The leak lasted for several minutes, with no initial reports of damage to water sources or wildlife. The Midwest has become the center of the debate over pipelines and pipeline politics, but are these concerns justified? [227], The main issues are the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and 17% higher greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of oil sands compared to extraction of conventional oil. [130] Another proposed solution is TransCanada's Aboriginal Human Resource Strategy, which was developed to facilitate Aboriginal employment and to provide "opportunities for Aboriginal businesses to participate in both the construction of new facilities and the ongoing maintenance of existing facilities". On July 6, 2020, in the US Army Corps of Engineers v. Northern Plains Resource Council case, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered all Keystone XL work be halted. Its a pipeline through America, and it threatens to be a disaster for us if it leaks poisons on the way. Leading scientists and economists came out in opposition to the project, in addition to unions and world leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former president Jimmy Carter (together, these and other Nobel laureates have written letters against the project). [8], The leak raised concerns from environmentalists due to the transfer of tar sands through the pipeline, which are more toxic than crude oil and can sink in water. But then the Trump administration would do something to undercut us outside of court. The administration also attempted to issue other permits for the project, all based on flawed environmental analyses, eventually prompting more lawsuits, including two from NRDC and its allies. The revoked permit became the final nail in the pipelines coffin. TC Energy Corp., the Canadian company that owns the Keystone XL pipeline with the Alberta government, has said more than 1,000 people are out of work because of Biden's executive order. In addition, TransCanada has submitted a secret document to the Canadian government that states that the KXL pipeline will cause a hike in gas prices in the Midwest. NRDC advocates were part of a broad coalition that helped stop Keystone XLfor good. [30] The original Keystone Pipeline cost US$5.2 billion. 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. [186], On November 6, 2011, several thousand formed a human chain around the White House to convince Obama to block the Keystone XL project. [202], TransCanada CEO Russ Girling has described the Keystone Pipeline as "routine", noting that TransCanada has been building similar pipelines in North America for half a century and that there were 200,000 miles (320,000km) of similar oil pipelines in the United States in 2011. The expected lack of volume combined with extensive construction cost overruns has prompted several petroleum refining companies to sue TransCanada. The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth - its people, In 2015, KXL was temporarily delayed by President Barack Obama. Thanks for signing up. The truth behind this keystone pipeline facts and myths about supporting organized labor is that labor and workers have opposed this project from the start. [48] The pipeline restarted at a reduced operating pressure on April 10 after the U.S. regulator approved the companies corrective actions and plan. [109], Since 2010, there were concerns that a pipeline spill could threaten the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest fresh water reserves. This pipeline has a strong chance of leaking, and if so, it could contaminate the water. Additionally, it should be noted here that Canadian oil sands have been labeled as the dirtiest form of crude oil because of their high carbon content and linked to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Over the years, they have invested more money in promoting this project than any other state or environmental organization. The Keystone XL pipeline, which would have expanded an existing system transporting oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, has been a political and environmental battleground since its conception. (For evidence, note the 2010 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.) Heres why thats a disaster in the making. [58] It would have sliced through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, delivering 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day. 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. Fact: While American Petroleum Institute has stated that this project will create jobs for over half a million American people, the truth is these are all false claims. We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. [4][5], In January 2014, the U.S. Department of State's (DoS) January 2014 "Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement" (SEIS) said that, "because of broader market dynamics and options for crude oil transport in the North American logistics system, the upstream and downstream activities are unlikely to be substantially different whether or not the proposed Project is constructed". Phase 4 is the "Keystone XL Pipeline" that President Joe Biden canceled. Council, ET AL", "Biden nixes Keystone XL permit, halts Arctic refuge leasing", "Fact Check-Though Keystone XL Pipeline had secured most of its funding, it was only 8% constructed", "A look at the history of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion", "TransCanada: Keystone Construction to Begin in Spring", "TransCanada begins Keystone pipeline in Texas", "The politics of pipe: Keystone's troubled route", Media Notes on Keystone XL Pipeline Project Review Process: Decision to Seek Additional Information, Level IV Ecoregions of Kansas and Nebraska, "Alberta to pursue compensation through NAFTA for U.S. decision on Keystone XL, Kenney says", "Keystone XL Pipeline Obtains Enough Shipper Commitments to Proceed", "Premier Jason Kenney to respond after Keystone XL permit revoked by executive action", "Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved", "Koch company declared 'substantial interest' in Keystone XL pipeline", "Reps. Waxman and Rush Urge Committee to