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Keystone XL supporters say new State Dept. report shows project should be approved immediately
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new State Department report is the latest evidence that the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada should be approved, supporters say.
• The draft report, issued Friday, finds there would be no significant environmental impact to most resources along the proposed route from western Canada to refineries in Texas. The report also said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change.
• The new report "again makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. After four years of what he called "needless delays," Boehner said it is time for President Barack Obama "to stand up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone pipeline."
• Environmentalists see the State Department report in a vastly different light.
• They say it was inadequate and failed to account for climate risks posed by the pipeline. The report also is based on a false premise, opponents say -- namely, that tar sands in western Canada will be developed for oil production regardless of whether the Keystone XL pipeline is approved.
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Florida sinkhole that swallowed man in bedroom grows deeper; officials warn home is dangerous
• SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) -- Engineers worked gingerly to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.
• Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy.
• Engineers were expected at the home to do more tests after sunrise Saturday. They spent the previous day on the property, taking soil samples and running various tests -- while acknowledging that the entire lot was dangerous. No one was allowed in the home.
• "I cannot tell you why it has not collapsed yet," Bill Bracken, the owner of an en (Continued on page 25)
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