Oil Sands Tailings Freisetzung kann nicht ohne gesundheitliche Auswirkungsstudien weitergehen | CBC News

TL;DR: Most „oil sands“ proponents are not willing to do it right when exploiting this resource.

They are not „oil sands“ and neither „tar sands“.
They are „bituminous sands“ because it’s not oil or tar that you get out of them but bitumen which then needs to be diluted so you can transport it through pipelines (hence the name „dilbit“ for diluted bitumen).

That’s the main reason it’s so controversial. It’s not simply oil that you pump out of the ground and transport, but more like mining operations hence creating tailing ponds. It’s a substance that is difficult to separate from the rest and transport, and that is more toxic than crude oil and stickier hence more risky for the environment during a spill.

If people want to exploit that resource, then they NEED to ensure that operations are even MORE controlled and safe than operations for normal crude oil. If people think it would be too costly to do that, then it simply means that it is a „stranded asset“ and you need to switch to something else to develop your economy.

Just like uranium can’t be extracted with the same mindset as extracting coal, you can’t extract bituminous sands with the same mindset as extracting crude oil.