Just say NO!  Canada.  Do not add nuclear waste and probable disaster to the open pit mining mess in the Alberta tar sands region!

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/7/145944/8915#6

Wind power to process the tar sands makes total sense.  As I have said for years.  Plenty of wind up there.

Electric plasma drills bring up the crude in liquid form and leave the mess underground.  No mining, no costly eco-remediation.

Hydrogen to add to the crude from electrolysis.

Normally steam is used, that means contaminating water too.  Very little water use with wind powered plasma drilling.

Plus this uses capital twice.  Once to setup wind machines to get the oil, twice as the oil is used up and wind machines feed the power grid instead.

Mass production of wind facilitated by this plan would lower costs and make wind our main baseload power.  GHG climate change would slow and stop as wind takes over baseload.

Furthermore, plugin serial hybrids will make all the oil from every source last 10 times longer.  Fuel farming will be history.