Paul Chastko, a 2003 Ph.D. in History from Ohio University, has been recognized by the Petroleum History Society with the Book of the Year Award for 2004 for his study Developing Alberta's Oil Sands from Karl Clark to Kyoto. Alberta's oil sands represent a vast and untapped oil reserve that could reasonably supply all of Canada's energy needs for the next 475 years. With an estimated 300 billion barrels of recoverable oil at stake, the quest to develop this natural resource has been undertaken by many powerful actors, both nationally and internationally. Using research that integrates the economic, political, scientific, and business factors that have been influential in discovering and developing the sands, this book provides a comprehensive history of the oil sands project and a window on the nature of the complex relationships between industry, government, and transnational players. This book is the first comprehensive volume that examines the origins and development of the oil sands industry over the last century.
Paul currently teaches at the University of Calgary.
