As I said in my comment, you need to Google Kalamazoo River oil spill and related like clean up, cost, etc. The current billion dollar cost is way more than Solyndra. When tar sands oil is brought out of the ground it is peanut butter consistency. In order to make it flow, it is mixed with volatile and toxic solvents. It is high in sand and acidic sulfur. It has to be put under pressure to make it move. It is moved in intermittent bursts as is called for downstream. The reason it leaked so badly is that pumpers did not realize that the lack of pressure was due to a big leak, not lack of volume. Read the details, its complicated. The slurry is highly toxic, abrasive, very acidic and under pressure. It is nothing like a regular oil pipeline setup. Surface transportation is a lot safer. Besides it is mostly being sent out of the US. Rather than burden our rivers and highways, let them build a pipeline to the Pacific since most of it is going to China anyway.