COTW: Connecting the Dots

This map comes to PNG from ProPublica.com:

It shows the location of significant pipeline accidents since 1986. The nation has about 2.5 million miles of pipelines [map, below; hazardous in red]. Notice the lack of pipeline carrying hazardous material in the region of the Ogallala Aquifer underlying the Nebraska Sand Hills. One of reasons the original application was rejected was local opposition from Nebraskan activists, farmers and ranchers concerned about the effects of a large spill on precious groundwater supplies. The administration will reconsidering the XL Keystone pipeline application intended to bring toxic, high temperature bitumen slurry south to Gulf coast refineries in the new year.

Environmentalists, who put significant pressure on El Obamados during his first term to deny the transnational project a go-ahead, are planning to demonstrate near the White House on Sunday by encircling his residence with a giant inflatable pipeline. (Who says they do not have a sense of humor?) Protestors want the President to make good on his promise to make climate change a priority of his second term. Critics of the pipeline project say it will dramatically increase the nation's carbon emissions by committing it to expanded fossil fuel production from Alberta's tar sands deposits. Supporters see it as a sure route to domestic energy independence. Al Gore, author and climate change advocate, has spoken out against the project, saying that it is the dirtiest source of liquid fuel imaginable and incompatible with reducing emissions causing global warming.