[66][67][68] Financial commitment towards completion of the pipeline was weakened by a number of technological factors as well. While the project may produce some temporary jobs for unemployed people, this project will not be able to create clean energy jobs. [31] : 147 "[211] In response to the Department of State's report, which recommended neither acceptance nor rejection, an editor of The New York Times recommended that Obama should reject the project, which "even by the State Department's most cautious calculationscan only add to the [climate change] problem". As an expansion of the companys existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been operating since 2010 (and continues to send Canadian tar sands crude oil from Alberta to various processing hubs in the middle of the United States), the pipeline promised to dramatically increase capacity to process the 168 billion barrels of crude oil locked up under Canadas boreal forest. Its mines are a blight on Canadas boreal, where mining operations dig up and flatten forests to access the oil below, destroying wildlife habitat and one of the worlds largest carbon sinks. By Brijesh Patel, Rod Nickel and Nia Williams. On the contrary, green and renewable energy could be the best way to go about it and can put a hold on global climate change to some extent. One such protest, a historic act of civil disobedience outside the White House in August 2011, resulted in the arrest of more than 1,200 demonstrators. The Keystone Pipeline was shut down mid-November 2017 after it leaked an initial estimate of 210,000 gallons of crude oil in Amherst, South Dakota, . When industry-friendly politicians took charge of both congressional houses in January 2015, their first order of business was to pass a bill to speed up approval of Keystone XL. CVR alleged that the final tolls for the Canadian segment of the pipeline were 146% higher than initially presented, while the tolls for the U.S. segment were 92% higher. On November 22, 2011, the Nebraska unicameral legislature passed unanimously two bills with the governor's signature that enacted a compromise agreed upon with the pipeline builder to move the route, and approved up to US$2million in state funding for an environmental study. Additionally, the review process for the KXL pipeline project was outsourced by the US government to a company that has close ties with TransCanada. Frontline Indigenous youth, who have been standing up against destructive oil pipelines for years, are imploring President Biden to join them in protecting their water, lands, and cultures. It is also predicted that this project will create only a few full-time jobs for steel workers during its construction period. But immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump brought the zombie project back to life, along with the legal battles against it. 398 arrests were made of people tying themselves to the White House fence with zip-ties and lying on a black tarp in front of the fence. [1], On July 21, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency criticized the State Department's draft environmental impact study for neglecting concerns about oil spill response plans, safety issues and greenhouse gas. With relation to the Estes article, there is concern by indigenous people that the Keystone Pipeline can lead to a similar type of destruction. Thousands of landowners testified against the development of this pipeline project on their land. But the groundswell of public protest was up against a formidable opponenthundreds of millions spent on lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. On his fourth day in office, Trump signed an executive order to allow Keystone XL to move forward. In July 2013, Obama said "The most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline, which might take a year or two, and then after that we're talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs in an economy of 150 million working people." . The report blamed the discrepancy on a failure to take account of the increase in consumption due to the drop in the price of oil that would be spurred by the pipeline. This isnt your grandfathers typical oil, says Anthony Swift, director of NRDCs Canada project. This project will certainly increase the possibility of spills through the periodic need for maintenance in the future. At every turn, the Tar Sands Invasion would put people and the environment in harm's way. A study published in early 2020, co-authored by TC Energys own scientists, found that the anti-corrosion coating on the projects pipes was damaged from being stored outside and exposed to the elements for the last decade, notes NRDC senior attorney Jaclyn Prange, who spent years working on KXL litigation. The United States is the number one buyer of crude oil exported from Venezuela. Erwin Seba/Reuters, FILE "We recognize that incidents . However, people, environmental activities, and organizations working on climate change strongly oppose this project. I have knowledge of on-page & off-page SEO, Analytics and ads. [40] Later that year, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission granted a permit to proceed. State Disclosures. According to their website, "It's our responsibilityas a good company and under law. 2022. [280], In June 2012, Sierra Club, Clean Energy Future Oklahoma, and the East Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission filed a joint complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma seeking injunctive relief and petitioning