Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian. January 12, 2012.
An independent research group that tracks the influence of money in politics has conducted an analysis of oil industry contributions to members of Congress supporting the pipeline.
With the new rush to approve TransCanada's tar sands pipeline, let's review some key facts that should underlie any analysis of the proposed 1700-mile project.
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com. November 16, 2011.
While you were paying attention to Herman Cain, the Kardashians and the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, the U.S. Department of Energy administered last rites to the planet.
Stephen Lacey, Jessica Goad, ThinkProgress. November 7, 2011.
The Keystone XL pipeline has become a rallying cry for a broad spectrum of environmental interests — climate, land protection, clean water, and environmental justice.
The brothers control nearly 25% of the tar sands crude that is imported into the US and own mining companies, oil terminals, and refineries all along the Keystone XL route.
By siding with concerned members of Congress and his own environmental agency and choosing to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, Obama could begin to make good on that pledge.
This is shocking considering carbon emissions from tar sands are 80% higher than the average crude and the extraction process requires strip mining and toxic waste.
Forcing a vote on a matter that may bind the United States' fate to fossil fuels for decades to come is the most irresponsible aspect of all in this debate.
Pakistan is strategically at the center of too many plans for it to rely on the US -- with pipeline plans, Iran and China as neighbors and a planet hungry for natural gas.
Ron Johnson, Earth Island Journal. March 30, 2011.
Tar sands oil has a host of toxic additives that increase the health risks, and that makes the crude oil flowing under the Ogallala Aquifer that much more dangerous.
What are the dangers of pumping gritty, thick crude at high temperature and pressure through a pipeline with walls less than half an inch thick across vital sources of groundwater?
The oil it promises to provide could be recovered just by increasing our cars' fuel efficiency by about two and a half miles per gallon -- something we already know how to do.
Brendan Schwartz, Valery Nodem, AlterNet. December 2, 2009.
The discovery of oil in Chad was supposed to allieviate poverty and human suffering, but it's only enriched Western Oil companies and the local dictators.
