This is the latest bad news regarding the XL Keystone Pipeline. Elizabeth Bast wrote in Oil Change International, “Emissions from tar sands extraction and upgrading are between 3.2 and 4.5 times higher than the equivalent emissions from conventional oil produced in North America.On a life-cycle basis, the average gallon of tar sands bitumen derived fuel has between 14 and 37 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average gallon of fuel from conventional oil.”
Lorne Stockman, research director at Oil Change International had this to say, “What we’ve uncovered is something industry doesn’t want you to hear: exploiting the tar sands and building the Keystone XL pipeline is even more damaging to the climate than has been previously reported.”
The problem is, despite all the protests and the research into the effects, the pipeline is under construction. I drive past a section of it every time I go to town and hate the devastation I see on two sides of the road. In one place, it actually comes within 100 yards of a home that someone had built out in the country so they could enjoy nature.
Okay, that’s my rant for the day.
For a little levity, consider this from Pickles. Opal and her grandson, Nelson, are sitting in the lving room. Nelson says, “I hope tomorrow is funner that today.”
Opal says, “Funner is not a word Nelson. The correct way to say it would be, ‘I hope tomorrow will be more fun than today.'”
To which he responds, “The longer I sit here the more unfunner this day is getting.”
Literary Lesson: “You don’t pay for anything by being dead. That’s when you stop paying for it.” from Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley
The pipeline news is heartbreaking. When will we ever learn?
LD, I talked to one of the local men who spent years fighting the pipeline, and he said he has recently figured out it was a go from the beginning. It didn’t matter how many people protested with valid reasons. It is sad.