The irony is almost too much to bear. This week, Senate Republicans voted to approve a bill to President Obama's desk that would mandate the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline -- the project that would transport the thick, dirty oil harvested from the tar sands of western Canada across the American prairie to ports and refineries on the Gulf Coast. Opponents are hoping that the president will veto the bill -- and that his State Department won't grant a permit through the existing permit process -- for two broad reasons. Some opponents are looking at the Big Picture: That nixing the Keystone project makes a powerful statement about weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and taking climate change seriously. Then there's the smaller frame: There's no guarantees the pipeline won't leak -- or worse -- and pollute U.S. drinking water. But in working overtime to get the Keystone bill passed, Congress seems clueless about what is happening with the real-world pipelines that already exist in the American heartland. These conveyances of crude oil -- old ones, new ones, rusty ones, sleek ones -- as well as ones that carry toxic and radioactive fracking wastes are leaking and blowing up, sending flames shooting ...
↧