(Image source: KETV)
BY MALLORY PERRYMAN
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
An oil pipeline that could run from Canada to Texas- has the U.S. split.
MSNBC has the details on the Keystone XL pipeline that’s got environmentalists marching in D.C.
“Protesters surrounded the president’s home chanting ‘Yes we can stop the pipeline’. Opponents fear America would be ripe for another oil disaster if the president does not kill the construction plans.”
One of their biggest concerns-- the oil in the pipeline would come from Canadian tar sands. The Atlantic explains...
“Because of the intense amount of energy required to refine oil from tar sands, it's considered a particularly dirty source of fuel. According to some estimates, it produces 15% more greenhouse gases than your average barrel of oil once production is taken into account.”
But on the other side of the coin-- jobs. The company behind the pipeline says it will create thousands of them-- and former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer tells CNN--that should be the focus.
Gary Bauer (2008 GOP presidential contender): “I look at that pipeline, for example, and I see the opportunity for 30,000 Americans who don’t have jobs and can’t provide for their families to have a job if that pipeline is built. I see that as a moral issue....”
The final yay or nay is up to the federal government-- but one state in particular is heavily invested in that decision. Local news outlets in Nebraska have been covering this story for months now-- because--
--as KETV explains-- the pipeline runs over the region’s source of drinking water.
Reporter: “As it is, the pipeline would go straight through the sand hills, over the Ogallala Aquifer.”
Pipeline opponent: “I’m just very concerned that sand hills is a bad route for it.”
Reporter: “They’re concerned it could leak like the first Keystone pipeline did about a dozen times in the last year.”
President Obama has indicated he’ll make the final call on whether to approve the pipeline by the end of the year. As KEYE notes-- either way-- he’s making someone mad.
“Politically it's a tough spot for the president -- pitting major labor unions against environmentalists -- two groups that will be an important part of his reelection bid. Although the president is under pressure to create jobs... environmentalists say the Keystone pipeline is not the way to do it.”
According to The Atlantic, the Keystone XL would produce about 560,000 barrels of oil a day. The world consumes about 90 million barrels of oil every day.
