Fastest-Growing Emissions Source Won’t Get Canada Review

Oil-sands projects that use methods such as underground steam injection rather than open-pit mining to extract bitumen will be excluded from mandatory environmental reviews by the Canadian government under proposed regulations.

Projects that use so-called in-situ methods, Canada’s fastest-growing source of climate-warming emissions, aren’t listed on an amendment to a law regarding approvals by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. Environment Canada predicts emissions from in-situ projects, including those using steam to melt bitumen, will rise 44 percent by 2020 from 2005.