Yesterday’s Washington Times posted an article about the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that would could carry as many as 1.1 million barrels of oil a day from the oil sands of Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.  The pipeline has been delayed because of environmentalists.

There are a few things to be looked at here.  The environmentalists have stated their concern that the pipeline will leak, so they are opposed to it.  If the pipe leaks, we have the technology to fix it. 

Importing more oil from Canada is a great idea.  Building the pipeline would be expected to add 20,000 jobs to the American labor force–a really good idea with unemployment hovering around 9 percent.  Increasing our oil imports from Canada would decrease our oil imports from the Middle East.  It would decrease the amount of money we give to Middle Eastern governments that fund the terrorists we are fighting.  Buying more oil from Canada would be a step toward ending the schizophrenia in our current energy policies.

The article reports:

“The third phase has been hung up since September 2008, when the company applied a second time to build the extensions, known as Keystone XL, to the north and the south, so that oil from Alberta could be transported to Texas.

“After nearly three years, the application has yet to be approved or denied. If the Obama administration gives them the go-ahead, the full pipeline could be operational by mid-2013, the company said.

“The State Department is wrapping up the last stages of its review and is expected to release its final environmental impact statement this month. The first two reviews seemed to favor the project, but the EPA has protested, so business groups are waiting to see how that affects the last report.”

The article also comments that the tar sands oil is not as clean as the oil that comes from the Middle East.  I suspect that problem could be solved with some scientific innovation in the refining technique.  At any rate, it is time for America to develop its own energy resources–ANWR, offshore, shale, etc.  We need to stop supporting the terrorists who wish to do us harm.