Costly Fix: Power, Politics, and Nature in the Tar Sands

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

Costly Fix addresses core questions about the greatest natural resource boom in North American history: the northern Alberta tar sands. Why has more than $200 billion been poured into the tar sands? What role has government played and why? Who benefits the most? And what price has nature paid for exploiting the tar sands?The author argues that the state has reregulated the tar sands and institutionalized a Canadian expression of market fundamentalism. He details the state’s role in making the tar sands profitable, the environmental dimensions of tar sands development, and the position of First Nations in this political economy. He also examines the extent to which Alberta’s new NDP government, in its first couple of years, has addressed the legacies they inherited from the Progressive Conservatives on climate change, royalties, and the blight of tailings ponds in the boreal forest.