A report from Canada's environmental agency predicts that the rise in greenhouse-gas emissions associated with mining tar-sands oils will be more than double the decrease in the country's emissions from other sources.

Environment Canada said in its emissions trends report that the country could avoid 31 megatons in emissions by 2020. Most of those savings come from switching out natural gas for coal in electricity generation. But in that same period, emissions from tar-sands oil could rise by 62 megatons, the report said.

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By 2020, 12 percent of all of Canada's emissions could come from tar-sands mining.

At these rates, the country might as well keep burning coal. Or — just a suggestion — Canada could reconsider this whole tar sands thing.

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