Critical update on the Keystone XL Pipeline: It's back with a vengeance!

The Senate is expected this week to force construction of the dirty tar sands oil pipeline. Last month, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which TransCanada spent $1.3 million lobbying for in 2011. Of course, you knew that wouldn't be the end of the story  - and it isn't.
 

A key House panel is set to vote on Tuesday to attach a plan to speed approval for the project into the highway bill, using a highway funding bill or the must-pass payroll tax cut legislation, according to Lee Terry, a Republican from Nebraska. "We'll keep swinging," Terry told reporters.  "Maybe we'll use both."

Terry should meet Mike Klink, a whistleblower claiming that the company overseeing the development of the proposed project, TransCanada, looked the other way when it came to environmental impacts. He published an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star criticizing Keystone XL from an engineer's perspective:

As an inspector, my job was to monitor the construction of the first Keystone pipeline. I oversaw construction at the pump stations that have been such a problem on that line, which has already spilled more than a dozen times. I am coming forward because my kids encouraged me to tell the truth about what was done and covered up.

When I last raised concerns about corners being cut, I lost my job — but people along the Keystone XL pathway have a lot more to lose if this project moves forward with the same shoddy work.

But supporters won't listen, will they? Their focus is on attaching the bill to a tax cut and inflated job numbers at the expense of the environment. Sounds about right.

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