Some of the highlights:. All cross at least a portion of the Ogallala High Plains Aquifer. In fact, according to the Nebraska Pipeline Association, there are more than 20, miles of liquids and natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the state. Knowing what five years of the original Keystone Pipeline has done for jobs and revenue, the State Department and the President should approve the second the Keystone pipeline--Keystone XL-- so that our great nation can continue to reap the benefits of safe, stable energy supplies from Canada.
July 8, The existing Keystone runs from oil sand fields in Alberta, Canada into the U. The 1, new miles of pipeline would offer two sections of expansion.
First, a southern leg would connect Cushing, Oklahoma, where there is a current bottleneck of oil, with the Gulf Coast of Texas, where oil refineries abound. That leg went into operation in January Second, the pipeline would include a new section from Alberta to Kansas. Here, it will pass through a region where oil extraction is currently booming and take on some of this crude for transport.
The southern leg of the Keystone XL ties into the existing Keystone pipeline that already runs to Canada, bringing up to , barrels of oil a day to refineries in Texas. At peak capacity, the pipeline will deliver , barrels of oil per day. While the pipeline is initially carried U. TransCanada has been attempting to get a permit for the pipeline project for more than five years. Since the northern leg of the pipeline crosses international borders, TransCanada needs to obtain a Presidential Permit through the State Department for construction of the portion of the pipeline that goes from Canada to the U.
The northern segment, from Alberta to Texas, is the section that has run into several points of opposition. While the northern leg stalled, TransCanada went ahead on the southern leg. The line would cross through 16 counties in North and East Texas.
This map lays out the existing and proposed routes:. Some estimates have gone as high as ,, which is highly unlikely. Factors such as direct vs. The State Department released a report in March stating that the pipeline could directly or indirectly create up to 42, jobs, including 3, construction jobs.
Many critics of Keystone XL worry it will have harmful environmental impacts. The Sierra Club has said it opposes the specific use of tar sands, which is found in the deposits in Canada. The scientific name for tar sand is bitumen , a mixture of clay, sand, water, and oil that with modern technology can be refined into usable oil. Critics say that it is more corrosive than conventional oil. It is this corrosiveness that has some concerned about leaks in the pipeline.
For evidence against the transport of tar sands crude, environmentalists point to an event in May , when 21, gallons of oil leaked in North Dakota. On January 20, , President Biden announced his intention to revoke the Presidential Permit to construct the pipeline. The pipeline—the most studied infrastructure project in American history—is already under construction and has cleared countless legal and environmental hurdles.
This is a politically motivated decision that is not grounded in science. Less than two years before the project was finally pulled, the Keystone tar sands pipeline was temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota of reportedly more than , gallons in late October And the risk that Keystone XL would have spilled was heightened because of the extended time the pipe segments were left sitting outside in stockpiles. Complicating matters, leaks can be difficult to detect.
People and wildlife coming into contact with tar sands oil are exposed to toxic chemicals, and rivers and wetland environments are at particular risk from a spill. For evidence, note the tar sands oil spill in Kalamazoo River, Michigan , a disaster that cost Enbridge more than a billion dollars in cleanup fees and took six years to settle in court. Keystone XL would have crossed agriculturally important and environmentally sensitive areas, including hundreds of rivers, streams, aquifers, and water bodies.
A spill would have been devastating to the farms, ranches, and communities that depend on these crucial ecosystems. All facets of the tar sands industry pose a threat to the environment. The mining depletes and pollutes freshwater resources, creates massive ponds of toxic waste, and threatens the health and livelihood of the First Nations people who live near them.
Refining the sticky black gunk produces piles of petroleum coke , a hazardous, coal-like by-product. The U. Finally, massive fossil fuel infrastructure investments like KXL undermine efforts to minimize global warming and prioritize clean energy like wind and solar. Opposition to Keystone XL centered on the devastating environmental consequences of the project. The pipeline faced more than a decade of sustained protests from environmental activists and organizations; Indigenous communities ; religious leaders; and the farmers, ranchers, and business owners along its proposed route.
One such protest, a historic act of civil disobedience outside the White House in August , resulted in the arrest of more than 1, demonstrators. In , more than two million comments urging a rejection of the pipeline were submitted to the U. Department of State during a day public comment period. But the groundswell of public protest was up against a formidable opponent—hundreds of millions spent on lobbying by the fossil fuel industry.
When industry-friendly politicians took charge of both congressional houses in January , their first order of business was to pass a bill to speed up approval of Keystone XL.
0コメント