Six reasons why the Keystone XL pipeline project should be rejected

Sally Kohn has a good opinion piece on Fox News, of all places, where she lists six important reasons why the Keystone XL pipeline was a bad deal all along:

1. The Keystone XL pipeline would not reduce foreign oil dependency.

2. Contrary to popular opinion, Keystone XL would have increased domestic oil prices.

3. Proponents of the pipeline overstated the number of jobs that would be created.

4. Current Keystone pipeline leaked 12 times in last year.

5. And the environmental concerns about oil leaks are justified.

6. Mining tar sands would worsen global warming. Or in the words of NASA climate scientist James Hansen, be "game over for the planet."

Here is a little summary of the Keystone XL project so far:

1. Nebraska objects to the Keystone XL pipeline as they are concerned over potential oil spill accidents in the Ogallala Aquifer area, which supplies water to a large portion of US farm land. Climate activists around the US mobilized, and risked arrests in acts of civil disobedience, to raise the alarm about the environmental and climate risks of tar sands.

2. In response to Nebraska’s objections, TransCanada promises to find a better route for the pipeline and to revise the plans. But Republicans in the US congress decides to put an unreasonable deadline on the permit application to be able to gain political points in the upcoming general election. As a result of the deadline, TransCanada is not able to provide revised plan and the permit is incomplete.

3. Because TransCanada’s plans are incomplete the US government must reject the permit. If they were to approve the incomplete permit application they would set themselves up for easily winnable legal challenges by climate activists and pipeline opponents.

4. TransCanada will re-apply, and they will likely also win and get their pipeline permit a few months after the big presidential election. And considering Obama’s Keystone statement it probably won’t matter if there will be a Republican or a Democratic president in office by then.

#greenblog

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Six reasons Keystone XL was a bad deal all along

Here are six facts about the proposed Keystone XL deal that make clear why the pipeline was a bad deal for America and why it deserved to be rejected:

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