Elect candidates who support environment

To the editor:

We are about to be inundated with presidential candidates. We need to get a definitive answer from each of them on their position regarding the tar sand pipeline. Tar sand oil differs from conventional crude oil. When extracted from the ground, it is a solid, incapable of being pumped through a pipe. It must be mixed with toxic chemicals and gas condensate and then boiled to form a slurry capable of being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. In its trip through the U.S. it most cross 2,000 waterways before reaching the Gulf Coast. One of those water sources is the Ogallala Aquifer, the sourse of our water for drinking and for one third of all U.S. farmland.

Further, this extraction process emits huge quantities of greenhouse gasses which further exacerbate climate change. It isn't a question of whether there will be pipeline leaks. It is only a question of when. The Trans-Canada Keystone One Pipeline, built in 2010, experienced 14 leaks in the first 12 months of operation.

Any candidate favoring this project is no friend of the environment or of our drinking water and it is better we know that before electing that person to public office.

Robert McShane

Marion