The companies want the bitumen that Nature put in the oily dirt.

Obama s approval should be conditional on Canada enforcing serious environmental safeguards. Many bitumen companies claim that they already abide by such safeguards but environmentalists skepticism is justified.

An older technology features vast strip mines, huge diggers, and trucks carting oily dirt to industrial scale pressure cookers that drain off the bitumen. A newer technology leaves the surface untouched by pumping steam into the subsoil.

Mandatory sequestration could make net CO2 emissions from bitumen extraction no worse than those from conventional oil wells, and perhaps even better. Another obvious condition is mandatory timetables for restoring strip mines and tailing ponds to their natural condition.

Bitumen permeates the dirt at the surface or, where thin layers of compost and sediment intervene, somewhat below basement levels. Grasping a handful of dirt from a riverbank does leave one s hand more oily than tarred, and the greasy dirt is somewhat sandy.

Environmentalists make several arguments for leaving the bitumen in the dirt. They disparage hideous strip mines and toxic tailing ponds that even superstar marketers cannot greenwash. 160 The scale is unusual, but open pit mines and tailing ponds are normal mining operations everywhere.