Tar Sands a Possible "Game Over" for the Climate

Stopping Keystone XL is key to stopping the deadly tar sands, no matter what Big Oil and its allies say. Alternative tar sands pipelines are running into equally stiff opposition and have been delayed. TransCanada executives openly admit that without Keystone, production will be slowed. So if the tar sands don't need Keystone, why is Big Oil spending millions on lobbyists to ram it though?

The tar sands are a disaster, from start to finish. Not only are they absolutely toxic for the climate, the mining process destroys the pristine Boreal Forest and threatens Canadian First Nations.

Then, because the tar sands are so heavy and corrosive, the export pipelines are more likely to spill than conventional pipelines - we saw this several days ago when rivers of oil poured through Arkansas backyards where children usually play. Two other spills happened that same week in Canada and Texas, and the first Keystone pipeline spilled 12 times in its first year alone! The 2010 Michigan tar sands spills, which sickened children and killed family pets, still hasn't been fully cleaned up.

Ask yourself: Do you want this in your home? So you want it in your town? Do any Americans deserve to live in a community with these risky pipelines - or in a world with a threatened climate?

TransCanada executives get the profits, the rest of us get the risks.

Tar sands will not help our energy security. Keystone XL is almost assuredly an export pipeline that would send oil through America, not to America - its destination refineries export 60% of their products. Furthermore, top scientists say the tar sands are "game over" for the climate - and the pentagon has routinely identified climate change as a threat to our national security.

There are countless reasons to oppose the tar sands, one of the most extreme fuels on earth. Stopping Keystone XL will be a huge step forward in that effort.