Here's something bold, with opinions sure to send the Toronto Sun into fits of fury: Tim Kaine, a Democrat representative from Virginia, wrote an Op-ed for today's Washington Post on why he thinks that U.S. president Barack Obama should block the building of the "tarsands" pipeline (the Keystone XL project). Kaine backs up his assertion that by opposing the oil highway from Alberta, Canada, to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, carbon emissions can be lowered which would help the U.S. meet its targets and to meet a better quality of life for Americans.
The process of extracting oil from the Alberta tarsands (or "oilsands") is labour intensive and "dirty", requiring huge amounts of water and damaging to the local environment. Mr. Kaine admits that coal plants, fossil-fuel production, and automobiles will continue to pollute, but much can be done to lower the overall dirt. There has been a push in the States to using natural gas and "renewable-electricity generation", such as wind, which has helped contribute to a 9 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions since 2005.
Kaine explains that some folk have the attitude that 'someone will take Canada's tarsands oil if we don't, so we should be there to benefit, too'. He chooses not to go that defeatist route.
The United States of America and its gas-guzzling citizens have an insatiable need for Canada's (safe) oil... even if it has to be taken from a stone. Therefore I think that Tim Kaine's more-than-reasonable arguments will be lost in the wind.
The Washington Post...
Obama should block the Keystone pipeline
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tim-kaine-keystone-xl-pipeline-should-be-stopped/2013/06/20/5c160bb4-d852-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
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