The proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline has enflamed the bitter fight over America's energy future. Opponents say the pipeline—which is designed to bring oil extracted from Canadian tar sands down through the U.S. to ports in Texas—would further bind future generations of Americans to our outdated and dead-end oil-based energy policy. Supporters claim that it represents a step towards America's energy independence.
But Steve Mufson, author of Keystone XL: Down the Line and a reporter at The Washington Post, suggests that the real story of the pipeline is one about American frontiers and just how far we are willing to go to feed our addiction to oil.
Recounting his journey along the length of the proposed pipeline, Mufson asks readers to consider what this policy debate looks like beyond the issues of climate change, tar sands and U.S. energy trade policy. In the book Mufson delves into the ups and downs of the North Dakota shale boom, prairie populism in Nebraska, drinking water concerns near the Ogallala aquifer, Native American communities' desire to protect their land and burials sites along the Trail of Tears, and ranchers' objections to the use of eminent domain by Canadian companies.
In many ways, the Keystone XL pipeline serves as a larger metaphor, Mufson argues, illuminating the vast energy infrastructure it takes to sustain the American lifestyle and the debatable choices we must make in pursuit of short-term comfort. The book raises the question: Which risks, now and in the future, are we really willing to take?
