US companies fuel reckless expansion of the tar sands disaster

One of the biggest uses of fuel in the US is the shipping of products we buy and use everyday. To ship these products, many Fortune 1,000 companies rely on fuel from refineries using Alberta’s tar sands.

Additionally, tar sands are far more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil, which dramatically increases the risk of catastrophic pipeline leaks and toxic leaks such as the disaster in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2010, the one of the largest pipeline leaks in US history.

Effects of tar sands pollution know no borders

Tar sands comes to US communities through pipelines and supertankers, arriving at the biggest, dirtiest and most dangerous refineries in North America. When these refineries turn tar sands into transportation fuel, local communities are exposed to pollution far more extreme than that caused by conventional oil.  One reason: tar sands are a highly sulfurous hydrocarbon that lacks sufficient hydrogen to function as petroleum.

Refineries using tar sands tend to spew more sulfur dioxide pollution per barrel of production than other refineries. Sulfur dioxide pollution increases health risks especially for those already suffering from lung or heart problems. And much of that pollution occurs in refinery ‘fence-line’ communities that have higher levels of poverty and persons from minority groups than other communities.