Year 2, Month 9, Day 5: No Problem. We’ll Do It Fast And Cheap. Just Sign Here, and We’ll Be Back At The End Of Next Week. Don’t Drive On It Until Then.

The Sept. 1 Great Falls Tribune (MT) notes that:

HELENA — A new report from a Washington, D.C., oil policy advocacy group claims that much of the oil that would be pumped through the planned Keystone XL pipeline that would pass through Montana would be bound for overseas markets rather than shoring up America’s domestic fuel supply.

(snip)

TransCanada disputes those claims, dismissing the report as “the latest concoction by activists who are trying to stop the oil stands.”

Well, they would, wouldn’t they?

Honestly, this whole project is the most obvious scam I’ve ever seen. These people remind me of fly-by-night driveway repair guys.

Sent Sept. 1:

And now there’s yet another reason to oppose the Keystone XL project. If the Canadian crude is meant for foreign sale, as the Oil Change International report states, then the only Americans likely to benefit are oil company executives and refinery operators. TransCanada’s vehement denials are hardly persuasive; the whole fossil fuel industry has a long and ugly record of mendacity, malfeasance and misrepresentation.

Extracting oil from Alberta’s tar sands is a hideously destructive process involving the destruction of huge swaths of boreal forest; the potential impact on the Earth’s climate is devastating (climatologist James Hansen simply says that the project would be “game over” for the climate). Factor in the likelihood of spills, leaks, and aquifer contamination as the crude is piped to refineries thousands of miles away, and it’s obvious: the Keystone pipeline is a recipe for short-, middle- and long-term disaster. President Obama should say no.

Warren Senders