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Protests against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline have made tar-sands oil projects look more risky and less feasible. But oil companies aren’t going to let a little pipeline-capacity problem stand in their way. “[O]ne oilsands producer has found a way around the bottleneck,” reports the Calgary Herald.

Southern Pacific Resources, which began trucking out initial production from its new McKay Thermal Project three weeks ago, will open a dedicated rail terminal in a few weeks just south of Fort McMurray [in Alberta] and ship its product in leased tanker cars via CN Rail all the way to Natchez, Miss. From there, it’s just a short barge ride down the Mississippi River to one of the eight refineries in Louisiana

Best of all?

Unlike pipelines, that means no public hearings and no environmental protests.

Well, no public hearings maybe, but if word gets out, don’t bet on no protests. (You hear this, climate campaigners?)

It’s like a big game of Whac-a-Mole, except what’s at stake isn’t a cheap teddy bear at Chuck E. Cheese but the health of the planet and civilization as we know it.