Climate scientist James Hansen has said that it is "game over" for the climate if the Keystone XL pipeline is allowed to be built as it would lock us into unsustainable use of the dirty tar sands crude for the foreseeable future. And climate activist and author Bill McKibben has written about Global Warming's Terrifying New Math which states that we must leave the oil industries massive oil reserves in the ground if we are to have a chance at mitigating climate change. At his speech on climate in June, President Obama stated "the net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. It’s relevant."

Proposed Keystone XL pipeline

The State Department has been studying the impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline because it's responsible for the decision to approve or disapprove its construction as the pipeline would cross the international border separating Canada from the United States to carry bitumen from the Alberta tar sands pits across the U.S. to refining plants on the U.S. gulf coast.

When does a study cease to be an open, scientifically based reflection of current research and become a propaganda tool used to further private interests? The evidence that the State Departments Draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the building of the Keystone XL pipeline has crossed into the area of dubious credibility has reached mass proportion.

Please continue below the fold for more about the Keystone XL pipeline.