An estimated 10,000 demonstrators from around the country gathered outside the White House on Sunday, November 6, 2011 to show opposition to a proposed TransCanada crude oil pipeline. The pipeline is currently under consideration for approval by the State Department.
Currently, the oil company TransCanada, has a pipeline running through the Midwest to Steel City, Nebraska where it splits into two lines. One goes to Patoka, Illinois and the other to Cushing, Oklahoma. Keystone XL would extend these pipelines further, with a second branch from Canada through western Nebraska along with an extension from Cushing to the Gulf Coast.
The purpose of the pipeline is to get tar sands oil from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. Proponents, including TransCanada and some unions, tout that the pipeline will bring in billions in economic benefits to the United States, along with 20,000 jobs. They also say that this project can provide energy security, with less reliance on oil from the Middle East.
However, recent research commissioned by the State Department revealed that only about 6,000 jobs will be created by the new pipeline. These will mostly be temporary construction jobs that will last less than two years, and they may be done by workers from Canada. There are also no guarantees that the oil produced will even stay on this continent. Once at the Gulf, this oil can be exported to any place in the world if the oil company’s bottom line calls for it.
Opponents, including environmentalists, a majority of Nebraskans, and those at the Washington protests Sunday, see this project as a potential environmental disaster. The process to obtain oil from tar sands is considered more damaging than other methods of obtaining crude oil, producing 15% more greenhouse gases, according to some estimates.
Oil leaks, fires, and explosions are also possible hazards with any underground oil pipeline, and this one will be no different. Since the Keystone XL will also go straight through the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, there is the potential for economically devastating pollution in one of the United State’s largest supplies of underground water. This water fuels farms in the Midwest and provides drinking water to 2 million Americans in the area.
These Keystone XL protests come during an unusal weekend of many earthquakes along the Wizetta Fault in central Oklahoma, including the state’s largest recorded earthquake Saturday night. If approved, Keystone XL will run through this area of reactivated seismic activity, posing added risks of oil leakage if extra precautions aren’t taken.
Although the pipeline is currently under review by the State Department, President Obama stated in a television interview that the decision is ultimately his. Some within the administration have hinted that a final decision will be delayed until after the 2012 election. With both union workers and environmentalists that must be appeased to win a second term, the President is bound to upset one group or the other with any decision he makes.
