Too high a price for dirty oil

I'm late to the game on the Keystone XL pipeline, having only recently caught up on what's going on. Having now studied the details, it's clearly not a project I could support. Yet I see it does have majority support in the polling. I suppose it's because the proponents are inflating the number of jobs the pipeline might create and minimizing the horrific damage a pipeline break could cause. Wondering why anyone believes a 2,000 mile pipeline bisecting the entire U.S., partly routed over a critical watershed and an active seismic fault line is ever a good idea.

I have a longer post at Detroit News on this multi-billion dollar folly but I do want to repost the photo that brings it into focus. I've never seen an extraction site before.

Looks even worse than the deforestation of the Amazon. It's like taking three quarter of million acres of the Shire and turning it into Mordor. Disgraceful. Really hoping the GOPers ransom demand on the authorization forces Obama to cancel the whole damn thing.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]