Alberta’s oil sands extractors’ use of natural gas,
already voracious and set to rise steeply, is more than half paid for by
Canadian taxpayers — a vast yet little-known subsidy that insiders say
encourages profligate consumption of a finite energy source. The numbers are huge. Oil sands operations
currently consume about one billion cubic feet of gas per day, heating
thick bitumen so it can be extracted from surrounding rock and gravel.
This reverse-alchemy eats up about 20 percent of Canada’s natural gas demand and may balloon to 40 per cent by 2035. Read more of Tyee article here