Request Documents from Koch Industries Regarding Keystone XL Pipeline", "Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline", "Keystone XL pipeline rejection signals US taking lead on climate change fight", "Cohen: Inspector General Report on Keystone XL Pipeline Raises Serious Concerns About Permit Process", "Keystone pipeline decision faces special U.S. review | CBC News", "Hillary Clinton opposes Keystone XL pipeline", "Trump seeks to revive Dakota Access, Keystone XL oil pipelines", "Keystone XL Pipeline and Indigenous Peoples", "First Nations and Native American Leaders Arrested In Front Of White House To Protest Keystone XL Pipeline", "Application to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission for a Permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline Under the Energy Conversion and Transmission Facility Act", "A Study of Water and Sediment Quality as Related to Public Health Issues", "Earl Hatley: Portrait of an Oklahoma activist", "Community, Aboriginal and Native American Relations", "The Great Sioux Nation v. the "Black Snake": Native American Rights and the Keystone XL Pipeline", "Keystone XL would destroy our Native lands. In this article he speaks on the dangers that could inevitably occur via the pipeline. TransCanada asked Nebraska to reconsider this decision[75] and worked with Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to determine the structural cause of a leak in South Dakota on November 21, 2017. Initially, President Obama put this project on hold, but Donald Trump turned it and gave it a green flag. Its nasty stuff., A fully realized Keystone XL would have led to more mining of that nasty stuff by accelerating the pace at which its produced and transported. [4] The oil pipeline is owned by TC Energy and the Government of Alberta. [64], In October 2011, The New York Times questioned the impartiality of the environmental analysis of the pipeline done by Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor based in Houston. Yet somehow, the construction of pipelines remains a controversial topic. [254], In a February 2015, the US EPA responded to the U.S. Department of State's Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Final SEIS) for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project,[255] that the pipeline will significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions because it will lead to the expansion of Alberta's carbon-intensive oilsands. [83], In August 2019, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the Nebraska Public Service Commission's approval of TransCanada's pipeline application. You'll receive your first NRDC action alert and It also included approximately 373 kilometres (232mi) of new 30-inch-diameter (760mm) pipeline, 16pump stations and the Keystone Hardisty Terminal. It's derived from a sludgy, sticky deposit found beneath the wilds of northern Albertas boreal forest. [143] Project opponents panned the study on its release, calling it a "deeply flawed analysis". The United States is the number one buyer of crude oil exported from Venezuela. Farmers, ranchers, tribes, and conservation groups helped keep the project stalled for Trumps full four years in office, despite his best efforts to expedite its approval. [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. [139], According to The New York Times, legal experts questioned whether the U.S. government was "flouting the intent" of the Federal National Environmental Policy Act, which "[was] meant to ensure an impartial environmental analysis of major projects". Cindy S. Woods, The Great Sioux Nation V. The Black Snake: Native American Rights and the Keystone XL Pipeline. 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. Keystone started pumping oil through this section in January 2014. At the time of the poll, only 17% of Democrats favored the pipeline. From the refineries, the oil would be sent chiefly overseasnot to gasoline pumps in the United States. Fact: The main reason why TransCanada is pulling out every single card on this project is that its the only way for this company to explore overseas markets. On March 9, 2017, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier of Alberta Rachel Notley attended North America's largest energy conference CERAWeek in Houston, Texas. [31]:5[101] The pipeline system was originally developed as a partnership between TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, but TransCanada announced plans to buy ConocoPhillips' interest in Keystone in June 2009. In addition, due to its vulnerability to spill accidents, there have been many keystone pipeline facts and myths speculating this pipeline project. The leak is the largest in the United States since the 2013 North Dakota pipeline spill and the largest in the history of the Keystone Pipeline. In the instance of the Keystone XL pipeline, there have been many protests and actions taken against the construction of the pipeline. When TC Energy said the pipeline would create nearly 119,000 jobs, a State Department report instead concluded the project would require fewer than 2,000 two-year construction jobs and that the number of full-time, permanent jobs would hover around 35 after construction. As the debates go on about this Keystone XL project being the biggest threat to the US, here are some common myths and facts you need to know about this project. For companies considering whether to invest in a long-lived tar sands project (which could last for 50 years), access to cheap pipeline capacity plays a major role in the decision to move forward or not. This story was originally published on April 7, 2017, and has been updated with new information and links. its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. [206] The Pioneer crude oil pipeline crosses eastwest across Nebraska, and the Pony Express pipeline, which crosses the Ogallala Aquifer in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas, was being converted as of 2013 from natural gas to crude oil, under a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. [52], In September 2011, Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute released the results of the GLI Keystone XL