Hockey Stick Co-Author on Tar Sands: ‘Takes almost as much energy to extract the material as you get out of it.’

False.

In his recent talk in Belgium, Ray Bradley commented:

You almost have to use as much energy to extract the matyerial as you get out if it. So I think it doesn’t make sense to encourage the development of those sorts of resources.”

But aside from the obvious fact that tar sands developers would hardly undertake a project that makes no economic sense, the U.S. Department of Energy says the energy efficiency of tar sands is 82%, where:

First-Law Energy Efficiency = energy output / energy input (expressed as a percent)

Stick to reading tree-rings, Ray.

Watch the video below. This comment occurs at about 1:07:40.