Includes bibliography and index.

Background and analytical lens -- The oil sands and its discontents -- Regulating 'sustainable development' of the oil sands resource -- The regulatory process -- The directing features of policy and strategy -- Issues with the "planning" stage of the regulatory process -- Issues with the "approval" stage of the regulatory process -- The catalyst for harm and inefficacy of control -- The catalyst for harm: 'weak' ecological modernisation in policy and practice -- The inefficacy of control: systematic infringement of treaty rights and the justificatory function of compound denial -- "Sustainable development"-as-environmental harm : the lessons of the Canadian oil sands.