A recent study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) claims that tar sands crude is vastly more dangerous to transport than normal crude. They claim that DilBit (diluted bitumen) is more corrosive, acidic, and unstable, unreasonably raising the risks of transporting it through conventional pipelines. Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board denounced the study, claiming that there have been only three corrosion-related spills between 1990 and 2005. Is there a truth buried beneath the conflicting data? Will transporting tar sands crude turn out to be more dangerous than mining it?
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