It’s about emissions

Fri., Sept. 16, 2011

The Sept. 1 editorial: “Keystone would bring jobs as well as crude oil” misses the larger point of many of the protests that have occurred throughout the country on the topic. While there are legitimate concerns over the immediate area of the pipeline (and similar concerns over the rail-shipping terminals to export Montana and Wyoming coal through Washington), the larger issue is that creating these infrastructures to cheaply pump carbon into the atmosphere means that reducing carbon emissions will be increasingly difficult.

Changing all the light bulbs we can will mean nothing if gas continues to be cheaply available, as it will if that vast amount of tar sands is exploited and brought into the market. This is a rare, one-time chance to halt the spread of an oil-based infrastructure.

Patrick Van Inwegen

Spokane

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