is enough to heat an average home for four days in winter.
On page 157, Marsden gives us a good idea how heavily subsidized oilsands operators are: "From 1979 to 1985 (the federal government) dished out $1.8 billion in subsidies to Suncor alone, which amounted to 72 percent of its profits for those years. Federal studies show that Ottawa's generous tax breaks on capital costs incurred by oil sands companies have saved the industry about $1.8 billion since 1996."
What's more, the Pembina Institute has called out companies like Syncrude and Suncor for doing a "woefully inadequate" job of restoring Athabasca land after mining it for oil.
Of course, Alberta's finance minister says the criticism is all nonsense concocted by opponents of economic progress. Or something like that.