Oil, Gas, and Mining Lead North America – in Pollution

NAFTA's environmental assessment concludes the energy and resource-extraction sectors emit the lion's share of pollution in North America.

To the surprise of likely no one, North America's oil, gas, and mining industries are the continent's biggest polluters, according to a NAFTA environmental assessment. All told, less than a dozen of 92 industrial sectors emitted more than 75 per cent of the continent's pollution, with sectors such as chemical manufacturing, power generation, and metal mining doing much of the heavy lifting. Canadian companies contributed 2.1 billion kilograms of pollution into the air, soil, and earth, more than a third of the continent's 5.7-billion-kilogram total. Manufacturing and the oilsands helped make Ontario and Alberta home to eight of the 10 worst polluting facilities in Canada.