{19.7.11}Big oil is now pressuring Obamatron & Folks, Inc. to approve the Keystone XL pipeline to transport a volatile mix of bitumen and natural gas across the Canadian border to their refineries on the Gulf coast. Because it is an international undertaking, Secretary of State Clinton must sign off on the deal. The environmental review conducted by the Department of State is laughable if were not funny. The EPA, constrained by government politesse, called the review "environmentally objectionable". Development of the tar sands of Alberta is probably the most destructive human project on earth. It is literally ripping apart the boreal forest, habitat for millions of song birds as well wolves, lynx, woodland caribou, and other species too numerous to list here. Four tons of wilderness must be dug up to produce a single barrel of crude in a net energy consuming process straight out of Hell. [photo].
All of this destruction is thought necessary to feed America's addiction to oil, and provide big oil with more profits. Keystone XL, if built, will be a 2,000 mile pipe carrying toxic, highly corrosive, diluted bitumen at 150℉ across some of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the United States, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of drinking water for millions of Americans. We have seen what can happen if a pipeline bursts. Keystone One pipeline has already ruptured 12 times in its first year of operation, and another bitumen pipe in Michigan spilled one million gallons of crude into the Kalamazoo River last year. Exxon-Mobil is cleaning up a 1,000 barrel spill from a burst pipeline under the nearly pristine and scenic Yellowstone River in Montana. That pipeline is thought to have carried tar sand crude at times, a heavy type oil more corrosive that light crude. The State Department needs to hear from Americans who still care about the health of the land and its wild and human inhabitants. Touch your inner hippie, write or call Secretary Clinton and tell her the Keystone XL pipeline is bad for America.