Oil refineries outside Channelview. Do we really need to add a tar-sands pipeline to the mix?Photo: KM&G-MorrisWill Hillary Clinton put the desires of a giant oil corporation ahead of the needs and health of low-income communities and communities of color? Will anyone else in the Obama administration stand up and stop her?
With the State Department’s comment period on a proposed tar-sands oil pipeline set to end Monday, these questions are about to be answered.
The State Department is considering whether to grant approval to oil giant TransCanada to construct a pipeline — the Keystone XL — to carry the world’s dirtiest oil from Canada’s tar sands through the Midwest to refineries in Texas, including refineries near Channelview, Texas, where I live.
But before the State Department can approve TransCanada’s proposal, the law requires it to review the pipeline’s environmental impacts.
Last year, after the State Department released its initial draft analysis of the pipeline’s impacts, the EPA rated the analysis [PDF] as “Category 3 inadequate” — a bureaucratic term equivalent t... Read more
