The Pipeline

The phrase "tar sands" came into Lincoln's common vernacular about 8 months ago. While TransCanada had been working on its Keystone XL pipeline route for more than three years, the steady citizen resistance started in earnest this past year. TransCanada's idea with this pipeline was to tap into Alberta's  tar sands, the second largest crude oil resource in the world, to meet looming oil supply shortages.

I've been impressed by the public opposition to the pipeline. In an era where people are increasingly cynical about the public process, this opposition movement turned out about 800 people to attend the public hearing in Lincoln last week, and 1000 for the Atchison meeting. The I Stand With Randy critics of the TransCanada project are correct to say a major leak could ruin drinking water and devastate the mid-west's economy. TransCanada is also correct to assert the energy security and job creation benefits the pipeline offers.

It's not pipelines I distrust so much as it is the corporate interests involved. I think we're running out of oil and it's unlikely we'll conserve more and consume less of it in the foreseeable future. Is conservation possible? Yes. Probable? Nope. Sadly I think we live in a world that needs this pipeline to be built somewhere. Where and to what degree of stewardship the pipeline is constructed is directly proportional to the amount of push TransCanada receives from its opponents. And that push has been steady and strong from Randy and those who stand with him. 
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Attention any Nebraska folks in DC, VA or MD, please come to the DC State Dept. final public meeting on Friday, 10am-2pm at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue (Reagan bldg). Wear RED.