The United States produces a lot of oil but still imports a lot from Canada, our biggest source of imported oil. For the most part, this is tar sands oil from Alberta. Transport of the mining products is accomplished through the transcontinental Keystone pipeline that currently runs from Alberta into the United States, but it does not continue on all the way to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Oil companies would like to expand the pipeline and have proposed the Keystone XL, which would transport oil from Canada to Texas.
Search for information about the Keystone XL pipeline and other proposed ways to ship tar sands crude oil. Evaluate the articles you read and answer the following questions:
Visit at least three websites that advocate for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and three websites that oppose it. For each website, answer the following questions about the organization or authors responsible for the information you read:
Who runs the website or wrote the article? Do the credentials of this individual or group make the person or group reliable or unreliable? Explain.
Does this individual or group have a clear and transparent agenda?
Do you detect any bias or logical fallacies? If so, identify them.
Is this a reliable information source? Explain.
Briefly summarize what you believe are the most important pros and cons of the Keystone XL pipeline. Based on your reading, what decision would you suggest that the president of the Unites States make regarding this project? Justify your conclusions.
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