No oil is flowing through the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline for the fourth day today as workers construct a bypass around a leaking pipe at Pump Station 1. The leak was discovered in a secondary line which is encased in concrete below the pumping station on Saturday. Oil was discovered flowing into the basement where the line passes through a wall. Siphoning trucks have recovered about 18 barrels of oil from the basement as oil remaining in the line continues to leak.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which operates the 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska, has had welders working around the clock to circumvent the leaky pipe and restore the flow of oil. According to the Anchorage Daily News, this is the third longest closure in the pipeline's 33-year history. In recent months... more »

In today's episode, I interview Dan Gunderson, a consultant to API, who describes the benefits of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil-sands derived crude oil from Canada to markets in Oklahoma and refineries along the Gulf Coast.

Use the audio player below to listen to information about the article and follow along with the show notes. I hope you find the podcast informative.

00:17 A controversy is brewing over the building of a major pipeline that could carry oil-sands derived crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast. There's no doubt that America needs the oil to produce gasoline and other oil products for consumers, but critics have posed several objections. To discuss this controversy, we have Dan Gunderson on the... more »

The debate over oil sands has taken a new political twist with a U.S. Senator asking whether the State Department will fairly consider a pipeline expansion project that could bring more Canadian crude oil to the United States.

In a speech in San Francisco last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "inclined" to approve the pipeline project after an environmental review is finished early in 2011. She described her role in considering the pipeline as "a very hard balancing act," and added, "Energy security requires that I look at all of the factors that we have to consider while we try to expedite as much as we can America's move toward clean, renewable energy." (AP)

Her remarks were criticized yesterday by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb... more »