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Tar Sands

Tar sands oil is one of the most destructive, dirty, and costly fuels in the world. To extract the tar sands, oil companies are digging up pristine forest in Alberta, Canada and leaving behind huge toxic wastelands.  

Mining and extracting tar sands:

• Destroys enormous swaths of important ecosystems;
• Produces lake-sized reservoirs of toxic waste;
• Releases toxic chemicals into our air when it is refined in the U.S.;
• Emits significantly more global warming pollutants than fuels made from conventional oil.

These forests provide habitat for large populations of migratory birds, wolves, grizzly bears, lynx and moose.

In 2008, 1,600 migrating ducks drowned after landing in the toxic sludge. In 2010, more than 120 birds had to be euthanized in Alberta because they were covered in oily sludge and were suffering a slow death.

Not only is the development of tar sands destroying the environment around Alberta, but transporting this dirty fuel to U.S. markets has also proven to be extremely dangerous, unpredictable and uncontrollable. Learn more about the largest freshwater tar sands oil spill, which dumped nearly 1 million gallons of raw tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River watershed due to a pipeline rupture.

Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Threat

TransCanada, a Canadian pipeline company, has proposed a massive pipeline which would carry up to 900,000 barrels per day of tar sands oil from operations in Alberta, Canada, more than 2,000 miles to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The pipeline, called Keystone XL, would cut through six American heartland states from Montana to Texas.

LEARN MORE about the Keystone XL pipeline, and what people across the country are doing to fight it >>  

What Drilling for Tar Sands Looks Like

National Wildlife Federation staff traveled to Alberta, Canada to view tar sands operations in action. See photos from the tour:

Choose to Fight

Help us fight tar sands oil by donating through our new Choose Your Cause Campaign. This cause supports the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.

Featured Reports:

• Staying Hooked on a Dirty Fuel - Why Canadian Tar Sands Pipelines Are a Bad Bet for the United States
• Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks (PDF)