for a review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' action in issuing Nationwide Permit 12 permits for the Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast portion of the pipeline. Finally, there are hardly any requirements on how these pipelines should be constructed and maintained to ensure safety. [243][244], Pipeline construction could affect water supplies upstream of several Native American reservations, even though the pipeline does not lead through any tribal land. [63] Since this Keystone XL project will pass through the Sandhills region, a spill accident on a large scale in the future could cause severe damage to this environmentally sensitive region. Its time to accelerate our transition to the clean energy sources that will power a prosperous future.. The market case had also deteriorated. It became a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than a serious policy matter. Heres why thats a disaster in the making. These spills could release as much as 180,000 barrels (29,000m3) of oil each."[223]. [170] Until Canadian crude oil accesses international prices like LLS or Maya crude oil by "getting to tidewater" (south to the U.S. Gulf ports via Keystone XL for example, west to the BC Pacific coast via the proposed Northern Gateway line to ports at Kitimat, BC or north via the northern hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, on the Beaufort Sea),[174] the Alberta government is losing from $430 billion in tax and royalty revenues as the primary product of the oil sands, Western Canadian Select (WCS), the bitumen crude oil basket, is discounted so heavily against West Texas Intermediate (WTI) while Maya crude oil, a similar product close to tidewater, is reaching peak prices. [41] and in March 2010, the National Energy Board approved the project. [citation needed], From January 2018 through December 31, 2019, Keystone XL development costs were $1.5 billion. The TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline is considered one of the toughest projects for organized labor. [157] Diane Francis has argued that much of the opposition to the oil sands actually comes from foreign countries such as Nigeria, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom supply oil to the United States and who could be affected if the price of oil drops due to the new availability of oil from the pipeline. [250], In September 2011, Joe Oliver, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, sharply criticized opponents of oil sands development in a speech to the Canadian Club of Toronto, arguing that oil sands account for about 0.1% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, coal power plants powered in the U.S. generate almost 40 times more greenhouse-gas emissions than Canada's oil sands and California bitumen is more GHG-intensive than the oil sands. As the debates go on about this Keystone XL project being the biggest threat to the US. A spill would have been devastating to the farms, ranches, and communities that depend on these crucial ecosystems. [149], During the 2014 Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit in Whistler, B.C., Canada's US Ambassador Gary Doer stated that there is no proof, be it environmental, economic, safety or scientific, that construction work on Keystone XL should not go ahead. This has proved to be untrue. [201] Opponents claim that TransCanada applied to the U.S. government to use thinner steel and pump at higher pressures than normal. This is why we fight[134] further explains the relationship with the Oceti Sakowin Tribe by referring to the environment as Mother Earth when resisting the Keystone Pipeline. Historic flooding recently inundated parts of the Cornhusker State where the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would pass through. [69], In mid-2016, a lateral pipeline to refineries at Houston, Texas and a terminal was completed, and was online in 2017. The black snake is a reference to something that is sneaky, dangerous and sinister, which is the way the Sioux Nation views the Keystone Pipeline. (Indeed, Keystone XL was viewed as an essential ingredient in the oil industrys plans to triple tar sands production by 2030. [125], On September 19, 2011, a number of Indigenous tribal leaders in the United States and Canada were arrested for protesting the Keystone XL outside the White House. These sands contain bitumen, a gooey type of petroleum that can be converted into fuel. The expected lack of volume combined with extensive construction cost overruns has prompted several petroleum refining companies to sue TransCanada. NRDC.org stories are available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as time and place elements, style, and grammar); you cant resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you cant republish our material wholesale or automaticallyyou need to select stories individually; you can't republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when youve used one of our stories. And when tar sands oil does spill, its more difficult to clean up than conventional crude because it immediately sinks to the bottom of the waterway. [282], The Sandhills region and Ogallala Aquifer. (That effort failed.) The 1,200-mile pipeline would have traveled southeast through nine South Dakota counties. [54][205], In 2011, after opposition for laying the pipeline in this area, TransCanada agreed to change the route and skip the Sandhills,[108] even though pipeline industry spokesmen had maintained that existing