Finally, the southern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline is approved. The pipeline will transport tar sands oil from Canada to Texas to be refined into fuel and chemicals, them (mostly) shipped and sold on the international market. Only a portion of the oil and refined products will go to American industries and gas stations. TransCanada, a foreign company, will temporarily hire both foreign and American workers to build the pipeline, some of it on land taken via eminent domain.

On Friday, TransCanada received the last of three permits it needed from the Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction on the 485-mile stretch of pipeline.

The permits dealt a blow to efforts by national environmental groups to slow the momentum behind the southern leg of the project — now also known as the Gulf Coast project. Those groups, including Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, have urged their Texas supporters to send comments to the Army Corps, which governs pipeline permits there. The groups have highlighted dangers linked to wetlands and rivers.

But the Army Corps have moved ahead.

Excellent reporting via Washington Post: TransCanada gets key go-ahead for final southern leg of pipeline project