Tar Sands Pipelines: the Dirtiest Oil on Earth

The State Department just released their Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal, concluding in large part that the proposal is environmentally acceptable.

Comments

[Epic fail on so many levels]

Waders & wading boots, fly lines, tippet, polarized glasses, synthetic fly tying materials, boats, Gore-Tex, coolers, synthetic base layer clothing, rope, gas & oil in your truck which will get you to the river on a solid set of all terrain tires made from oil, pulling a boat powered by a 2 or 4 stroke combustion engine that runs on gas & oil, which sits on a trailer with oil based tires, which travels smoothly on a state road that is made of oil based asphalt, all the way to the put in. The plastic porta potty shitter you use before getting in the boat is oil based. The mug you drink coffee out of and the red solo cups that hold your mixer are plastics. The coffee maker that made your morning brew is plastic. Your Thule rack that carries your plastic coffin on top of your SUV mounted next to your plastic kayak and your plastic skiis are all oil based. And after a long day on the river you're able to come home to nice warm house that's full of plastics and is heated by natural gas. You can then get into a nice, hot shower that's heated by your propane fed water heater. You can wash your hair with your favorite shampoo that comes from a plastic bottle, and then throw it into the trash so it ends up out in the Pacific choking pelicans and turtles. And when you get out, you can go heat up a nice bowl of mac n cheese in a microwave that's made from the same plastic and put it into a bowl that's plastic. You can then kick back on your synthetic couch, pick up a plastic remote and turn on your tv which is made with all sorts of oil based plastics. Then you can open your laptop that's covered in Greenpeace, Sierra Club, & Moldy Chum stickers that are all made from plastic. You'll then be able to FB all your friends and tell them about the new reel you just got in the mail that was delivered by a combustion engine driven FedEx truck, which picked it up at the depot where the combustion driven jet landed after it picked up a million other oil based products from China to bring it straight to your anti-oil, anti-natural gas, anti-drilling hypocritical home. I love the environment as much as anyone, but seriously, think about it. The media would have us believe that we need to go back to the stone age if we're to protect all that we hold dear to us. Think about all the everyday luxuries that we enjoy that are indirectly related to the "big oil" monster that we're sold daily on public tv and the internet. Whether you have the balls to admit it or not, we all use it every single day. A lot of it.

[jimbob]

Epic fail on so many levels, loved the cyborg pedagogy presented.

The video did a pretty good job at pointing the blame on Canada too. It is a shame that most of the companies operating out of the Tar Sands are AMERICAN corporations. Lovely piece of propaganda.

[epic realization]

It's obvious that our way of life isn't going to change until we use up the planet's natural resources, so in the meantime, we should invest in stronger pipelines that don't fail 62% of the time, and hope future generations are smarter than all preceding generations. The poor decision making now is on the shoulders of future generations to solve. The majority of all energy on the planet (I'm talking everything from glucose to industrial scale emissions) is used up and released as heat in the form of CO2. It's about time we invest time and money into harvesting and recycling the carbon, either that or plant more trees, and put more cyanobacteria into the oceans. The demand for natural resources is too great, and the demand for oil isn't going anywhere overnight. But, addressing that we have a problem is a good start.

[Epic fail on so many levels]

"It is a shame that most of the companies operating out of the Tar Sands are AMERICAN corporations." C'mon man, use your head. How many AMERICAN companies are operating outside the US? Microsoft, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, McDonalds, Walmart, Xerox, Morgan Stanley, Ford, American Express, GM, Caterpillar, FedEx, Pfizer, Franklin Templeton, Pizza Hut etc, etc. Surely I don't need to point out how many others there are. And I'd bet you use a lot of those companies' items. I do. This is why America is so hypocritical. Everyone here wants to blame the big corporations for our problems. How many flies in your box were tied overseas in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India or China? Do you think your fishing gear comes from US soil? Nope...because Americans will always pay someone less to do the jobs we won't do ourselves. Why is it that the majority of agricultural employees are illegal immigrants? We all think we're better than that...that we deserve better pay. If you can pay someone less, hire them. It ultimately leads to a larger take for the owner in the end. So we sublet out our "hard" jobs to the less fortunate while we claim something needs to be done for our skyrocketing obesity problem here...not to mention illegal immigration. Our land used to be a source of pride. People worked hard for their money. Now it's being reduced to generation after generation of fat kids playing Xbox and watching TV all day because mom and dad are working for one of the evil corporations and don't have time to spend with their kids outside. And the other half sits home and draws welfare or unemployment because they've realized it pays better to do that instead of go out and make an honest living. Oil consumption is only going to grow in demand until our dirty politicians get together with the auto industry and start insisting we use CNG like many other countries. It leaves a lot smaller CO2 footprint, much cheaper to use and we have billions of cubic feet of it right under us. Sure, we still have to drill for it, but until someone comes up with a better idea, it's really all we've got. All the other "green" ideas haven't worked because they're too expensive to use. That's why many of them are in bankruptcy right now. We do have a problem, but we have problems in our public schools, the White House, oceans, colleges, and a whole slug of other areas. That's just the way it is. We can piss and moan all day long about it, but until our leaders start to value what the future generations will deal with, instead of growing their bank account, we'll be having this same conversation years from now. This "change" we were all sold years ago is horseshit. But instead of do something about it, we re-elect someone with a proven track record of increased debt and federal spending. Why? Because something for nothing sells votes way easier than accountability, saving & hard work.