The election is over and we find ourselves deeply involved in the “peaceful transition” from the Joe Biden administration to the Donald Trump administration.

Regardless of who you voted for, I believe we all hope for progress and that we move forward without repeating the mistakes of the past.

I lost a little of that hope this week when I read President-elect Trump wants to revive the KXL pipeline from Alberta, Canada and through Cushing, Oklahoma and then onto Port Arthur, Texas.

In the recently ended Trump campaign, on nearly every stop, he brought up the fact we shouldn’t be importing Venezuelan oil because it is tar sand oil, the dirtiest oil on the planet. Stop after stop, he would bring that up.

And now, as I said, he wants to build the KXL pipeline.

Well, Trump loses all credibility on that one, folks.

You see, the KXL pipeline, had it been built, would not carry crude oil, but instead would carry — you guessed it — tar sands.

Tar sands aren’t pumped from the ground as much as they mined, much like coal. Forests in Alberta are stripped of all foliage and soil is removed until they get down to the tar sand. It is thicker than peanut butter and can’t be pumped through pipe without diluting it with a lighter hydrocarbon, usually Naphtha, which is laced with benzene, a known carcinogen.

Now imagine a pipeline carrying a highly toxic liquid that can cause cancer, a pipeline that would have to cross over a thousand streams, rivers, or lakes, a pipeline under 1,100 pounds per square inch of pressure, a pipeline like its sister, the Keystone One pipeline, that has spilled 22 times in the last 15 years.

Michiganders may recall the 2010 Enbridge Inc. spill in Marshall, which released a million gallons of that very same tar sand mixture into the Kalamazoo River. It took more than $1.2 billion and more than five years to clean up, although the river still has some contamination.

Now, I understand the need for oil. I understand it’s probably safer transported though a pipeline, but I also understand that pipelines leak. One just has to look at the controversial Enbridge Line 5 that goes through the Straits of Mackinac on its way to Sarnia, Ontario. Line 5 has spilled 33 times, totaling more than 1.1 million gallons. Line 5 used to carry that same tar sand mixture, but, after the Kalamazoo spill, Line 5 stopped pumping tar sand mixtures because it is so toxic.

Trump is showing his ignorance by saying we don’t want or need Venezuelan tar sand oil but now saying he wants the KXL. Add the facts that TransCanada, now called TC Energy, has sold off all their oil pipelines, and that the KXL oil was all destined for export anyway, and that the U.S. is now pumping more oil than ever, and expected oil demand is forecast to decrease over time.

Trump couldn’t be more wrong about reviving the KXL. That need no longer exists.

Yes, we still need oil, and lots of it. Increasing domestic production could lower the price of fuel, which could in turn lower the price of nearly everything we buy. Just look at your local grocery store or some big-box home improvement store and remember everything you see in there was hauled in by truck. Higher fuel prices had added greatly to the inflation rates over the past four years.

I also feel the same way about Line 5. Ninety-five percent of that oil goes to Canada, and the only benefit to Michigan is the natural gas liquids that are turned into propane. Alternative deliveries like truck or train are viable solutions. There is no way a pipeline like Line 5 could ever pass the environmental hoops of today.

Considering that 20% of the world’s fresh surface water lies in the Great Lakes, one could argue — and I am — that running a pipeline 270 feet deep in the violent currents of the Straits of Mackinac is a horrible idea, and building a tunnel under the Straits is equally dangerous.

The time has come for us to remove all of the catastrophic dangers that oil pipelines pose to the Great Lakes. It is not only the right thing to do, it is our duty to preserve and protect that natural wonder forever.

No KXL. No Line 5.

Let’s be smart about this going forward and not make the same mistakes of the past.

You can move a pipeline. You can’t move the Great Lakes.

What’s your take? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.