Report, which evaluated the pipeline's impact on employment, the environment, energy independence, the economy, and other critical areas. And these exports are more than 10 times the capacity of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The projects corporate backerthe Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energyofficially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Bidens denial of a key permit on his first day in office. Pipeline under construction in Alberta, Canada. The 1,200-mile pipeline would have traveled southeast through nine South Dakota counties. [232][233] The pipeline was immediately shut down,[234] and TransCanada began using the pipe again 12 days after the leak. [240], Environmental organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also oppose the project due to its transportation of oil from oil sands. [251], As of 2013, however, producing and processing tar sands oil results in roughly 14 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average oil used in the U.S.[252] However, the reports conducted by the authorities were a complete sham, and there was nothing reasonable in them. The Keystone XL proposal faced criticism from environmentalists and a minority of the members of the United States Congress. [77][78], In February 2019, District Judge Morris denied a request by TransCanada Corporation to begin constructing worker camps for pipeline although the company could begin construction of pipe storage and container yards as long as they were outside the proposed pipeline's right-of-way. By Tsvetana Paraskova - Dec 26, 2022, 3:30 AM CST TC Energy, the operator of the Keystone Pipeline, has received approval from the U.S. [236][237], In April 2018, Reuters reviewed documents that showed that Keystone had "leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than the company indicated to regulators in risk assessments before operations began in 2010. Landowners in the path of the pipeline have complained about threats by TransCanada to confiscate private land and lawsuits to allow the "pipeline on their property even though the controversial project has yet to receive federal approval". [256] and that over the proposed 50-year timeline of the pipeline, this could mean releasing as much as "1.37 billion more tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere". [12][13], TransCanada Keystone Pipeline GP Ltd,[14] abbreviated here as Keystone, operates four phases of the project. [97], On January 20, 2021, United States President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office. As per the analysis report conducted by Cornell Universitys Global Labor Institute, these job claims are nothing but mere fabrications. Since it first went into operation in 2010, TC Energys original Keystone Pipeline System has leaked more than a dozen times; one incident in North Dakota sent a 60-foot, 21,000-gallon geyser of tar sands oil spewing into the air. [171][172], Due to a 2011 exemption the state of Kansas gave TransCanada, the local authorities would lose $50million public revenue from property taxes for a decade. [259], TransCanada Corporation responded with a letter by President and CEO Russel K. Girling stating that TransCanada "rejects the EPA inference that at lower oil prices the [Keystone XL Pipeline] Project will increase the rate of oil sands production growth and accompanying greenhouse gas emissions". [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. Keystone XL Pipeline, Gas Prices, and Oil Exports, Keystone XL Pipeline Environmental Impact, Keystone XL Pipeline Controversy and False Claims, President Trump and the Keystone XL Pipeline, President Biden and the End of the Keystone XL Pipeline, officially abandoned the project in June 2021, tar sands oil spill in Kalamazoo River, Michigan, Its mines are a blight on Canadas boreal, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Farmers, ranchers, tribes, and conservation groups, abandoning its plans for building the pipeline, Ghost Pipelines: How Landowners Suffer, Long After a Project Gets Canceled, The Future Has Spoken: Its Time to Shut Down DAPL and Stop Line 3, Battered by Floods, Nebraskans Worry About Pipeline Spills, 2018 Wasnt a Completely Horrible Year for the Environment, A Rubber Stamp on Keystone XL? of State concerning Keystone XL pipeline, "Keystone XL Pipeline: About the project", "Senate Fails to Override Obama's Keystone Pipeline Veto", "GOP Threatens to Subpoena State Department", "TransCanada Requests Suspension of U.S. [119], In January 2012, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) requested a new report on the environmental review process. [168] After completion of the Keystone XL line, oil pipelines to the U.S. may run nearly half-empty. On April 15, 2020, District Judge Brian Morris issued a suspension for the pipeline's construction after the plaintiffs, the Northern Plains Resource Council, alleged the project was improperly reauthorised back in 2017. In 2015, the U.S. State Department, under President Barack Obama, declined to grant the northern leg of the Keystone XL project the permit required to construct, maintain, and operate the pipeline across the U.S.Canada bordera permit that President Trump later granted and President Biden once again revoked. [207], In January 2012, President Obama rejected the application amid protests about the pipeline's impact on Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sandhills region. In 2014, more than two million comments urging a rejection of the pipeline were submitted to the U.S. Department of State during a 30-day public comment period. What Are The 20+ Reindeer Facts For Kids? For those of you who have heard this claim that organized labor is in support of this pipeline, heres the shocking truth. [183], Bill McKibben, environmental and global warming activist and founder of 350.org, the group that organized the 2009 international protestsdescribed by CNN as "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history"led the opposition to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. 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." 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