Previously touted as a fantastic source of domestically-produced, reliable petroleum, oil sands have officially been dismissed as a feasible means of cutting carbon emissions by the Canadian government.

The primary problem with oil sand petroleum has always been the prohibitively high costs and large amounts of energy required to extract the crude from the sands and soils that surround it. While high gas prices earlier this year renewed interest in the fuel source, economic downturn has deflated the oil market, making the oil sands economically unattractive.

Still, with carbon sequestration technologies, it had been hoped the sands could provide a reliable and clean source of energy from within North America. Unfortunately, the emissions from the highly-impure crude sand-extraction process are largely unsuitable for recapture, making the sands' utilization as a feasible energy source all but impossible, without massive government subsidization and infrastructure investment. Even in oil-sand-rich Alberta, other non-traditional energy sources are taking hold.