cool there`s a big pipeline from canada coming to illinois!

oil sands pipeline winding it`s way thru wisconsin and northern illinois....

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=13&id=12836
Rockford's Newspaper Rock River Times | rockford illinois news information

Illinois should be building ethanol pipelines to other states instead.
Odd that the article neglects to mention what would happen if damage to the pipeline caused a leak.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ethanol+net+energy+loss&btnG=Google+Search

which is it?

takes more energy to produce ethanol than it produces? I dunno.

see for yourself

Those figures include every last step of the process to make ethanol, but they don't do the same for oil. When you factor in government subsidies and the cost of the war in Iraq, then producing gas from oil takes more energy than it produces too. The benefits of having a domestic, renewable fuel source should also be considered.

So we don't have far to truck it.

After decades of Republican incompetence and corruption, I am glad to see my adopted state of Illinois run by Democrats. But it pains me to say that, while I see a lot less corruption, I don't see a whole lot more competence. I see some (like this pipeline), but not much.

The topic of corruption is just one area where I see Democratic competence lacking. The governor is behind in re-election polls largely because accepted wisdom is that the Democrats have been nearly as corrupt as their Republican predecessors. Yet the only so-called scandal to touch this governor was the manner in which he, almost immediately upon taking office, shutdown an illegal dump owned and operated by one of his in-laws.

An dump operates illegally for years under the Republicans. But the Democrat gets associated with the thing because it belonged to one of his wife's relatives despite the fact that one of the first things the Democrat did with the authority of his office was to order legal authorities to shut it down.