Not every barrel of oil is alike.

The impact of a barrel of oil varies greatly depending on where is comes from. Clearly, the eco-cide of the tar sands exploitation has a far greater impact than a barrel pumped from the ground in Texas. In fact a barrel of oil from the tar sands of Alberta generates five times more greenhouse gases in it's production. Unfortunately,as we feel more and more of the effects of peak oil the market for the tar sands oil will improve. All the more reason to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels as much as is humanly possible.

Just as barrels of oil differ in their impact so to do different companies. Apparently Shell wins the prize for the worst offender when it comes to producing the highest impact oil.

Read more about the differing impacts of oil depending on where it is sourced and what company produces it over at GreenPepper. Here is an excerpt;

"Shell tops the list for three reasons:

• Its reliance on Nigerian crude oil, which is associated with huge levels of wasteful gas flaring
• Its investments in highly energy intensive liquefied natural gas
• Its massive gamble on Canada’s oil-bearing tar sands, for which the extraction process is so energy intensive that it produces up to five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil

The bad news for Shell shareholders is that 30% of its total resources are now in tar sands. As the US moves to introduce carbon control legislation, and the world looks towards December’s Copenhagen summit for action to limit climate change, Shell is fighting a determined rearguard action - taking a lead in industry lobbying against similar measures being proposed by the Eurpean Union."