Alberta Pimps Keystone In NYT Ad, But Admits It's Not Even Remotely Close On GHG Reduction Pledges

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2. A hotly debated topic.

The API and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers have been trotting out this .1% figure, which takes low estimates about the rate at which tar sands oil will be extracted, completely ignores the likelihood that the pipeline will be "twinned" or even tripled, and doesn't include land use changes (removing the carbon sink of arboreal forest which is twice the size of Ireland).

The National Resources Defense Council has been trotting out their own figure, which is predictably higher. James Hansen argues there's enough CO2 potential in the tar sands to equal all of the coal ever burned by humanity.

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. My objection to it is based on the undeniable facts that it's pulling more sequestered carbon out of the ground that climate can't afford and it provides very little to the U.S. in the way of jobs and "energy security".

Leave it in the ground.