The Keystone No-Brainer

As the Senate readies to vote on the Keystone pipeline, CEI's Marlo Lewis makes a number of key points why opposition to the already much-delayed Keystone makes no sense when it comes to the environment, the economy, or national security.

• TransCanada filed its first application for a cross-border permit in September 2008. It has taken State more than six years not to render a decision. Yet the issue is a no-brainer.
• In reality, the KXL is climatologically irrelevant.
• Like any large infrastructure project, the KXL will have environmental impacts and pose environmental risks. However, roughly half the originally-proposed pipeline has already been built.
• The whole notion that the KXL is some kind of unique or major threat to the national interest is laughable. About 2.5 million miles of oil and gas pipelines already criss-cross the lower 48. How could laying another 875 miles of pipe push the network over some kind of national interest ‘tipping point’?
• By way of comparison, the Gulf Coast Project brought $2.1 billion to the Oklahoma economy, $3.6 billion to the Texas economy, and tens of millions of dollars to local tax coffers.

Read the full commentary on Globalwarming.org: No Brainer: Senate Should Approve Keystone XL.