hence the need for the state department to be involved since it crosses a border. it's an international matter. the pipeline crosses the border at montana and then runs clear down to the bottom of nebraska. for this pipeline, there is the mehta environmental issue of whether tar sands oil is the future we want given the global warming consequences. but also there is the less mehta environmental issue which is all about the land this pipeline runs through. all those ranch lands and those fresh water aquifers and lakes and homes, honestly we do not have great technology to clean up normal oil spills. but tar sands oil spills, we really do not know how to clean those up. that was the problem with the big disastrous kalamazoo oil spill a few years ago. because tar sands oil it turns out is harder to clean up. we're bad at all oil spill cleanup, but we are really bad at tar sands oil cleanup because we don't know how to do it. so what happens if and when something goes wrong?