State Department OKs Keystone Oil Pipeline

TransCanada reports it will be as safe as any in North America, which is somehow not that reassuring.

The U.S. State Department has given the go-ahead to the proposed $7 billion TransCanada pipeline carrying oil roughly 2,700 km from Canada across the Great Plains. After continued urging by the Canadian government, the State Department announced today that the project would not cause tremendous environmental damage (except, of course, the major disaster potential of an oil leak) and would offer the U.S. a secure source of energy. Though final approval requires further public and private hearings, and can yet be blocked by Obama, it seems likely that Keystone XL will proceed in 2013 and connect Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Houston and the Gulf Coast. If the project goes through, Canada’s pipeline capacity could expand by 700,000 barrels a day and generate $600 billion in investments (enough to buy new, animatronic baby seals and arctic creatures to replace the ones we drill.)