Keystone Pipeline Facts.

A new extension of the pipeline, called the Keystone XL pipeline, would expand the reach of the Keystone pipeline network by adding a segment from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Keystone XL pipeline would also carve out a new route from Alberta to Nebraska. This extension would total over 1,700 miles of new pipeline. This pipeline is the one that the Media should be talking about.  These facts are never conveyed to the public in a clear way.

In fact, Canada is the single largest supplier of crude oil for the United States, providing more oil than even Saudi Arabia. Much of that oil, however, is known as "tar sands oil," a combination of clay, sand and bitumen. Bitumen is thick, heavy black oil that needs to be heavily processed and refined to get the oil to a useable state. Much of this kind of oil never becomes Gasoline. It is made into diesel fuel or kerosene.

Because tar sands -- also called oil sands -- aren't in liquid form, they can't be pumped out of the ground like other sources of oil. Instead, tar sands are mined using open-pit or strip-mining techniques. Getting the oil out of the tar sands is a more complex process, too, requiring extensive extraction, separation and refining before it can even be moved through a pipeline. This is where the biggest problem lies. This oil can only be transported under high pressure that often causes the pipeline to burst or leak quite often.

That's just one problem. A larger issue is the proposed route of the new Keystone XL pipeline, which travels directly over the Ogallala Aquifer, an enormous -- and enormously important -- underground lake of water that extends from South Dakota to Texas. The Ogallala Aquifer provides drinking water for millions of people and irrigates a whopping 20 percent of America's agricultural harvest. An oil leak into the Ogallala would have devastating effects on residents, businesses and farmland in the Great Plains. This is the part of the pipeline that environmentalists and the President are having problems with. They are seeking an alternate route.

Please remember that this oil is Canadian and most will be sent to India or China. The United States may
gain a few jobs but at a price that may not make this project worth it. The President has kicked the can down the road on this issue while more study is done to ensure the safety of the pipeline rout. Please also know that this oil will not lead to lower prices at the pump. This President actually has approved more new oil leases than the last one. The Republicans are trying to make a campaign issue out of this and the media either won’t or can’t tell the public the whole story.  I will though