You might not know this, but Canada has oil reserves of 170 billion barrels, more than Iran and Nigeria combined. This fact is not widely known since much of that oil has been considered “not economically recoverable,”lying deep underground in a mixture of bitumen, a thick, tarry substance, sand and water known as oil sands or tar sands. Development of these tar sands, located near the Athabasca River, by Suncor Energy, began in the 1960s but has been conducted at a relatively small scale because of the costs involved. Only recently, with declining supplies and increasing prices have attempts begun to try and ramp up production, especially after PetroChina acquired a 60 percent interest in two major wells in Alberta in 2009. This was followed in 2010 by Sinopec paying $4.65 billion for a 9 percent stake in Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Chinese investors find this resource to be attractive, since Canada is considered to be a low political risk when compared with, say, the Middle East. As of 2010, the three biggest of many players were Syncrude Canada, Suncor, and Albian Sands, a joint venture of Chevron, Shell Canada and Marathon Oil. BP also has a substantial stake, with a 75 percent interest in Terre de Grace, which it also operates.

Peabody Energy Corp., one of the world’s largest coal miners, said the industry will continue to rely on China and other developing nations as the U.S. uses less.

Here’s what the St. Louis company expects for the coal market in 2012:

The following is the introduction of my Capstone project, titled "The Sustainable Energy Utility: What Delaware developed and if it is possible or necessary for Colorado," which was completed for my Master's degree in November 2010. It also has the Thesis statement to form a better understanding of what the project was as a whole. The entire study can be viewed by clicking on the icon at the end of this post.

For decades, the conventional way to deliver energy from the point of production to consumers was via centralized power plants. These plants emit immense amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, including particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Current estimates for 2008 energy related CO₂ emissions are 5,735 MMT, or 81 percent of the total emissions, are related to energy production. Greenhouse gas emissions were estimated at 7,052 MMT for all gases in 2008 (EIA 2008). These include energy related CO_2, and other high global warming potential (GWP) gases including nitrous oxide (NO_x), and methane (CH₄) and CFCs. Energy related CO₂ has been emitted more than any other gas, and accounted for 81 percent of all emissions in 2008 (EIA 2008). Based on three major fuels, petroleum, coal, and natural gas, petroleum is shown to have the greatest emissions, followed by coal, and natural gas. When emissions were broken down by sector,  electric power shows the greatest impact. Residential, commercial and industrial has the smallest impact, but it can be argued that this sector should be included in the electric power sector since buildings are consumers of electricity as well. In addition to greenhouse gases, there is also waste heat, contaminated water, and solid materials such as ash, scrubber residue, and particulate matter polluting the land and waterways.