The first commercial geothermal facility in the Alberta oil sands could be pulling heat out of the ground and displacing the use of natural gas as early as 2012, according to the head of an oil-company consortium established to investigate the emission-free energy source. Sounds good, to good, eh. It is a long term prospect, and these are tiny baby steps aimed more at the PR department than Engineering.
"Canadians are some world's best at advanced exploration and drilling technologies. Not surprisingly, members of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) also produce more than 20 per cent of the world's geothermal energy. They just don't do it here. The almost complete absence of government support means that all of this green energy infrastructure in being installed somewhere else. That's right -- the total geothermal energy capacity in Canada is zero." - Mitchell Anderson
As a resource glutton the size of the U.S. becomes increasingly dependent on Canadian oil the independence and security of Canadian resources for Canadians will evaporate. Without a Canadians-first long term policy the resource that could-should power Canada well into the future will be squandered in the name of bullshit for billionaires. The growth in production and resultant destruction of the ecology needn't happen, conservation, regulations that demand the use geothermal power to produce steam and a national energy policy that gives the shafta NAFTA would convert the tar sands from Canada's albatross to its horn of plenty.
Instead Albertan and Canadian officials, politicians and oil sands corporations are teaming to oppose climate change laws across America. In Canada's fight to stop individual states from lower fuel carbon standards like Calif. is doing.
Nikiforuk Pores Over Royal Society's Oil Sands Study - What the scientists got right, and missed, in their high-profile, largely damning report.
