The average greenhouse-gas emissions from the entire life cycle of shale and other “light tight” oils are two-thirds of those for heavy oil and bitumen resources, researchers in the US have found.
The result comes alongside an appeal to policy makers that we should be concerned not just with minimizing our consumption of oil, but on the type of oil that we do use, in order to reduce climate change.
“The main attention is on reducing oil consumption – which is [the] right direction,” said Mohammad Masnadi of Stanford University. “But … policy makers should pay equivalent attention to crude oil type and the corresponding greenhouse-gas emissions for designing future policies and strategies.” […]
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