Mackenzie pipeline also approved yesterday by fed panel - let the cash flow!

Yet another bombshell of potentially unsavory environmental news snuck through under the radar yesterday while most Canadians were ignoring news of any kind.

This time, it's the MacKenzie Valley pipeline, in Canada's Northwest Territories, up for approval by Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Yeah, this is the same pipeline that was Considered too much of a potential sociological and environmental hazard to be allowed even by lax 1976 standards,

That was then, this is now:

"The project would provide the foundation for a sustainable Northern future," the panel concluded while laying down numerous conditions. The project is backed by Imperial Oil (Exxon), Shell and ConocoPhillips.

All this fall, there has been rumblings of discontent from the carbon industry, commentators and various interest groups. They say construction was supposed to have already started. The panel has "dragged on" for four years, they say. woo-hoo!

Even though industry has been pushing for 40 years for this $16 billion construction project / cash pipeline to go through, they are still pushing for hefty government incentives... which of course the Harper Reform Cons will be sure to give (after pretending to play it tough a bit longer).

Meanwhile, previously ambivalent or hostile first nations groups have been bought out by promises of free-flowing construction cash as hundreds or thousands of workers trample through the boreal forest and across the permafrost...

Considering that this would be the country's largest construction project, to be built through the most fragile ecosystems imaginable, it would be pure folly to allow it.

When you consider that the purpose of this pipeline is to pipe natural gas to the Tar Sands... just so that they can burn more carbon and make more profit while they "MAKE" dirty oil... it is absolute insanity.

And they want public money to build this?

These guys are pathological! It is disgrace.

Not to mention - they could have coughed up a few billion 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago and put up windmills to their hearts' content. They would have clean power to spare up there by now - to "make" all the oil they want. Clueless.