To Gov. Nixon and Sen. Blunt: Here's your Keystonoe XL Pipeline across Missouri

As I said in the title above, this note is to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Roy Blunt, to show them exactly why we Missourians and a lot of Americans, nationwide, don't want Canada's Keystone XL pipeline running across our state and nation.

See the above? It's yet another oil spill up in Canada. This one, this time, is in Alberta.

That is what we would have to look forward to, inevitably, with this TransCanada pipeline. Sure, we'd get--we are told--one billion dollars in our Treasury and some short-term contruction jobs out of it, sure we would.

But is it worth oil spills?

A lot of us out here submit that it absolutely is not worth it.

For a precautionary tale of what this pipeline in Missouri would be like, read just this little bit of this article from Canada yesterday:

Cleanup of latest Alberta oil spill could take all summer

Gord Johnston’s tranquil life along the Red Deer River in central Alberta was shattered Thursday night as the nauseating scent of crude oil hung in the air and a coffee-coloured liquid lapped the banks near his home.

He reported the oil leak and, within two hours, a helicopter dispatched by a local oil company landed on his 57-acre property near Sundre, Alta., to fly him over the devastating scene. Mr. Johnston, who works in the oil patch, could see oil “boiling up” in the river at the site of a pipeline crossing. By Friday morning, the situation had worsened. Oil clotted one of the province’s most crucial waterways and soaked nearby wetlands. He found a dead fish coated with oil and brought a tar-covered baby beaver to a wildlife refuge.

“My place is destroyed,” Mr. Johnston said, as he prepared to abandon his home and later head for a hospital to be treated for exposure to the fumes. “My whole life’s work is gone. I’ve pretty well lost it all here.”

For anyone still for this pipeline crossing Missouri, is this what you want? Is this what any of us want to see happen here?

I think it's obvious the answer is no.

Realize, too, that, once the pipeline is in place, it is intended to remain indefinitely, if not permanently, of course, so spills are virtually guaranteed. We can count on it.

So don't do it, Governor Nixon and Senator Blunt. Don't support this fiasco. Withdraw your support for the Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline. We don't want it here.

Let it "trans" somewhere else.

Like Canada, for instance.

Link to original post: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-hit-with-another-oil-spill/article4241238/