Noteworthy new publications from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
“Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons and Missiles: Status and Trends,” updated February 20, 2008.
“Water Infrastructure Needs and Investment: Review and Analysis of Key Issues,” updated January 23, 2008.
“Russian Energy Policy toward Neighboring Countries,” updated January 17, 2008.
“North American Oil Sands: History of Development, Prospects for the Future,” updated January 17, 2008.
Interestingly, oil sands are well known to vacationers in Santa Barbara, California. If you walk on the beaches the bottoms of your feet pick up bitumen which has to be scraped off or dissolved away with organic solvent. It’s a very minor inconvenience.
However, it also stands to reason that many coastal-living Californians would have no use for any more energy security schemes, courtesy of the US government, to recover it. There’s no easy or non-polluting way to do it and in the last decade the state has not been hospitable to suggestions that more oil drilling be done off the coast.
It would also be interesting to know which Congressmen requested CRS to prepare the oil sand report.
I speak in complete ignorance of the sands of Santa Barbara, but tar on beach sand occurs on the east coast, as well; where there are no oil sands. It has been attributed to freighters purging their bilges.