That is true - but I believe that extraction and refining is a much bigger contributor to oil&#x27;s footprint, compared to coal&#x27;s. It is also far more variable.<p>To turn a barrel of tar sands oil into gasoline, for example, adds another ~230 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere - in addition to the emissions from burning it. That&#x27;s ~40 pounds&#x2F;million BTU.<p>It almost costs us more energy to mine and refine tar sands oil, then we get out of burning it.