The EPA has asked the State Department to re-evaluate whether rail shipments will be the better alternative to the pipeline, as diluted bitumen or dilbit can be more dangerous to transport through pipeline and could be more harmful when it spills than conventional crude.
Pointing out similar concerns, leading environmental groups have announced that the most recent environmental review on the Keystone XL pipeline has violated the nation’s core environmental law.
The environmental groups include Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth and nine others, reported guardian.co.uk.
Under the proposed project, Alberta’s tar sands will be connected to Texas refineries by the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The environmental groups have said that Canadian tar sands crude will be carried to market by rail or some other safe means, if the pipeline were blocked.
