And by great I mean terrible.
From Mother Jones
Canada is considering bypassing the beleaguered Keystone XL pipeline—which would carry oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta to the US and the Gulf of Mexico—by shipping across the Arctic Ocean instead. The proposal is in its infancy, reports the Alaska Dispatch, but is developing as Keystone XL and other proposed pipelines to British Columbia and Quebec remain in limbo.
The Arctic Ocean scenarios would also include a pipeline—north from Alberta’s tar sands through (sparsely settled, presumably uncontested) regions along the Mackenzie River Valley and on to the Arctic coastal town of Tuktoyaktuk, from there to be shipped on tankers to Asia or Europe.
Why wait for the Arctic to slowly melt when we could speed the process up by shipping oil directly through it?
The fate of the Keystone pipeline is currently in the hands of the State Department, but a route through the Arctic obviously would not be. And that may even be worse.