TransCanada Does End Run to Push Through Tar Sands Pipeline

Since a presidential permit is only required for a pipeline that crosses international borders, TransCanada is moving ahead on the southern portion of the pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf coast.

TransCanada must have had a "V8" moment – why didn’t we think of that before?

Now, the company will apply for various federal and state permits for the southern portion. Here’s the response from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: "We look forward to working with TransCanada to ensure that it is built in a safe, responsible and timely manner, and we commit to take every step possible to expedite the necessary Federal permits."

Meanwhile, TransCanada says it expects its new application for the cross-border permit to be dealt with quickly. It will apply for a new route. The State Dept plans to expedite the application saying it can use some of the information gathered in the first go-round (which has been widely attacked as being biased).

"The administration must stop trying to have it both ways. President Obama can’t expect to protect the climate and put the country on a path toward 21st-century clean energy while simultaneously shilling for one of the dirtiest industries on Earth. What the administration seems to be missing is that the southern segment of this pipeline would exacerbate air pollution in refinery communities along the Gulf Coast and threaten our heartland with costly spills – all for oil that likely won’t make it to Americans’ gas tanks.

Any attempt to move forward with any segment of the pipeline will be met with the same fierce grassroots opposition that stopped the pipeline the first time. We know that Big Oil will stop at nothing to further its profits, but it can’t hide the dirty reality that importing more tar sands oil through our heartland endangers our land, water and climate," says Kim Huynh, dirty fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, which has filed a lawsuit against the State Dept environmental review.

Last month, TransCanada was taken to task by Americans of all persuasions from liberals to Tea Partiers in protest of its  bullying and use of eminent domain to put their pipeline on people’s private property without their permission.