It would be somewhat hypocritical to deny construction of the Keystone XL when a vast network of pipelines already exists. THE U.S. SENATE denied to fast track the pipeline by one vote on Tuesday, brought forth by colleague Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.
More than 2.6 million miles of oil pipelines crisscross the country’s midsection, several of them recently approved.
The Flanagan South pipeline traverses Allen County. Constructed over the past two years, the Enbridge project will carry an estimated 600,000 barrels of oil each day.
Proponents of the Keystone XL tout it as a jobs bill, even though as we know from experience here, they are of a temporary nature.
Constructed over the past two years, the local pipeline escaped controversy. The 589-mile line easily gained approval through the Army Corps of Engineers. It begins in Pontiac, Ill., and ends in Cushing, Okla.
Opponents say the piecemeal way in which the pipeline was approved allowed it to proceed relatively unimpeded. Instead of looking at the project’s environmental impact as a whole, the Corps treated each of the project’s 1,950 crossings through wetlands and waterways on an individual basis.
Unfortunate, yes.
Illegal, obviously not.
Under review now is a 1,179-mile addition to the Keystone pipeline, a shortcut that would traverse diagonally from Hardisty, Canada, to Steele City, Neb., to connect existing pipelines to the Gulf Coast. Because of its international nature, it requires approval by the U.S. State Department.
About 40 percent of the pipeline has been completed, including a section that cuts through the heart of Kansas in its journey from Nebraska to Oklahoma.
Landrieu is in a fight to retain her seat against Republican Bill Cassidy, who sponsored similar legislation in the House, which passed easily.
The two face a runoff election on Dec. 6.
The brash campaign tactics should cause not a little resentment among U.S. voters.
Pipeline proponents hoped congressional approval would force President Obama’s hand to OK the pipeline posthaste. Obama has said his decision will come after the Nebraska Supreme Court rules whether the state’s governor has the authority to allow the pipeline to pass through the state, as he so wants.
Opponents claim the tar sands, a gooey mix of sand, clay, and oil, require more invasive — and dirty — means of extraction. A leak also would cause more damage to the environment than that of standard oil. Four years later, a segment of the once-pristine Kalamazoo River in Michigan is still undergoing cleanup efforts after 843,000 gallons of sticky oil leaked from an Enbridge pipeline.
That said, the pipeline is a safer means of transportation compared to railroads and over-the-road transport.
It also makes sense to buy from our neighbor to the north, for obvious reasons, topmost furthering trade relations.
Casting the Keystone as a major environmental hazard does short shrift to the true culprits. Top of the list are coal-fired power plants, which every year emit 2.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases; more than half of the total carbon pollution released into our atmosphere.
As a country we are a long way from weaning ourselves from fossil fuels.
In the interim, the pipeline seems a reasonable means of transport.
— Susan Lynn
Bigger fish to fry than Keystone XL when it comes to polluters
