Keystone XL

When an issue becomes as big in the media as the Keystone XL pipeline has become, it is hard to distinguish biased facts from the truth. After looking into the recent developments surrounding the pipeline, it has become clear that neither side is giving us the complete truth.

Dr. David Ruzic teaches about the Keystone XL pipeline in his “Introduction to Energy Sources” class here on campus.

“People without knowledge about it can turn it into a political issue because they don’t realize we have an enormous amount of pipelines already,” Ruzic said. “Clearly it is wrapped up in politics.” He says he believes that this shouldn’t be an issue and he includes it in his class because “it is in the news and because I think there is misinformation.”

The Keystone XL pipeline is a 1,661-mile, 36-inch crude oil pipeline that would be the latest installment to the Keystone pipeline system. The four-stage project, of which the Keystone XL comprises the third and fourth stages, is already half- complete and in operation.

Environmentalists particularly oppose any pipeline that further develops the Canadian tar sands, which are mined for their oil, and are notorious for emitting more greenhouse gases than other sources of crude oil .

Stage one carries oil from the tar sands in Alberta to refineries and tank farms in Nebraska and Illinois, and has been in service since June 2010. Stage two goes from Nebraska to the major oil distribution hub in, to Cushing, OK, and has been in service since February 2011.

Stages three and four are currently under regulatory review. Stage three would take oil from Cushing, OK, down to refineries in Texas, relieving a supply excess in the Midwest that has held down gas prices. Stage four would create another line from Alberta to Nebraska, doubling import capacity of tar sands oil.

What is left out of the coverage is the fact that the Keystone pipeline system already has 2,151-miles of active pipeline, that carry over 500 thousand barrels of oil every day, from the tar sands into the Midwest, part of a national network of 175,000 miles of onshore and offshore Hazardous Liquid pipelines.

President Obama rejected TransCanada’s proposal for the Keystone XL pipeline on Jan. 18. Republicans in Congress had set a Feb. 21 deadline for Obama’s decision by attaching the pipeline to the two-month payroll tax cut extension. President Obama rejected it on the basis that there was not enough time for appropriate environmental reviews of the pipeline project.

On Feb. 27, TransCanada announced that they would pursue stage three of the pipeline separate from stage four. This would allow the process for that segment of pipeline to move faster since it wouldn’t need State Department approval for crossing a border.

“The President welcomes today’s news that TransCanada plans to build a pipeline to bring crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico,” said a statement from White House press secretary Jay Carney.

TransCanada also announced it would pursue phase four in the near future, working with the State of Nebraska to avert building in environmentally sensitive regions.

Environmental activist Bill McKibben, who led some of the pipeline protests that were held outside the White House last year, opposed this latest proposal as well. In his article “Beyond Keystone” on Huffington Post’s website, McKibben acknowledges that although it is important for environmentalists to take action against individual projects, the best for the future would be to change the state of the current energy resource status quo.

“We’ve got—as soon as possible—to stop fighting bad things one by one,” McKibben wrote. “We don’t have enough fingers to plug every hole in the dike; we need to change the basic underlying economics, by charging the fossil fuel industry for the damage carbon does in the atmosphere instead of just letting them continue to use the atmosphere as an open sewer for free.”

Andrew Nowak