Tar sands pipeline possible site of the next environmental disaster

by Rich Heffern

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If we could go back in time before the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, what would we learn? What steps would have helped avert what is now the nation's worst environmental disaster? Could this hindsight help us prevent similar catastrophes in the future? Would our political leaders have the moral compass to "get it right" this time around?

A ready-made test case for such an exercise exists in the form of TransCanada's push for a pipeline to transport toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through the American heartland down to Houston.

For more on this, see Sarah Hogdon's blog on the Sierra Club's Climate Crossroads.

NCR looked at the issue of tar sand extraction in an article by Sharon Abercrombie that ran in the May 14, 2010 issue.

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