pipelines carrying crude oil and refined liquid hydrocarbons have crossed over the Ogallala Aquifer for years in southeast Wyoming, eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. This is not a pipeline to America, said the late civil rights activist Julian Bond, among the many arrested. In 2010 Glen Perry, a petroleum engineer for Adira Energy, warned that including the Alberta Clipper pipeline owned by TransCanada's competitor Enbridge, there is an extensive overcapacity of oil pipelines from Canada. seq., the Corps' issuance of the permits was arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion. [201] Critics say that a major leak could ruin drinking water and devastate the mid-western U.S. Keystone XL would have crossed agriculturally important and environmentally sensitive areas, including hundreds of rivers, streams, aquifers, and water bodies. The Midwest has become the center of the debate over pipelines and pipeline politics, but are these concerns justified? [clarification needed][115][116][117], The pipeline was a prominent issue in the 2014 United States mid-term elections, and after Republicans gained control of the Senate that year, the project was revived. "[181] A Wall Street Journal article in March 2014 points out that the main reason oil producers from the North Dakota Bakken Shale region are using rail and trucks to transport oil is economics not pipeline capacity. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and this ups the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak. [12] The Keystone XL pipeline segments were intended to allow American crude oil to enter the XL pipelines at Baker, Montana, on their way to the storage and distribution facilities at Cushing, Oklahoma. Opponents of this projectnow called the Gulf Coast Pipelinesay that TC Energy took advantage of legal loopholes to push the pipeline through, obtaining authorization under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nationwide permit and dodging the more rigorous vetting process for individual permits, which requires public input. [141], On May 4, 2012, the U.S. Department of State selected Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to author a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, after the Environmental Protection Agency had found previous versions of the study, by contractor Cardno Entrix,[142] to be extremely inadequate. [240], On December 7, 2022, TC Energy in Canada initiated a shutdown of the Keystone Pipeline System in response to a 9PM Eastern Time alarm signaling a loss in pressure. [128] Earl Hatley, an environmental activist who has worked with Native American tribes[129] has expressed concern about the environmental and public health impact on Native Americans. 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. Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL", "Keystone modifications call Obama's bluff", "TransCanada to Work with Department of State on New Keystone XL Route Options", "Media Advisory State of Nebraska to Play Major Role in Defining New Keystone XL Route Away From the Sandhills", "Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), "Obama Facing Rising Pressure on Keystone Oil Pipeline", "Congress clears Keystone XL pipeline bill, setting up veto", "Department of State: Record of Decision and National Interest Determination", "Obama rejects TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline", "Obama administration rejects Keystone pipeline", "Half of Canadians in favour of Keystone XL revival while U.S. support declines: Poll", Recent Case: Montana District Court Holds State Departments National Interest Determination for Keystone XL Pipeline Violated APA by Disregarding Prior Factual Findings, "Memorandum on Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline", "Keystone XL: Trump issues permit to begin construction of pipeline", "Presidential Permit: Authorizing TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P., To Construct, Connect, Operate, and Maintain Pipeline Facilities at the International Boundary Between the United States and Canada", "Nebraska approves path for controversial Keystone XL pipeline", "TransCanada Asks Nebraska to Reconsider Keystone XL Ruling", "South Dakota Regulator Raises Prospect of Revoking Keystone Permit", "A judge just dealt a potentially fatal blow to Keystone XL", "Judge keeps most Keystone XL pipeline work on hold", "TransCanada Corp to overhaul its business in US$13B acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group", "Pipeline company TransCanada changes name to TC Energy", "TransCanada Can Change Its Name, Say Opponents, But Keystone XL Will Never See 'The Light of Day', "Court lifts injunction blocking Keystone XL oil pipeline", "Keystone XL Pipeline Plan Is Approved by Nebraska Supreme Court", "State Department Solicits Comments On Keystone XL Pipeline", "Notice of Availability of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline; Public Meeting Announcement", "Canadian Energy Centre: Minister Savage Statement", "Alberta's energy war room now called Canadian Energy Centre", "Bill Status Report for the 30th Legislature 1st Session (2019)", "Alberta makes it official: Bill passed and proclaimed to kill carbon tax", "Keystone XL to proceed with $7B provincial commitment", "Investing US$8.0 billion in the North American economy", "Supreme Court Won't Block Ruling to Halt Work on Keystone XL Pipeline", Northern Plains Res. 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keystone pipeline facts 2022