You may have noticed a lot of activity today about the Keystone XL Pipeline, which is intended to bring extremely dirty oil from Canadian Tar Sands to US refineries.
There's been a lot of talk about how it will bring lots of jobs while it's being created.
But more important there is alarm that
- Keystone XL will cross through America’s agricultural heartland, the Missouri and Niobrara Rivers, the Ogallala aquifer, sage grouse habitat, walleye fisheries and more.
- There will be a great risk of environmental damage when there are breaks and spills (which will happen.)
- The oil it will bring is dirty and heavy. It is oil that would never have been used before for that reason. It is only now when oil costs more that oil companies are interested in it, but it will cause environmental damage during the refining and under transport.
- The Canadian tar sands are ruining Canadian forests and rivers, home to the Athanascan First Peoples. I have written earlier about these areas on this blog: tarsands
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