Why should oil producers be allowed to ship the tar sands oil across the US to 50 year old refineries when they could build a new efficient refinery with the latest pollution controls in North Dakota, or Montana built expressly for tar sands oil?
Building and running a refinery creates jobs too (assuming Montana or North Dakota would want one).
Relentless pressure by the oil lobby to build the pipeline will continue to mount.
Can environmentalists stop Big Oil? We haven’t been able to yet. Maybe we can minimize their impact. We recognize that development of the tar sands oil will cause global warming. But a modern efficient local refinery will be less harmful on the environment than building a pipeline and shipping to the old refineries.
Thank you.