NO TO KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

JUST SAY NO

Steve Rose is correct when he says GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL but he his dead wrong when he says we need the Keystone XL pipeline. Here’s why:

The Keystone pipeline will carry a highly corrosive and benzene-laced mixture of sand, clay water, and bitumen at some 1,400 pounds per square inch. The pressure is so great a leak in another Keystone pipeline once shot tar sands six stories high.

Canadian tar sands oil are considered the dirtiest oil on the planet.

Mike Klink, a former inspector for Bechtel, a major pipeline contractor, is one of these. Klink, an engineer, said he had major concerns about shoddy materials and poor craftsmanship as the pipeline was being built.

According to a study by Cornell University barely 6,500 jobs would be created and the pipeline would kill more jobs than it would create, by reducing investment in the clean energy economy. The Cornell study finds only 2,500 to 4,650 temporary jobs over two years would result from building the pipeline

He isn’t saying pipelines shouldn’t be built, just not the Keystone XL pipeline.

“This thing shouldn’t be leaking like a sieve in its first year — what do you think happens decades from now after moving billions of barrels of the most corrosive oil on the planet?”

I’m not an environmentalist and I’m not a radical, but I am a mother, and I care a lot about the water my kids drink and the air they breathe.

I’ve written this before because our future depends on it.

• It takes courage to stand up to the big oil companies.

• It takes self-interest and fear to give in to them.

Which side are you on?

-The tar sands pipeline that spilled a million gallons of toxic heavy oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last summer illustrates the dangers this type of uniquely corrosive oil will bring along the Keystone XL route.