Should the Alberta-Texas oil pipeline be built?

Update Nov. 10:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expresses his disappointment that U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered an environmental assessment, effectively shelving the controversial pipeline until after the 2012 elections.

Update Sept. 26:

Hundreds of protesters flocked to Parliament Hill Monday to voice their opposition with TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline project, a $7-billion plan to ship crude oil from Alberta to Texas.

Originally posted Sept. 22:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is "confident" TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline will be built, he said on U.S. TV Wednesday.

The Keystone XL pipeline project will extend TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline that carries oil from northern Alberta to refineries in the United States. (Courtesy TransCanada Corp.)"The economic case is so overwhelming. The number of jobs that would be created on both sides of the border is simply enormous," Harper told Bloomberg Television.

But the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada has opposed the project since 2009.

"This pipeline will create environmental destruction, take potential upgrading and refining jobs away from Canadians, and put our country's energy security at risk," CEP president Dave Coles said in a statement.

Environmental activists staged a two-week civil disobedience campaign in late August aimed at pressuring U.S. President Barack Obama intervene in the pipeline's approval process. Former vice-president Al Gore weighed in on the issue, urging Obama to block the pipeline and calling the oilsands "the dirtiest fuel on the planet."

The U.S. State Department -- which is charged with determining whether the application is in its national interest -- is expected to release its decision by the end of the year.

Should the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas be built?

Related: Are you in favour of the oilsands pipeline?



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