John Doll, a US Congress hopeful from Kansas, made a large and ugly splash with Canadians and American's alike in his posting to Daily Kos this week. In that piece, Mr. Doll outlined Kansas' current water crisis and proposed some interesting solutions:

Some questions may include, in that scenario - Where do we get an infinite fresh water supply? Second, how do we transport the water to the aquifer? Third, how do we finance such a project?

Perhaps a good source of water would come from our good neighbor to the North, Canada.

We are told that the Northern Rocky Mountains, in Canada, hold an abundant amount of fresh water that is replenished constantly. It has been suggested that we could develop an infrastructure to transport water from Canada, for example, by building a pipeline that originates in Canada, traveling through the coal mines of Wyoming. We are told that 80 percent of the cost of coal is transporting coal from the mines to the factories. Therefore, we further understand that such a water pipeline will pick up coal as it passes through Wyoming creating a coal slurry. Upon arrival, coal would be easily and inexpensively extracted from the water, benefitting tax-payers and the resulting water could be then plugged into the aquifer or another holding facility. Consequently, the cost of coal should be reduced while we have a constant flow of water. I like plans such as this one that are also environmentally sound. (bold added)

If there are any recent examples that better exemplify American ignorance, arrogance and ecological cluelessness than this proposal I haven't read it. It also typifies a far too common attitude held by some American policy makers - that the rest of the world is there primarily to prop-up the policies and practices of the most unsustainable nation in the history of the world.

In nobodies informed opinion is the diverting of massive quantities of water across a continent an "environmentally sound" plan. It becomes even more irresponsible when the purpose of the diversions is to prop up wasteful water usage. The would-be congressman is also oblivious to the fact that our own Rocky Mountain glaciers are also in retreat, thanks in no small part to the 1.133 billion tons of coal consumed by the US last year - a number Mr. Doll proposes to increase with the aid of our water.

Blackstar at The Next Agenda gave Mr. Doll a thorough lashing on behalf of Canadians and environmental progressives. Those with memberships at The Next Agenda or Daily Kos, please stop by to add your comments to the debate.