Today the US Department of State issued its final Environmental Impact Statement on the construction of this “death funnel,” as Charlie Pierce calls it.

“Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed Project, is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States,” the State Department said.

In other words, the tar sands are going to be exploited with or without the pipeline, so building it won’t aggravate the climate change problem.

As Pierce says, this is disingenuous. The construction of the thing isn’t the problem, it’s what it proposes to carry that is.

The next argument in its favor is likely to go like this: we have to build it, because otherwise oil will be shipped by rail and “there have been five explosions caused by crude oil train derailments in the past year, including one that killed 47 people and leveled the downtown of Lac-Megantic, Quebec.” You don’t want that to continue, do you?

The jobs argument is ridiculous. State estimates approximately 40,000 jobs will be created during the construction phase, but only 50 permanent jobs will remain after that. What this really is about is this:

One of the most direct impacts it would have is on the economics of the refineries of the Gulf Coast, which have been specially outfitted to handle “heavy” crude oil that requires extra processing. For years, these refineries have relied on imports from Mexico and Venezuela, two other sources of “heavy” oil.

But Mexico’s oil fields are declining rapidly. And Venezuela’s production also has faltered, amid political and economic turmoil in that country. The Gulf Coast refiners don’t want to buy the more expensive light, sweet crude that is being produced in Texas and North Dakota to run in refineries that they’ve outfitted to process the cheaper heavy crude.

“When they have to run those crudes, they’re less profitable,” says Forrest. That’s why the Gulf refiners want access to Canada’s heavy crude from the tar sands, and Keystone XL would be the first direct pipeline to deliver it.

So there you have it. The reason for this thing being built is to generate higher profits for certain oil companies which run refineries along the Gulf Coast.

Gee, wasn’t there a massive environmental disaster in the Gulf not so long ago? Wasn’t that caused by an oil company? Is there any reason to trust one of those companies ever again?