Canadian fossil fuels in plain perspective

A by-the-numbers look at revenue, emissions and impact

May 01, 2010


$1.16 trillion dollars	Estimated value of Canadian crude oil, natural gas, bitumen and coal assets discovered and awaiting production with current technology

322 million tonnes	Annual greenhouse gas emissions by Canadian households, led by 72 million tonnes from exhaust pipes of the nation’s 20 million cars and light trucks

43 per cent	Coal-burning power plants’ share of Canadian industrial greenhouse gas emissions

18,667	Field inspections of Alberta oil and gas installations by ERCB watchdog staff in 2008

$56 billion dollars	Alberta natural gas royalties 2000–09, or 67 per cent of the province’s total $83 billion in fossil fuel royalty revenues for the 21st century’s first decade, which also included $14 billion from conventional oil wells and $13 billion from the oil sands

530 square kilometers	Area disturbed by oil sands mining since its 1967 start, or 0.4 per cent of the 140,200-square-kilometer alberta bitumen belt and 0.02 per cent of Canada’s boreal forest, which covers one-third of the country

90 per cent	Canadian share of U.S. natural gas imports despite increased ocean tanker deliveries of liquefied natural gas from overseas supply sources

$1 billion dollars	Annual operating expenses of established environmental protection systems, from audits to waste management, by Canadian oil and gas extraction facilities