Why the Keystone Pipeline is a Real Bad Idea

14 REASONS WHY KEYSTONE XL IS A BAD IDEA

1. Oil from the tar sands is very energy-intensive to produce
– 30-60% higher greenhouse gases than regular oil.

tarsands

2. The pipeline would commit us to using more tar sands, taking our atmosphere far beyond safe limits for greenhouse gases (350 parts per million carbon dioxide).

3. The pipeline would endanger the Ogallala Aquifer, the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and the Great Plains from oil spills.

4. The pipeline and the tar sands will ruin wetlands and other areas essential for North American waterfowl – it is bad for hunting and birding.

5. The pipeline would ruin the boreal forests of Canada – an important habitat and “carbon sink” that holds carbon dioxide that would otherwise go into the atmosphere.

6. The pipeline would continue the displacement of Canada’s First Nations from their native lands.

7. Canada cannot build a pipeline to its Pacific Coast, because of legal and technical barriers including opposition from the First Nations whose lands any Canadian pipeline would cross, and Canada probably does not want to build it anyway because it does not want to ruin its Pacific Coast with a refinery.

8. The pipeline would require condemnation of thousands of farms and ranches owned by Americans by a foreign oil company (TransCanada).

9. The Keystone XL pipeline is being built for export on the global market from Port Arthur, Texas, and will bypass Midwest refineries, driving gas prices in Iowa even higher.

10. Even if built for the US market, the pipeline would worsen our dependence on expensive foreign oil.

11. Even if built for the US market, the pipeline would increase competition with Iowa’s biofuels industry.

12. The pipeline would cost billions of dollars that should be used for fuel efficiency, other transportation solutions, and clean renewable energy.

13. Any jobs that might be created by the pipeline are a few thousand temporary jobs; alternatives create more jobs and more permanent jobs.