Senators Push For Hasty Approval of Pipeline For World's Dirtiest and Costliest Oil

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/148288/senators_push_for_hasty_approval_of_pipeline_for_world%27s_dirtiest_and_costliest_oil?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

AlterNet / By Michael Brune

Senators Push For Hasty Approval of Pipeline For World's Dirtiest and Costliest Oil

The oil it promises to provide could be recovered just by increasing our cars' fuel efficiency by about two and a half miles per gallon -- something we already know how to do.

September 23, 2010 |

The tar sands pits in Alberta, Canada that Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) visited last week are so bleak that one UN official, after seeing them for the first time, compared them to Mordor, the hellish wasteland from Lord of the Rings.

But Senator Graham, after meeting with oil industry representatives and tar sands proponents, hailed the toxic mines, the source of the world's dirtiest fuel, as "an industrial ballet," adding that the project "really blends with the natural habitat."

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That's why it was so surprising to hear Montana Senator Max Baucus pushing for hasty approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry this toxic oil right into his state, traversing major sources of fresh water like the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, posing a constant threat of ruptures, spills, and contamination. In addition to Montana, the pipeline would run through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, crossing dangerously close to drinking water supplies and agricultural aquifers.

We know the oil industry's influence on our representatives in Washington is out of hand. And when companies like BP spend nearly as much money on public relations after a major environmental disaster like the oil spill in the Gulf as they do on clean up, it's clear that we've got our work cut out for us.

But here's what we've got on our side: the truth.


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[kristopher]

1. K&R

[PDJane]

2. K&R.......and Alberta wants to develop

Ontario's shale beds. I see no reason for them to do so; those beds are in ecologically sensitive areas, and will destroy more habitat and wildlife.

It's positively insane.

[PufPuf23]

3. Narural resources especially those that deplete (minerals and fossil fuels

and primeval soil) are under stress as are the meta-ecosystems that mitigate stressors.

Population reduction is the only answer for our species; the question is how brutal.