by Danielle Droitsch, reposted from NRDC’s Switchboard A new
report from the Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute
shows how the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is an economic
liability with the potential to cause significant job losses
from a major tar sands spill. Because tar sands oil is more
corrosive and toxic than conventional oil, it can increase the
frequency of pipeline spills. Moreover, a tar sands spill causes
far more damage than a conventional oil spill. Take, for
example, the 1.2 million gallon tar sands spill on the Kalamazoo
River in Marshall Michigan in 2010 where the clean up costs have
been 10 times higher than a typical conventional oil spill.
While there has been a lot of attention to the possible jobs
created from the Keystone XL pipeline – far less than what
proponents claim – there has been very little attention to jobs
that could be lost from a tar sands spill. Keystone XL is
expected experience up to 91 significant spills over a 50-year
period. Which jobs are at risk? Hundreds o