Alberta's oil sands are growing & it's poisoning Canada

An exponential boom of growth in the late 90s for the oil sands industry transformed Alberta’s economy… and brought with it an unavoidable array of environmental problems. Part 3 of 3.

Sources:
Developing Alberta’s Oil Sands: From Karl Clark to Kyoto, Paul Chastko (2004)
Stupid to the last drop: how Alberta is bringing environmental Armageddon to Canada (and doesn't seem to care), William Marsden (2008)
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant (2023)
Alberta Culture and Tourism - Oil Sands (Accessed 2024)
Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board, David H. Breen (1993)
Canadian History: Post-Confederation, J. D. Belshaw (2016)
U.S. Crude Oil First Purchase Price dataset, U.S. Energy Information Administration (Accessed 2024)
OPEC.org (Accessed 2024)
How to Build the World’s Largest Oil Pipeline System, Sean Kheraj (2019)
Crude oil historical production dataset, CAPP (Accessed 2024)
Oil sands historical production dataset, CAPP (Accessed 2024)
EVOLUTION of Canada’s oil and gas industry, Robert D. Bott (2004)
History of In-Situ Extraction in the Oil Sands, Oil Sands Magazine (2024)
Facilities & Infrastructure, Oil Sands Magazine (2024)
Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, William Johnson (2006)
CBC archives
CPAC archives
Open Parliament archives

00:00 Peak Oil
04:16 The Alberta Advantage
17:13 Wild Rose Wasteland
43:05 Oil’s well that ends well

[aidancarkeek]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this series and the others you have done even if they show a clear environmentalist learning. But this episode demonstrates outright bias and uses intellectually dishonest information, especially regarding Ralf Klien. Stating "he never graduated high-school" is completely dishonest. Yes he dropped out in grade 11 to join the CAF but graduated high-school later.

he also graduated from Calgary Business College, becoming a teacher then principal, he also went to athabasca University.

[gretacs]

Something that gets missed every time in video's and essays is the fact that the deposit is located on the surface or near surface and is subject to erosion . Most studies about it have been killed before they get boots on the ground . It has been estimated that erosion puts anywhere from 100 - 10, 000 barrels of oil per day depending on the time of year into the surface water that runs off into the Athabasca river. Land and lore great videos and research.Hope this comment does not get deleted like it always does on other channels

[kentakku]

MPD specialist here (currently drilling a SAGD well while I type this comment lol) Just wanted to say amazing video! Besides the few honest information discrepancies (such as Ralph Klein’s education. I did notice that you corrected it in the comments though so kudos) the information in the video was laid out great! Keep up the good work!

[crisc]

I worked up there and you're telling the tree huggers what they want to hear. It is not like you describe.
A lot of the oil is already on the surface and if we don't harvest it then it ends up in the Athabasca especially in the hotter months.
I was part of the team responsible for bringing the land back after oil was extracted and we certainly brought it to much nicer conditions than if we didn't harvest oil in that particular area.

[punk]

Time stamp 27:00. This is a lie straight up. I have personally worked on projects ten years ago at Albian Sands that do filter the water out of the tailings and the rest of what’s left over is turned into a hard substance ez to transfer. Also there has been other tailings ponds that have been reclaimed.

[rogerknapman]

As bad as the pipelines might be, putting these products on rail is super risky. Maybe a video on Lac-Magantic?

[PBPolitics]

The oil sands are not a man-made event. The oil is naturally occurring and leeches into lakes and streams throughout the north…. Ethically the answer is to clean them up and remove the oil….

[evan]

if thr federal government hate oil so much it should probably learn how to live without the oil revenue

[tyvrabel]

Well laid out video!
Was surprised of the bad light laid out on oil today. There are environmental concerns but they can be addressed. Alberta has every right to be prosperous and create a society where everyone has a high standard of living. 🇨🇦 The hypocrisy is how it gets a bad rap when other places (oil in Dubai, manufacturing in eastern Canada) are allowed to prosper.

Side fact: most of N Alberta is heavily forested with peat bogs (natural carbon capture)

[lil-meow-max]

Here's a quote from a resident of ft Mac before the oil lived in Fort McMurray from 1963-1965 before big oil moved in. There was 1200 people living in Waterways/Fort McMurray. I can tell you at that time oil was seeping into the Athabasca River and were told not to eat the fish from it, the Clearwater was ok. You could tell where the oil sands were located as the trees were stunted, twisted and deformed, tar pits that would trap animals. My sister and I laugh at the environmentalists when they say the oil companies are destroying the region, when in fact the oil companies are cleaning up natures oil spill and returning it to a pristine forest and lakes. Though I would say that none of these environmentalists were born before the oil companies started to clean it up or even their parents likely never even heard of the tar sands region, as when I lived in Fort Mac the only way you could get to there was by air or train, there was no highway. So instead of attacking the oil industry we should applaud them for cleaning up an oil spill from a million years ago... That's the trouble with these so called green people, they only hear and shout out the propaganda they have been paid for and know nothing of the past history... Can't believe there is such a following of the chicken littles.

[imperiumcommentingnetwork]

Extracting oil from the oilsands is actually beneficial to the environment. Soil is cleaned up, trees are planted, and the region is left equal, if not better off, than before extraction started. Canada has enough trees that we already deal with Canada's emissions and then some.

[dwaynecroy]

In most places they have to drill 500 meters or more into the ground to find oil reserves. In the Fort Macmurry area it was laying on top of the ground.

[dwaynecroy]

There are actually places in northern Saskatchewan that have the same oil visible to the naked eye

[peteschwartz]

I really enjoy your vids, I've seen them all. Sometimes I get confused by the graphs and charts on the outer diameter. One suggestion is maybe an information key in the corner.... Red line is oil price, Blue collums are oil produced, etc. At the end of the video, it's almost too much to keep straight. Love your content, It's definitely the best Canadian history channel on youtube.

[Immortal..]

Really great final part to this. I have been to a site uo near Ft McKay. From what I have seen there I believe the oil companies are doing a pretty good job of keeping the environment safe. To keep it that way the government should closely monitor the situation though.

Aside from the insane wealth in the ground there its also a question of energy independence. Albertas oil can power the nation instead of having to rely on the Middle Eastern powder keg to deliver reliably. No oil is just not realistic in an industrialized society for the forseeable future.

The one thing I would like to have seen improved in this video is the tailings situation. "They just didnt have the technology to clean the water back then" Well do they now? Are the cleaning the water at all or are they kicking the can down the road? These companies have been profitable for decades, its time to clean up some of the earlier mess

[supertokinwhiteguy]

Do the paper/pulp/forestry industry next! Very good videos, thanks for making these!

[bradyelich]

Oil is abiotic and the tar sands are proof. Also, the yearly reserve estimates get filled back up.

[jamesfriesen]

Great video, and unlike a lot of people in the comment section, I believe it's pretty balanced.

It accurately tells the true history of the oilsands, but I think you missed one key fact.

One of the key reasons for its spectacular growth is 9/11 - the USA sought to shift who it bought oil from after the attacks, and often touted Alberta's oilsands as a path to its own energy independence. The US government approved pipelines and US companies increased investment in Alberta massively in the decade after 9/11. Our lax regulatory regime and low taxes made it even more attractive (and profitable) than it would have been otherwise.

[shanelyon]

Excellent video, informative and covering many angles of the oil sands. Thank you for your hard work, you leave me a better informed citizen!

[TrickiVicBB]

My parents and 12 year old me moved to Edmonton in October 2005.

I remember everyone but us getting those Ralph bucks.