Yeah, no.

Via SFGate:

Sen. Barbara Boxer opened another front on the battle over the Keystone pipeline, arguing that the Obama administration should further delay a permitting decision until a full study of the pipeline’s effects on human health is carried out, beyond its anticipated effect on the climate.

The California Democrat, joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., in a conference call with reporters, said she had the backing of the National Nurses United union. The move is part of a politically risky campaign by Boxer and Whitehouse announced earlier this year — with the blessing of Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the Obama administration — to raise awareness of climate change. They freely acknowledge that without a shift in public opinion, legislation is not possible.

Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the Keystone pipeline “will bring 830,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil into our nation every day,” a 45 percent increase. Longer term, she said Canada is projected to raise tar sands production 300 percent by 2030.

“We already know the Keystone XL pipeline would worsen climate change,” Boxer said. “But there has not been enough focus on the human health impacts of tar sands oil and the proposed pipeline. That is why Senator Whitehouse and I asked Secretary of State John Kerry to not make a decision on the pipeline until the Obama Administration has completed a comprehensive study on the human health risks.”

She said the heavy tar sands oil would raise cancer risks near refineries. “Significantly higher levels of dangerous air pollutants and carcinogens have been documented downwind from tar sands refineries,” she said, “and in these areas people are suffering higher rates of the types of cancers linked to these toxic chemicals, including leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”