KEYSTONE NOT THE PROBLEM – WASHPOST

Keystone XL pipeline is the wrong target for protesters
October 10, 2011 (Washington Post)

"…The activists [fighting the Keystone XL pipeline] have the wrong target…[T]he petroleum that comes from Alberta’s “tar sands” isn’t very clean; it produces more carbon emissions than light sweet crude. And…pipelines can leak, as recent ruptures in Michigan and under the Yellowstone River demonstrate…But rejecting the pipeline won’t reduce global carbon emissions or the risk of environmentally destructive spills.

"Canada’s government — and rising world petroleum prices — guarantee that the country will extract the oil from its tar sands, and that Asia will take it if America doesn’t...burning fossil fuels and risking ocean spills along the way. China already has a large stake in Canadian oil production. Plans are already in the works to build the necessary pipelines."

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"…[Critics say] petroleum companies want to export much of the Canadian oil abroad after refining it in Gulf Coast facilities…But if export markets are that attractive, Canadian crude will reach them…and American refineries will get their low-grade crude from somewhere else…The more American refineries source their low-grade crude via pipeline from Canada and not from tankers out of the Middle East or Venezuela, the better, even if not every refined barrel stays in the country.

"Producing energy is a dirty business, and it will remain so for a long time, even with the right policies. Part of facing this reality is admitting that how the world produces energy must change over time. But another part is accepting that oil production will continue for decades and clear-headedly managing the risks — not pretending we can wish them away."