TAX THE EXTERNALITIES:

The Keystone Pipeline ruptured Wednesday night near a creek in northern Kansas, spilling what its operator, TC Energy, says is about 14,000 barrels of oil. This is equivalent to about 588,000 gallons (an Olympic swimming pool holds about 666,000 gallons). TC Energy says the leak is now contained.

This is the largest land-based crude pipeline spill in the U.S. in nine years. Although the Keystone Pipeline has leaked 22 times before this, this week's spill is bigger than all the others put together. A spill in July 2010 was more expensive-- costing more than $1 billion-- because it affected the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. [...]

The XL Pipeline--the one that folks often confuse with the actual Keystone Pipeline--consists of two new additions to the original pipeline. As planned, they would have added up to 1700 new miles. One addition was designed to connect Cushing to oil refineries in Texas, on the Gulf Coast. That section was built and started operating in January 2014.

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