Yet another huge tar sands pipeline to fight against. The Associated Press reports that the construction of the 965-kilometre long Enbridge Flanagan South pipeline — which would carry tar sands bitumen from just southwest of Chicago over many sensitive waterways, including the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and hundreds of smaller tributaries, to the company’s terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma — is quietly on a fast-track to approval. Enbridge is seeking regulatory approval under the Nationwide 12 permit process, which would mean the company wouldn’t be obligated to follow more rigorous Clean Water Act requirements such as public notification or lengthy environmental reviews. The picture that is emerging is as follows: Enbridge is trying to expand the 1600-kilometre long Alberta Clipper/ Line 67 pipeline from Alberta to Wisconsin (from its current capacity of 440,000 barrels a day to 570,000 bpd and ultimately to 800,000 bpd). That would connect to Line 61 that runs to Illinois. Then that would connect with this Flanagan South pipeline to Oklahoma. Then the Seaway pipeline would take the bitumen from there to Texas. The full article is at http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/enbridge-seeks-swift-approval-of-u-s-midwest-oil-pipeline-1.1370489. For a helpful map (by the US Department of State/ Peter Lafontaine) and more analysis, go to http://blog.nwf.org/2012/09/a-monster-rises-enbridges-tar-sands-frankenstein/.