Secretary of Energy Steven Chu hasn't said definitively whether he supports the Keystone XL pipeline. But he's heavily implied that he's a fan, laying out the project's potential benefits in an interview with energyNOW!. "It's not perfect," said Chu of the pipeline, which would increase greenhouse-gas emissions and quite probably leak to boot. But he argues that extraction technology is improving, so someday in the future maybe it won't increase greenhouse-gas emissions and probably leak?

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It's a trade-off, says Chu, between having a reliable oil supply and having an oil supply that isn't super-polluting and gross. He apparently knows that those aren't the only two options, since he also talks about developing sustainable energy alternatives. But that might not be enough to keep him from backing Keystone XL.

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