In early January, TransCanada Corp. ran radio and cable TV ads urging approval of the Keystone XL pipeline through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to carry the world’s dirtiest oil from the Alberta tar sands to to U.S. refineries.

Here’s what the ads didn’t say.

• NICE TRY, replacing “foreign oil” with “unfriendly places.” Canada’s still a foreign country and money spent on Canadian oil deepens the U.S. deficit. And if Canada’s such a good friend, why is Ottawa lobbying against clean energy legislaion in Washington and California?
• PIPELINE SAFETY is a risky proposition even for conventional oil. From 2003 to 2008, accidents on pipelines built by Enbridge, another Canadian company working to bring tar sands oil to the U.S., killed 13 people, injured 29 and caused more than $600 million in property damage. Tar sands oil is more acidic, corrosive and explosive, and contains more toxic chemicals. This dirtier, heavier oil is more likely to spill and more likely to threaten public safety when it does.
• WE NEED JOBS, but TransCanada’s inflated figures are pipe dreams. Let’s create jobs at home for U.S. industries building the clean energy economy, not not for a foreign company that would lock us into the energy sources of the past.
• HIGHER GAS PRICES would be the biggest impact of the Keystone XL pipeline on the U.S. economy. It will carry tar sands oil, the most expensive oil in the world, and the excess pipeline capacity being built by TransCanada will mean higher prices at the pump. Meanwhile, TransCanada and other Canadian companies would take $2 billion to $4 billion in extra profit back across the border each year.
• If it were true.
• TransCanada will make billions from this dirty, dangerous and unnecessary boondoggle.