A Canadian Perspective: Killing Keystone XL 1.0

Link to Arizona Central. (A "thank you" to a reader for sending it.) I don't think there's anything new in this editorial for regular readers of the blog. It's been said often enough before. This is what is interesting: even now, November 3, 2012, a year later, it is still being talked about. And, I suppose, there is a new interest / new perspective following Hurricane Sandy.

NISKU, Alberta -- This is oil country.

Beneath the peat bogs and boreal forests in the northern part of this Canadian province are among the largest oil reserves in the world. Canadians have been getting it out of the prairies for more than 100 years and piping much of it to the United States, which imports more oil from Canada than anywhere else.

But President Barack Obama’s denial of a permit for an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that has been worked on for years has angered many here who claim that the U.S. environmental lobby is harming their livelihoods without scientific basis.

They even accuse it of illegally assisting Canadian environmental groups and say it’s time to scrap plans to sell more oil to America and step up efforts to redirect the pipeline to the Pacific Coast and energy-hungry markets overseas.

“You’ve got a friendly source of oil from a friendly country,” says welder Rob Tessier after lunching at the Pipeline Alley Cafe in Nisku. “If you don’t want it, we’ll send it to an Asian market.”