US should say "no" to TransCanada Keystone pipeline: NY Times

Extracting oil from tar sands is too costly to the environment, says the New York Times, and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is not needed.

TransCanada Corp. is "disappointed" that the New York Times has spoken against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, calling its editorial in Sunday's paper "unfair" and "unbalanced."

Referring to the pending decision by the US State Department on the $7 billion pipeline, the Times is blunt: "The department should say no."

The Times editorial lists a catalogue of objections: the pipeline entails enormous environmental risks for both countries including strip-mining "huge chunks of Alberta's boreal forest." Extracting the oil from the tar sands produces "82 percent" more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional from conventional oil.

The project also poses "a major threat" to water supplies on both sides of the border, and the production of oil from tar sands requires four times the water of conventional oil production. The editorial refers to the "toxic holding ponds" that have killed migrating birds and pose a threat to native communities. 

Another risk to the United States is the potential for leaks, according to the Times. The writer cites an 800,000-gallon pipeline leak in Michigan last July and a "new TransCanada pipeline" that has "already had nine spills."

Perhaps the most damaging argument against the pipeline is one that addresses the very need for it. According to the Times, "there is already sufficient pipeline capacity to double United States imports from Canada."

Moving ahead, the most influential paper in the country argues, would be a "huge mistake."

TransCanada has condemned the editorial as unbalanced and said recent editorials in the Washington Post and USA Today, which supported the project, were more accurate.

"We think it's very unfortunate that the New York Times, with the credibility that publication has, did not offer a fair and balanced editorial opinion on the project unlike what other outlets in the U.S. have done recently," said James Millar, a spokesman for TransCanada.