Daily BrewScience journal touts Keystone XL pipeline as lesser of two evils
The controversial TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline received some notable support this week when a reputable environmental magazine urged the White House to back the project.
Nature, a prestigious science journal, said the U.S. should support the creation of the oil pipeline from Canada to Texas because Alberta’s tarsands are not as “dirty” as some contend. And also, what the heck, that mess will be up in Canada, anyway.
The Canadian Press reports that Nature urged U.S. President Barack Obama to support the pipeline project, essentially because blocking the XL pipeline wouldn’t stop the tarsands from being developed.
[ Related: Keystone opponents 'foolish,' says Calgary mayor ]
The magazine wrote in an editorial piece:
"[R]egarding the Keystone pipeline, the administration should face down critics of the project, ensure that environmental standards are met and then approve it.
...
[T]he pipeline is not going to determine whether the Canadian tar sands are developed or not. Only a broader — and much more important — shift in energy policy will do that. Nor is oil produced from the Canadian tar sands as dirty from a climate perspective as many believe.... Tar-sands development raises serious air- and water-quality issues in Canada, but these problems are well outside Obama’s jurisdiction."
So the project is fine for the U.S. because Alberta's oil sands are not as dirty as some claim. And why should Obama mind anyway, considering whatever level of pollutants there are will be up here in Canada.
The thing is, Nature essentially echoes the thoughts of Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who said recently that the pipeline had unfairly become a lightning rod for environmental opposition to the entire tar sands development.
[ Related: John Kerry confirmation happy day for environmentalists ]
“I think it's a terrible shame that this one metre in diameter pipeline is being asked to carry all of the sins of the carbon economy and, in fact, I think that some of the protests against this pipeline are deeply misdirected because if, in fact, the pipeline is not built, I imagine that we will end up with ways that are more carbon intensive,” Nenshi said, according to CBC News.
Alright, so Nature seems to be familiar with the adage, “You’ve got to break some eggs to make an omelet.”
Still: "SERIOUS air- and water-quality issues in Canada."
That’s what it wrote.
