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State Department issues Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Keystone XL Pipeline: climate change impacts

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Due to its viscosity, bitumen cannot be transported by pipeline on its own, but must be mixed with a petroleum-based diluent, such as naphtha or natural gas condensate, to make a less viscous liquid called dilbit; or it must be upgraded to a medium weight crude oil called “synthetic crude oil”. Earlier post.)

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State Department releases Keystone XL Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

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If additional east-west pipelines were built to the Canadian coasts, such pipelines would be heavily utilized to export oil sands crude due to relatively low shipping costs to reach growing Asian markets. The dominant drivers of oil sands development are more global than any single infrastructure project.

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