| Do you wonder where your next tank of gas
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| | to the personalities. But here in
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| may come from after the Middle East dries
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| | northeastern Alberta, it's frankly
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| up, or the sheiks turn off the taps? How
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| | ridiculous. The mines operate fleets of
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| about twenty, thirty years from now, will
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| | the world's biggest truck. It's three
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| your kids still be able to fill up the
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| | stories high and costs $5 million. It
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| family jalopy?Well, maybe you shouldn't
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| | carries a load of 400 tons of oil sands,
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| worry so much about the supply of
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| | which means, at today's oil prices, each
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| petroleum products. There's an oil boom
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| | load is worth $10,000 dollars.What it's
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| going on right now. Not in Saudi Arabia
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| | like to drive one of these monsters? One
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| or Kuwait or any of those places, but 600
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| | driver described it this way."You have 14
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| miles north of Montana.In a city called
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| | steps going up to the cab and at my house
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| Fort McMurray where, in the dead of
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| | you have 14 steps to the bedroom. So
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| winter, the temperature sometimes zooms
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| | it's like going upstairs in my house,
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| up to zero and just as often dips down to
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| | sitting on my bed and driving the house
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| a minus 50 degrees F, you'll find the oil
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| | downtown", he said.The monster trucks
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| sands. The oilmen up there aren't
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| | haul the oil sands to a plant. They're
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| digging holes in the sand and hoping for
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| | heated in a cell, which separates the oil
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| a spout. They're digging up dirt - dirt
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| | from the sand. The result looks like
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| that is saturated with oil. They're
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| | molten chocolate. This flow is then sent
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| called oil sands and if you've never
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| | to an upgrader and eventually to a
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| heard of them then you're in for a big
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| | refinery. The oil is as good as that
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| surprise because the reserves are so vast
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| | pumped in Saudi Arabia, in fact, it even
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| in the province of Alberta that they will
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| | trades at a premium because it's such
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| help solve America's energy needs for the
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| | high quality crude oil.The capital of the
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| next century.Within a few years, the oil
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| | oil sands frenzy is a frontier town, now
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| sands are likely to become more important
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| | a city, called Fort McMurray, which as
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| to the United States than all the oil
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| | one wag said, "It isn't in the middle of
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| that comes from Saudi Arabia.
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| | nowhere. It's north of nowhere". But
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| Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year,
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| | it's a boomtown just the same. "I think
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| vehicles that look like prehistoric
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| | it's bigger than a gold rush. We're
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| beasts move across a sub-arctic
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| | expecting $100 billion over the next 10
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| wasteland, extracting the oil sands.
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| | years to be invested in this area - $100
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| There is so much to scoop, so muc oil to
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| | billion in a population that, currently,
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| produce, so much money to be made.There
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| | is 70,000 people", says Brian Jean, who
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| are 175 billion barrels of proven oil
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| | represents the region in Canada's
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| reserves here. That's second to Saudi
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| | parliament.Most of the oil in the sands
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| Arabia's 260 billion but it's only what
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| | on those lumbering trucks are on their
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| companies can get with today's
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| | way to the gas tanks of America. A
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| technology. The estimate of how many
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| | million barrels a day are now coming out
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| more barrels of oil are buried deeper
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| | of the oil sands and oil production is
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| underground is staggering. The total
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| | expected to triple within a decade. It
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| estimates could be two trillion or even
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| | won't replace Middle Eastern oil but at
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| higher. That's eight times the amount of
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| | that point it will be the single largest
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| reserves in Saudi Arabia. The oil sands
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| | source of foreign oil for the United
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| are buried under forests in Alberta in
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| | States, even bigger than Saudi Arabia,
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| the northeastern corner of the province,
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| | which sends a million and a half barrels
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| in an area that is roughly the size of
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| | a day to America.The oil companies want
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| Florida. The oil here doesn't come
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| | to step up production quickly. What's
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| gushing out of the sand the way it does
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| | holding them back is labor - the shortage
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| in the Middle East. The oil is in the
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| | of it. It's estimated that another
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| sand. It has to be dug up and
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| | 100,000 people are needed in Fort
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| processed.The oil sands have been in the
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| | McMurray. That's why one oil company has
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| ground for millions of years, but for
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| | built a runway to fly workers daily from
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| decades, prospectors lost millions of
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| | civilization to Fort McMurray. But why
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| dollars trying to squeeze the oil out of
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| | would anyone want to come work in a place
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| the sand. It simply cost too much. T.
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| | where temperatures plummet to 40 below
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| Boone Pickens, a legendary Texas oil
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| | and the sun sets shortly after it rises
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| tycoon, was working Alberta's traditional
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| | in the long winter? Well, perhaps
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| oil rigs back in the '60s and remembers
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| | because the oil companies pay some of the
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| how he and his colleagues thought mining
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| | highest salaries in North America.But
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| for oil sands was a joke."Here we are
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| | even if workers come flocking, the oil
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| sitting there having a drink after work
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| | companies still have other problems.
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| and somebody said this isn't going to
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| | Creating energy from oil sands requires
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| work, it isn't possible. It'll all have
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| | so much energy that the oil companies
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| to be subsidized before they'll make
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| | wind up spiking greenhouse gas emissions.
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| money. You'd have to have $5 oil",
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| | Other less energy intensive methods of
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| Pickens says laughing. "We never thought
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| | extraction are continually being invented
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| it would happen".But then $40 a barrel
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| | and developed to lessen the environmental
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| happened and now $60 a barrel has
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| | impact.A hundred miles south from Fort
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| happened and the oil sands not only make
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| | McMurray, you can still see oil being
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| sense, they making billions for the
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| | produced the traditional way. It's
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| people digging them. But it wasn't just
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| | picturesque now. The wells are still
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| the price of oil that changed the
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| | pumping but they belong to the past, like
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| landscape, it was the toys. That's what
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| | the iron horse that once rode across
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| they call the giant trucks and shovels
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| | these prairies.The future? Up here in
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| that roam the mines.Everything about the
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| | Northern Alberta they're convinced it's
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| oil industry has always been big. It's
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| | in the dirt, the oil sands to be exact.
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| characterized by bigness, from the pumps
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