The US Government should stop development of the Keyston Pipeline.

My following argument will be brief and, hopefuly, concise. I will elaborate further in the next round. Pipeline Definition"The 1,700-mile long Keystone XL Pipeline would connect the Alberta oil sand fields in Canada to refineries in Texas. The multi-billion dollar project is being proposed by TransCanada, a Canadian energy company. TransCanada has been attempting to get a permit for the pipeline for over three years. The proposed line would travel through six U. S. states: Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The line would cross through 16 counties in North and East Texas. The pipeline itself would be 36 inches around. "Tar-Sand Oil Some pipeline advocates are citing it's only 6% worse than convential oil: this is optimistic. It is mined by huge trucks and takes an excess amount of heat and energy to seperate the bitumen from the sands. Thus Stanford Assistant Professor Adam Brandt states a much more reasonable estimation is it is 20% to 25% worse than that of conventional, regarding carbon-foot-print. Literature reviews place it high as 37% worse. But it is now thought to be even worse as the tar sand companies are replacing boggy peat lands that absorb large amounts of carbon with dry forests when they are finished mining. These vastly detrimental environmental concerns will be on-going for decades and generations. Not only does this set a national and international precedent of not seeking alternative energy, but it speeds the process of our worsening environment. This won't cause Global Warming, but it certainly speeds it's process. With China and India, already, being careless with the overwhelming warnings from the scientific community, America joining them, will surely be a strong, wrongfuly-minded precendent and slippery-slope. Moreover, if the Ogallala Aquifer is contaminted it will be irreversible. This is an ancient, fossil aquifer of which the Great-Plains depends on for their world-leading agriculture output: see history of Dust Bowl, for the implications of this economic, environmental hazard. Moreover, TransCanada is beginning to receive permits to start building, yet they haven't even told states the chemicals used to dilute the heavy tar sands bitumen that the 1,100-mile pipeline would carry from Canada. Not only is this blatantly disrespective but it also shows signs that our fragile farmland is being taken for granted by the company building the pipeline. TransCanadaThe United States Department of State investigated TransCanada, and they have had twenty-one spills: not an impressive figure, especially given this will be going right down the farmland of America. Also it must be mentioned that this will be one of the more monstorous projects they have take on. Recently in May of 2011, for example, 21, 000 gallons of oil spilt in N. Dakota because of a faulty valve in a pipeline. In 2011 alone, there were in fact 12 major spills from a similar pipeline that of which TransCanada is planning. TexasIn the particular case this is just not a good time for Texas, as they are going through a water drought. TransCanada will be extracting fresh water from Texas land, as permitted by eminent-domain, to clean out their pipelines and hyrdraulic testing. This is a detail, yes, but is a regional dilemma, so it ought not to be discounted as trivial. Jobs and the EconomySome way-overly optimistic studies have shown that the pipeline will create 500,000 jobs. This is grossly wrong. TransCanada, which has a clear biased in wanting to get a permit, stipulated it will probably only create 20,000 jobs. But from a far less-biased source, The U. S. State Department issued a statement tha itt will, estimated, create around 5,000 to 6,000 jobs. The great majority of these jobs is only for construction because the beauty of a pipeline is that it is automated. So whatever minute stimulus the pipeline will create, it will be greatly temporary. Also, this is not a necessity, for all America may do with the great majority of this is sell it to foreign markets--Latine America, Europe, and China. ChainedOnce the pipeline is built the pipeline stays. It will stay there, transporting oil for decades and decades. Building a pipeline is a marriage. The little jobs it created will go away. Much of the oil will be sold. OPEC will still be strong, making money off of other markets. The only thing that is permanent in this decision, is the irreversible damage it does to our climate and irriversible damage it will, in all likliness, do to agriculture lands and the irreversible precedent America will set for the world. Therein,The Proponent case, safely, outweighs on a Magnitude and Timeline scale. . http://247wallst.com... . http://thinkprogress.org... . http://www.huffingtonpost.com... . http://stateimpact.npr.org...http://www.huffingtonpost.com...http://en.wikipedia.org...