The Environmental Risk of NOT Building Keystone XL

[Taxcutter]

The Canadians are not going to just sit there and not sell their crude. If Keystone XL is vetoed, they will build a pipeline to the British Columbia coast and send it to China, Japan, Taiwan, or Korea by tanker.

The Great Circle route dictates these ships will have to pass through the fertile fishing rounds of the Gulf of Alaska and through the Unimak Pass. VLCCs run in the 400,000 ton range so if one wrecks that’s an awful lot of crude spilled in an impossible to clean up area, sporting some of the world’s roughest seas but are also rich fishing grounds.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/the-environmental-dangers-of-not-building-keystone-xl-15119227?click=pm_latest

If a leak develops in the Keystone XL pipeline, it simply freezes into something that looks a lot like asphalt and can be cleaned up with an endloader.

If you like to think globally, which would you rather see? The Canadian crude refined in US refineries or un completely unregulated Chinese refineries?

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aleutiansriskassessment.com/images/Figure4L_000.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aleutiansriskassessment.com/passing.htm&h=661&w=1019&sz=309&tbnid=0SnWVSEtA7wk7M:&tbnh=87&tbnw=134&zoom=1&usg=__pEhbs4KoEn9amTN2x_ipS5l3GDc=&docid=Q2HAp-p4_NaUaM&sa=X&ei=XzAlUcmrGIrpqgGqtoCIAQ&ved=0CD4Q9QEwAw&dur=29

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - make Obama pay fer it...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_grandma.gif
TransCanada formally seeks damages over Keystone XL rejection
Sat Jun 25, 2016 - TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday.


TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday.


http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20160625&t=2&i=1142855888&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&sq=&r=LYNXNPEC5O0IN
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp's planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota

Obama rejected the Canadian company's cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-idUSKCN0ZB0R9

[Mac-7]

This makes the environmentalists look pretty stupid

But what else is new?

America could be making money and thousands of Americans could find good jobs

But no

Ignorant tree huggers have an ally in the White House

[waltky]

U.S. State Dept to approve Keystone pipeline permit...
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif
U.S. State Dept to approve Keystone pipeline permit: Politico
Thu Mar 23, 2017 | The U.S. State Department will approve by Monday the permit needed to proceed with construction of the Canada-to-United States Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project blocked by former President Barack Obama, according to Politico.


The approval of the permit would mark the beginning of process that could be lengthy and complicated by approvals needed by state regulators and legal challenges. But President Donald Trump, a Republican, supports Keystone and days after he took office in January ordered its construction. That could mean that project, first proposed in 2008, will eventually be completed. The State Department's undersecretary for political affairs, Tom Shannon, will approve the cross-border permit for TransCanada Corp's pipeline on or before Monday, the report said. Monday is end of the 60-day timeline that Trump ordered in January when he issued an executive order for the construction of Keystone and the Dakota Access pipelines. The Keystone pipeline would bring more than 800,000 barrels-per-day of heavy crude from Canada's oil sands to U.S. refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico, via an existing pipeline network in Nebraska.


http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170323&t=2&i=1177750339&w=780&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPED2M1BG
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp's planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota

Obama had rejected the pipeline saying it would do nothing to reduce fuel prices for U.S. motorists and would contribute emissions linked to global warming. TransCanada resubmitted its permit application after Trump's executive order. Spokesman Terry Cunha said the company was working closely with the State Department. "Monday is the deadline, so that's what we're working towards," Cunha said. A State Department official said there was no decision to announce on Keystone. A White House official did not immediately comment. Conservatives said they supported quick approval. Nick Loris, an energy and environment researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said approval would "reestablish some certainty and sanity to a permitting process that was hijacked by political pandering."

Environmental group Greenpeace had pushed for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to recuse himself from a decision on Keystone, as Exxon Mobil Corp, the company Tillerson recently headed, could profit from the pipeline. Tillerson did recuse himself. "We will resist these projects with our allies across the country and across borders, and we will continue to build the future the world wants to see," Diana Best, a Greenpeace climate campaign specialist said. A stretch of Keystone XL also awaits approval from Nebraska regulators. Transcanada has to file its pipeline route plans with the state's Public Service Commission, which is required to hold public hearings on the proposal.

State Dept to approve Keystone pipeline permit: Politico | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-keystone-idUSKBN16U25E)

[waltky]

Keystone springs a leak...
http://www.newsforum.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
Keystone Pipeline closed through several states after 200,000-gallon leak in South Dakota
Nov 16 2017 - Part of the controversial Keystone Pipeline was shut down Thursday after more than 200,000 gallons of oil leaked in South Dakota, the state and the company that runs the pipeline said Thursday.


Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist for the Ground Water Quality Program of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, told NBC News that TransCanada, the Calgary-based company that operates the Canada-to-Texas line, reported the leak Thursday morning in a sparsely populated area of Marshall County, near Amherst in the northeastern part of the state. In a statement, TransCanada said the pipeline was shut off from Hardisty in the Canadian province of Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, and to Wood River and Patoka in Illinois. The southern leg of the system, which stretches to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, remains open, it said.

Part of the controversial Keystone Pipeline was shut down Thursday after more than 200,000 gallons of oil leaked in South Dakota, the state and the company that runs the pipeline said Thursday. Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist for the Ground Water Quality Program of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, told NBC News that TransCanada, the Calgary-based company that operates the Canada-to-Texas line, reported the leak Thursday morning in a sparsely populated area of Marshall County, near Amherst in the northeastern part of the state.

In a statement, TransCanada said the pipeline was shut off from Hardisty in the Canadian province of Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, and to Wood River and Patoka in Illinois. The southern leg of the system, which stretches to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, remains open, it said. The company said it detected a drop in pressure overnight and safely shut off the stretches of pipeline within 15 minutes at about 6 a.m. (7 a.m. ET). It estimated the leak at 5,000 barrels, or about 210,000 gallons, but provided no information on a possible cause or when the pipeline might reopen. Walsh said the oil appeared to be contained to an agricultural area and hadn't reached any bodies of water.

The leak comes four days before Nebraska officials are scheduled to vote on whether to approve a 275-mile-long extension of the project through the state. State approval is needed after President Donald Trump revived the project, called Keystone XL, even though it had been rejected by the Obama administration. "We've always said it's not a question of whether a pipeline will spill, but when, and today TransCanada is making our case for us," said Kelly Martin, director of the Sierra Club's "Beyond Dirty Fuels" campaign. "This is not the first time TransCanada's pipeline has spilled toxic tar sands, and it won't be the last," Martin said in a statement. "There is no such thing as a safe tar sands pipeline, and the only way to protect Nebraska communities from more tar sands spills is to say no to Keystone XL." Thursday's leak is about 12 times the size of the last major leak on a Keystone line, in April 2016 in Hutchinson County, South Dakota. According to federal records, that leak, which was eventually blamed on a "weld anomaly," was initially reported at 4½ barrels, or 187 gallons. But five days later, it was revised to 400 barrels, or 16,800 gallons.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/keystone-pipeline-closed-through-several-states-after-200-000-gallon-n821606