“Keystone Kops”: Major pipeline spills raise serious questions about safety of Keystone XL project

For a lot of American environmentalists, the Keystone XL pipeline project was a major wakeup call about the rising, out-of-control power of Big Oil in this country, stretching all the way to the corridors of power in Washington. The proposal called for a 2,147-mile pipeline that would run from the booming oil-sands region of western Canada and ultimately connect all the way to the Gulf Coast. Supporters claim that the project would boost the energy industry in North America and create 20,000 American jobs. But the critics -- and there are many -- say the jobs numbers are grossly inflated and don't outweigh the major threats to the environmental that are posed by the Keystone project. For one thing, the oil that is pulled from the Canadian tar sands is an expensive, dirty fuel that will contribute to global warming. But an even more powerful argument against the Keystone XL plan is the issue of pipeline safety. The initial plan calls for the pipeline to cross the Sandhills in Nebraska, a critical wetlands, and the Ogallala Aquifer, which serves some two million people in eight states as well as many farms. So just one major accident would be catastrophic. Big Oil has tried ...