How would a pipeline necessarily affect the climate?

Either we build the pipeline, or someone else will, right?

I don't think the pipeline is quite the end of the world scenario as you're painting it to be! You do realize that there are already pipelines all across our great land, don't you?

@ james. Even the slightest risk that this could leak is a no no for me. We have seen how greed creates havoc on our environment. No need to look no further than our own Lake Michigan. We can't eat fish anymore from there due to the coal plants spewing Mercury. We empty raw sewerage in it making it undrinkable. Eventually as a society we will pollute verything and it will be too late to recover. What we need is alternatives to oil period. We need to expand technology to hydrogen processing, etc. I would bet that our govt. does not want this now. How much tax money is collected at the pumps daily? If we are going to dig, then dig for ourselves, store it and bring the supply way up over demand to drive prices down for us. That won't happen and in the meantime forget the pipeline ruining the countryside.

Mike, I am sympathetic to your worries, but this is over the top. As Hoffa points out, we already have lots of oil pipelines here and all over the world. One more will not bring on the 'Apocalypse'. The only real concern with Keystone was that it would cross over the main water aquifer for Nebraska and surrounding areas. That is why the governor of Nebraska opposed it.
Yes shale oil is dirty, but not much worse than oil in general.
Another point is that pipeline leaks are not like the BP spill in the Gulf. The pipeline is monitored and leaks are quickly found and repaired before much oil escapes.
As long as everyone is depending on oil for so much of our welfare we have to keep finding new sources for it. Your efforts would be better spent encouraging renewable energies.
As for your art - why are there eel-like things in the oil?

Caught up in your own exaggerations much? You so blatantly picked out little bits of slander and falsehoods its easy to see how so many uninformed will buy into this nonsense.

You failed to mention that Obama was asked by Billionaire Buffet to stop the pipeline because he had bought up all the rail lines and train systems that will be shipping the oil at far greater environmental risk and energy expense. But since he's a Democratic operative you and most of the media choose to ignore these facts, what hypocracy! Your all about the environment and trashing conservatives who want to make a living but fall sadly silent when it's one of your own profiteering and damaging the environment while reaping billions.

You also failed to mention that while some of the oil might be sold to the Chinese from the pipeline, all of it will be sold to the Chines without it. And no Americans will get jobs from the Canadian alternative. The oils is still going to flow, the question is will we get some of it and some of the jobs, or none of it and none of the jobs?

You failed to mention the 150 years worth of oil in the North Dakotas alone, not to mention in the Canadian fields or the vast reserves of natural gas we have, clean energy we can easily convert to but that does not play well for the fear mongering Democrats.

Nor do Democrats seem to remember the effects of innovation and technical progress that has consistently neutralized end of world fears.

You fail to acknowledge that doomsayers and the supposedly wise science and environmental community have predicted the end of mankind for the last 100 years, yet mankind constantly saves itself through invention and creative thinking that liberals like to ignore or pretend does not happen. We so easily forget for example how absolutely positive scientists were in the 60s that by the 80s the world would end, or the 70s when they were so sure we would run out of fuel and water in the next decade, oh and then the ice age that never happened either. Now they just stop talking about the fact that the world has plenty of fuel to last us centuries, plenty of time to invent better and cleaner alternatives.

You fail to mention that our air is vastly cleaner than it has been in decades, that are water ways are far cleaner too. Did you forget how acid rain was supposed to be burning everything up, eating all our cars, destroying all our buildings and everything else by the late 90s?

Whoops I guess the experts you cite are also experts at forgetting how consistently wrong they are.

►The Republican Party is touting how The Keystone Pipeline will be Americas salvation to give us the cheap gas that we so crave◄

What are you talking about, actually your entire "piece" is just bits of uneducated fears. Oil is traded on a world market as a commodity. I never herd anyone say a pipeline, of whos' oil we wouldn't use much of anyway, would lower the gas price.

I'm sorry for you it's ONLY 6000 jobs. Tell that to those contractors looking for work or the ones that already purchased millions of dollars of equipment for this project.

Teacher, please learn yourself first before writing about something you have no real world knowledge of.

Waiting for F Jim to throw up his latest screed about the property rights bill that passed the House this week. Will be curious if he would be in favor of famers and ranchers along the Keystone route telling TransCanada where to stick the pipeline.

oh boy. Here is your blog source:

"ThinkProgress was voted “Best Liberal Blog” in the 2006 Weblog Awards and chosen as an Official Honoree in the 2009 Webby awards."

yet they claim "The Center for American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization."

Michael you really have no business posting about subjects that you are ignorant about. Stick to painting pretty pictures.

Please be specific about which Michael you mean. I have no clue how to paint, but I'd love to learn!

Last night President Clinton came out in favor of the pipeline and according to CNBC, CLinton has asked his wife to set up a meeting with President Obama to discuss it. Further, CNBC said this was the plan all along, that just when President Obama needs it during the election that he will come out and endorse it, then being able to claim all the jobs and a win over democrats while also having Clinton's endorsement so that people who still like Clinton but are on the fence with Obama will be a little more inclined to vote for him.

Earlier in the week the Secretary of the Dept. of Energy in the same speech to congress said they were driving up prices on purpose, and will also drive them back down just before the election. Then back up to European levels or higher after Obama is reelected.

The whole pipeline discussion is pointless, Warren Buffett has had time to buy up more stocks on the construction companies and pipe manufactures, stocks whose price dropped after the Obama administration stopped the pipeline. Buffet had already bought up much of the rail, rail construction, and train companies who will ship much of the oil if the pipeline does not go through and also to handle the rail parts in Canada.

The whole pipeline thing seems to me to be political theater that most people won't look closely enough at to see the real things going on in the back ground. And of coarse to ensure that the operatives and donors are well rewarded along the way.

Sorry, I menat to say a win over Republicans.