XL: The Zombie Pipeline

Wait, did you think the XL pipeline was dead?

Don't be silly. This pipeline is still on target... it just wasn't given quick approval during the false deadline artificially imposed by US conservatives.

Why Keystone Pipeline Project May Get Built After All
In December, Congress passed an extension of the payroll tax cut. Inserted in this bill was a deadline of 60 days for the White House to approve the Keystone permit.

However, the State Department had already said it would need more time to evaluate the economic and environmental impact of the pipeline extension, which has the ultimate goal of bringing crude from Canada's oil sands down the middle of the country to the Gulf states.

"This has been 100 percent politics," said Dan Dicker, president of MercBloc and long-time oil trader. "You can re-route all the oil anyway and the pipeline operators are doing it, and planning on it. It will be resubmitted and approved in the next iteration after the election, 100% assured."

What does this mean? It means that Harper's Harpies have no justification for pushing ahead the Gateway project based on this issue. If we had to choose between the two the XL proposal is much better for our environment, our BC First Nation's, and for Canada.

Of course, while there may be alternatives to having either pipeline, it seems that we are unlikely to consider them.