Keystone Pipeline

Keystone Pipeline article- Harvard Magazine 
Keystone Pipeline in Texas Please read these articles

Dear Sophomores- The two most immediate and controversial environmental issues in America today are the issue of fracking and the Keystone Pipeline.  While we are studying geology and resource extraction, I think it is really important for us to pause and seriously consider these two issues, become knowledgeable and discuss.  In the last presidential election, the Keystone Pipeline came up as an important "litmus test" for President Obama by environmentalists, and I am sure that it will come up again.  The truth is we cannot have a cheap, plentiful supply of oil and gas without causing tremendous harm to our environment and our atmosphere.  At the end of the day, we either have to accept these realities or make a wholesale shift to green technologies that will either run on a different energy source altogether, or will make super high efficiency advances to reduce the petrol used.  In this exercise, I want us to learn about these issues, discuss them and you decide how you feel about this issue.   Is it worth it to fire up your Mustang V-8, or are you willing to drive an Urbee that gets 200 mpg and looks like a rolling jelly bean?