Guest Column
House Under-Estimates Public Concern Over Oil Pipeline Spills With Bill to Rush Keystone XL Tar Sand
The recent spill of more than 40,000 gallons of oil into the iconic Yellowstone River is unfortunately one of many recent pipeline tragedies that have left communities asking why their safety is left in the hands of oil and gas companies. Unfortunately, Congress chose to disregard those communities.By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, National Resources Defense Council, Guest Writer, 7-27-11
Laying the XL Keystone Pipeline in Montana. Creative Commons image.
On July 26, the House passed a bill mandating a decision on the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by November 1. This bill is unlikely to pass the Senate and become law, mostly because it would speed us toward a pipeline that could have a disastrous effect on U.S. waters and communities. What the public wants is better pipeline safety, not acceleration of a pipeline that would threaten the Yellowstone River, the Nebraska Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. The more the public learns, the more concerned they get. It is ironic that in the wake of the Yellowstone River oil spill and on the anniversary of the yet-to-be-cleaned up Kalamazoo River tar sands oil spill, the House would act so contrary to the public concerns about pipeline safety. In fact, to heighten the irony, tomorrow, the House Energy Committee will discuss a draft pipeline safety bill that would require a study of the impacts of raw tar sands oil such as would be carried in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Before Tuesday night’s vote, more than 22,000 National Resources Defense Council activists wrote to their members of Congress asking them to vote “No” on the bill. The National Farmers Union also wrote to Congress today on behalf of farmers, ranchers and rural communities opposing the bill and urging that no fixed deadline for making a decision be put in place. The League of Conservation Voters wrote to Congress asking for a “No” vote and noting that this vote might be included in their 2011 Scorecard of environmental votes. Yesterday, the White House issued a statement opposing the bill. That’s a lot for the House to disregard as they did that night.
TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would not carry conventional oil, but raw tar sands bitumen diluted with liquid natural gas. Diluted bitumen is more corrosive and abrasive to the inside of a pipe and there is strong evidence that it is more likely to cause pipeline failures. Tar sands pipeline leaks can be more difficult to detect and once spilled raw tar sands is more difficult to clean up.
The recent spill of over 40,000 gallons of oil into the iconic Yellowstone River is unfortunately one of many recent pipeline tragedies that have left communities asking why their safety is left in the hands of oil and gas companies.
Diluted bitumen was in the Enbridge pipeline one year ago today when it ruptured and flooded one million gallons of tar sands into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. EPA is still cleaning up the Kalamazoo and recent discoveries of tar sands contamination of Lake Morrow’s sediments mean the cleanup is likely to last months longer.
The State Department has been superficial in its examination of safety issues – but pointing to how many pages of pipeline safety analysis are in the environmental review as they do, doesn’t mean that review was thorough and science-based. In fact, the State Department’s safety review has been minimal.
TransCanada claims it does not need new studies or regulations to deal with safety in its pipelines. However, TransCanada’s first Keystone pipeline has had over 30 leaks just in its first year of operation in the US and Canada. And just last week, TransCanada’s natural gas pipeline in Wyoming exploded. TransCanada had said that this natural gas pipeline was an example of its most stringent safety standards. This should be additional reason for U.S. regulators to take a careful look at any proposed TransCanada tar sands pipeline.
The American public does not want to put the Yellowstone River, the Nebraska Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer in the hands of a company such as TransCanada. No one should be rushing this pipeline without the thorough and science-based review the American public deserves. Not Congress and not the State Department. What we need is to protect our waters, lands and public safety. This does not include another tar sands pipeline.
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz is a program director at the NRDC’s offices in Washington, D.C. She is a frequent contributor to Switchboard, the NRDC staff blog.
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Exxon Mobil’s pipeline accident that dumped oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River is not eroding Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s (D) support for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would traverse his state.
Schweitzer, in a PBS interview Tuesday, cited assurances he has received from TransCanada that an Exxon-type spill isn’t in the offing if the company receives federal permission to build the Keystone XL line, which would also go underneath the Yellowstone River.
“TransCanada has explained to me that, across every river and stream in Montana, that they would have automatic shutdown valves and backed-up systems by humans, so that this kind of catastrophe wouldn't and could not occur,” Schweitzer said.
He also emphasized the boring techniques that TransCanada would use “so that none of these pipelines will be laid into these riverbeds.”
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Keystone XL is DOA.
allow private companies to exercise eminent domian?!
This in a state that prides itself on protection of private property rights...wow...
Eminent domain is not a "right" as worded above, but legalized theft.
let's just turn the whole place over now to the big corporations and save ourselves the legal fees....
So, this article is as noteworthy as the sun rising. Environmentalists will always squawk at anything that appears to be progress, putting their heads in the sand and pretending that stopping this (pick your project) is going to help humanity, instead of just moving the production and all of it's jobs over seas.
Like I said, it's good to be careful, but anyone who makes policy decisions solely based on this kind of thinking should be run out of office as quickly as possible.
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Yet Schweitzer yesterday said the Silvertip rupture would not shake his support for the XL project.
"I don't think one ought to confuse what happens with this particular old technology, Silvertip, with what will occur in the future," the governor told the Platts newswire.
"Unless people are willing to park their cars and move into a cave and live naked and eat nuts, we're going to continue to produce energy and that energy needs to be moved to the source of consumption," Schweitzer added.
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