by Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, reposted from NRDC’s Switchboard
Bullying American landowners and stockpiling pipe for a rejected project show the arrogance of the Canadian pipeline company TransCanada as it tries to reanimate the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The latest news is that TransCanada is proposing to split the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in two in order to get around the U.S. process to review international pipelines for their national interest. TransCanada says that it will seek the presidential permit for the border crossing, but move ahead separately with the southern portion of the rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf. This is a ploy to avoid a review that will show how the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will raise U.S. oil prices, send tar sands overseas, endanger U.S. homes and waters, and contribute to worsening climate change.
What part of “no” does TransCanada not understand? Texans, Nebraskans, and folks all across the country are saying that whether in a hundred pieces or one piece, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in the national interest. At a time of public worry about rising gas prices, lawmakers should be concerned about a project that will in diverting oil from the Midwest gasoline refining operations to Gulf Coast diesel refining operations thereby raising U.S. oil and gas prices.
So what exactly has TransCanada proposed? TransCanada announced that it has let the State Department know that the company will submit a new application for a presidential permit for the northern portion of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from the border crossing in Montana to Steel City, Nebraska on the Kansas border where an already existing part of the pipeline starts. TransCanada would supplement this application with the proposed route through Nebraska after that has been determined in cooperation with Nebraska. But there is some question as to how long this would take since Nebraska does not currently have laws in place to do this assessment. TransCanada will then apply separately to the various federal and state permits for the southern portion of the pipeline from Cushing Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast.
Raw tar sands oil going from the Midwest to the Gulf for refining means serious pipeline safety issues for landowners and environmental justice impacts of tar sands refining. Concerns of Texas landowners over TransCanada’s high-handed attempts to take their land through eminent domain will all remain the same in the case of an Oklahoma to Texas tar sands pipeline.
And the southern route pipeline will still provide the main service to oil companies that Keystone XL would provide: it will divert tar sands from the Midwest to the Gulf, raising American oil prices and likely also gasoline prices. An Oklahoma to Texas tar sands pipeline will mean more tar sands converted to diesel and available for export overseas. It will mean less tar sands remaining in the US, even while Americans bear the risks of the pipeline.
TransCanada is clearly trying to circumvent the process that we have in place for approving international pipelines by now going around the presidential permit national interest determination requirement for the part of this pipeline that will hurt the U.S. economy. Whether in pieces or as a whole, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in the national interest.
Here is a video clip of a recent protest of Texas landowners in reaction to TransCanada’s bullying and the threats that the tar sands pipeline would pose to homes and waters.
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz is the director of the International Program at the National Resources Defense Council. This piece was originally published at NRDC’s Switchboard.
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What happened to the widely distributed threat that they, TransCanada, would run the pipeline across Canada to export the oil to China. By this new action they seem to be admitting that they have not other alternative for the oil. This should strengthen the opposition.
Crawford Farms Takes On Tar Sands Pipeline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcTzht2XH8
Good thing for TransCanada they’ve got President Obama hanging in there for them:
“Obama welcomes TransCanada plan for new pipeline”
http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-27/news/31105069_1_keystone-xl-pipeline-supporters-oil-pipeline
Another day, another sell-out. I’m beginning to discern a certain pattern here.
I’m very much open to an argument that this pipeline needs to be stopped, but what we have here is just an attempt at proof by repeated assertion. Why is this pipeline – considered on its own – any more or less worthy of construction than any other oil infrastructure? That’s the info I need to help convince people in the mainstream to oppose this.
Basically the main reason, IMHO, is climate change – the high CO2 emissions from cooking the tar out of the frozen ground up there then getting into a liquid state that flows ends up giving a Prius running on gasoline refined from this tar the CO2 emissions of a Hummer (if you include the extraction CO2).
And if we develop it all it will significantly accelerate the warming of the climate (as opposed to if we left it in the ground) because of that high CO2 emission.
Outside of that you’ve got a bunch of reasons getting this oil is a good thing (since we want oil from reliable countries) and its a bad thing in general since pipelines leak etc..
This is a tough thing to convince people about as it requires them to understand and concede that climate change trumps our national need for additional oil supplies – not easy unless the person gets how serious climate change is.
Actually, TransCanada gets a big YES from President Obama for the pipeline extension from Cushing to the coast.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday applauded a decision by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. to build the southernmost portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as a stand-alone project that does not need U.S. State Department approval.
“The president welcomes today’s news that TransCanada plans to build a pipeline to bring crude oil from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf of Mexico,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
The plan will “help address the bottleneck of oil” in the U.S. Midwest that has resulted from increased domestic production in areas like the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota.
“We look forward to working with TransCanada to ensure that it is built in a safe, responsible and timely manner, and we commit to take every step possible to expedite the necessary federal permits,” Carney said.
From
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Obama+lends+support+Keystone+pipeline+plan/6219578/story.html#ixzz1nhpyw0ij
The glut of oil in oklahoma is keeping oil prices lower in the midwest. If they build this pipeline, the people of the midwest will have the opportunity to compete with china for this oil, which will cause the price of oil to rise in the midwest. Isn’t capitalism wonderful, we have the chance to compete for basic commoditied.
Those living in america’s midwest would be well advised to raise hell to prevent this pipeline from being built, not only for the sake of protecting the environment, but also to preserve their cheap gasoline!