Viewpoint: Transporting energy can be unsafe

November 20, 2015

Pensacola News-Journal

Barney Bishop

A day after President Barack Obama announced the rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline application, rail cars carrying ethanol crashed in Wisconsin, leaking 18,000 gallons of the alcohol used to blend with gasoline into the Mississippi River. On Sunday, another train derailed in Wisconsin, this time carrying oil from Canada, according to news reports.

 The point here is that transporting energy via rail or truck is not necessarily a safe option. Some would argue that a pipeline is even a safer route for transporting energy sources. But the thing that a pipeline, truck and rail all have in common is that the use of any of those options in themselves has little impact on climate change. President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone after half a decade of studies showing the positive effects of the project in order to cement a legacy as a champion of limiting climate change is a farce. And it’s bad policy for America.

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