Recently, 500 ducks mistook a lake of toxic tar sands waste in Alberta for one of the many pristine waters in Canada’s Boreal forests. Once coated with the oily residue, the ducks couldn’t fly away and they all died. Many had flown from the United States on their way to have their young in the Boreal. The deceptive waters of the enormous waste lagoons were likely too attractive for them on their long trek north. Tar sands oil is just as deceptive as a solution to our energy needs.

The death of 500 ducks was one more warning about harm caused by mining and drilling Canada’s Boreal forests for the tar sands oil that lies deep under the surface. Beneath the carpet of blue waters and green forests of the Province of Alberta, the tar sands are sand mixed with a sticky substance called bitumen. This bitumen – after using lots of energy and water – can be turned into synthetic crude oil, and from there into fuel for our cars, trucks and airplanes.

In addition to the problems of torn up forests and toxic lagoons, the process for making the synthetic crude produces three times the greenhouse gases per barrel as conventional oil production.

While companies like BP are posting record high profits, they are making others pay for the damage they are causing at the local and global levels. At a time when our government and the oil companies should be making major investments to kick our oil addiction, the big oil companies like BP, Exxon, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are wallowing in the tar sands. Instead of investing in clean energy in this time of declining world oil reserves, these companies are putting their resources into destroying critical wetlands, forests, local communities, and our global climate for the dirtiest oil.

And the tar sands footprint is growing, in Canada and beyond. Tar sands oil is sent to the U.S. Midwest and Rockies for upgrading and refining. U.S. refineries are proposing major expansions to handle promises of larger supplies. Last summer the BP refinery on the shores of Lake Michigan created a public uproar when its plan for tar sands expansion included dumping more pollutants into the Lake.

Join the Natural Resources Defense Council in saying no to tar sands fuel.

We’re supporting comprehensive federal legislation to fight global warming pollution and low carbon fuel standards such as what California has introduced, that make oil producers take the global warming pollution produced over the whole lifecycle of the fuel into account.

We’re asking for investments in clean energy, energy efficiency and energy conservation. We’re asking airlines and companies with large fleets to think about the environmental impact of how their fuel is produced. It is up to us to say we want a clean energy future and to take action to make that happen.

You can find out more on our website www.nrdc.org or www.stopdirtyfuels.org.

About Susan Casey- Lefkowitz

Susan Casey- Lefkowitz is a Senior Attorney, International Program, with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

This commentary is part of a parternship between CSRwire and Corporate Watchdog Radio. To hear the audio, please click here.