Ideally, the United States should use as much of its own oil as can be reasonably extracted from our land and from the water off our coasts.
But because of environmental restrictions -- some justified, some not -- a lot of our domestic oil is off limits to exploration. So the second-best place to get oil is from friendly nations such as Canada, rather than from Middle Eastern or other nations that are often hostile to the United States.
It is good news, therefore, that efforts are under way to build a huge pipeline from Canada to Texas to boost the supply of Canadian oil available to this country.
The U.S. State Department -- which is reviewing the project because it crosses an international border -- recently said the 1,700-mile pipeline would not do significant damage to our environment as it winds south through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, before reaching refineries in Texas.
The construction, besides creating tens of thousands of jobs, could be accomplished without disrupting heavily populated areas, since the affected states all have vast rural areas.
The $7 billion pipeline would also be built 4 feet underground, reducing the threat of sabotage, and would have a higher-than-normal number of safety shutoff valves.
We welcome the availability of oil from friendly Canada. But this project reminds us of the need to use more of our own resources, too.