Legislators in polluted LA trying to force construction of extension to leaky Keystone pipeline in MT, SD, NE KS, OK and TX

Keystone 1 leaked 12-14 times in its very first year of operation. Keystone XL is even riskier: it will carry carcinogenic solvent-laden tar sands "dillbit" at extreme pressure and high temperatures for 1700 miles through six Midwestern states on its journey toward refineries in Texas and auctions on the world oil market. So much for USA "energy independence" that GOP apologists for TransCanada claim the pipeline will enable.

La. Sen. Mary Landrieu (l.) and Rep. Bill Cassidy

     In Louisiana, two opposing politicians are using Keystone XL as a political football. GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy, challenging Dem Sen. Mary Landrieu in the state's Louisiana's upcoming Senate runoff election sponsored a bill (which passed 252-161) which would bypass environmental laws and usurp the authority to OK the Keystone XL pipeline of the Department of State and White House.
     Landrieu is rounding up votes for a companion bill in the Senate.
     The House also just voted against a motion to compel TransCanada to pay eight cents per barrel into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund established in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.
     The petroleum industry continues to insist that Tar Sands (diluted bitumen or "dillbit") isn't oil even though it is refined into oil and that it therefore need not contribute to the Liability Trust Fund, despite the fact that in recent years dillbit spills have polluted waterways in Michigan and Arkansas (see video below).