Load up on alternatives

According to a recent article in the New York Times, America stands to be the beneficiary of an additional 1.1 million barrels of oil per day from the Kearl Oil Sands project, if a proposed pipeline is approved. Add this to the roughly 2 million barrels of Canadian oil currently sent each day to the United States, and we have Canadian oil amounting to one of America’s largest sources of foreign oil.

Standing in the way of this project doesn’t sound like good sense from a consumer’s point of view. It’s like biting the hand that feeds you, right? Who wants to pay more for resources we have come to depend upon? Yet, one look at the environmental destruction of oil sands mining, or the Gulf oil spill debacle, brings home the fact that cheap oil for American consumers leaves our planet footing the bill for irresponsible carbon resource extraction processes.

It is not hypocrisy to advocate for restrained and responsible consumerism, to encourage development of alternative power sources, or to oppose having our Highway 12 Scenic Byway turned into a permanent high and wide industrial corridor in order to support an inefficient and highly polluting process of oil production.

Paula Willis

Kooskia, Idaho