The Pipeline that Divides America -- in More Ways than One

For Democrats, it's environmentalists versus organized labor; for Republicans, the oil industry versus Midwestern farmers and ranchers. For the Obama Administration, it's a momentous decision with Hillary Clinton's State Department facing charges of "crony capitalism." The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would bring bitumen — a tarry form of oil --1700 miles from the forests of Canada into Montana and all the way south to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas, passing through a source of drinking water for two million people. Public hearings have exposed what one reporter calls "an emotional fault line down the middle of the conservative heartland." What would it mean for jobs, the environment, energy security and election year politics?