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<DIV class=timestamp>From: <EM>The New York Times</EM></DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>April 2, 2011</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">No to a New Tar Sands
Pipeline</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>Later this year, the State Department will decide whether to approve
construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast
called Keystone XL. The underground 36-inch pipeline, built by TransCanada,
would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries and
begin operating in 2013. The department should say no. </P>
<P>State is involved because the pipeline would cross an international boundary.
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton first said she was “inclined” to support it,
but has lately sounded more neutral. An environmental assessment carried out by
her department last year was sharply criticized by the Environmental Protection
Agency for understating the project’s many risks. The department has since
undertaken another environmental review that will soon be released for public
comment. It needs to be thorough and impartial. </P>
<P>Advocates of the Keystone XL, which include the Canadian government, the oil
industry and its allies in Congress, argue that a steady supply of oil from a
friendly neighbor is the answer to rising oil prices and turmoil in the Middle
East. But the Energy Department says the pipeline would have a minimal effect on
prices, and there is already sufficient pipeline capacity to double United
States imports from Canada. </P>
<P>The environmental risks, for both countries, are enormous. The first step in
the process is to strip-mine huge chunks of Alberta’s boreal forest. The oil, a
tar-like substance called bitumen, is then extracted with steam or hot water,
which in turn is produced by burning natural gas. The E.P.A. estimates that the
greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands oil — even without counting the
destruction of forests that sequester carbon — are 82 percent greater than those
produced by conventional crude oil. </P>
<P>The project poses a major threat to water supplies on both sides of the
border. Turning two tons of tar sand into a barrel of oil requires four times as
much water as producing a barrel of conventional oil. Operations in Alberta have
already created 65 square miles of toxic holding ponds, which kill migrating
birds and pollute downstream watersheds, a serious matter for native
communities. </P>
<P>In the United States, the biggest potential problem is pipeline leaks. The
Keystone XL would carry bitumen — which is more corrosive than crude oil —
thinned with other petroleum condensates and then pumped at high pressure and at
a temperature of more than 150 degrees through the pipeline. </P>
<P> Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000
gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that
began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. </P>
<P>The Keystone XL would cut diagonally across Montana and the Nebraska Sand
Hills — a delicate region of porous, sandy soils — to northern Kansas before
heading south to the Gulf. It would also cross the Ogallala Aquifer, a shallow
underground reservoir of enormous importance for agriculture that also provides
drinking water for two million people. A pipeline leaking diluted bitumen into
groundwater could have disastrous consequences. </P>
<P>For this reason, Senators Mike Johanns and Ben Nelson of Nebraska have
vigorously opposed the planned route of the Keystone XL. Still, political
pressure to win swift approval has been building in Congress. Moving ahead would
be a huge error. From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only
environmentally risky, it is unnecessary. </P></DIV></NYT_TEXT></FONT></DIV>
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