TransCanada, the company that wants to lay a pipeline from its oil sands across the United States to oil refineries in Texas, agreed this week to reroute the line across Nebraska to avoid the Sandhills area and the Ogallala aquifer to meet strong objections from environmentalists who fear that a pipeline leak would contaminate the underground sea of fresh water.
Environmentalists responded by saying they would continue to fight the $7 billion project anyway, arguing that any pipeline carrying crude oil is a threat.
But by showing a willingness to listen and compromise, TransCanada greatly strengthened its case. It will probably get the go-ahead as a result.
For all the fear-raising rhetoric, the Keystone XL line is an exciting project. It will create thousands of high-paying jobs as the line moves across the entire width of the United States. It will reduce the dependence of the U.S. on oil imported from unfriendly countries while stimulating the Texas economy for decades ahead.
Perhaps the most important benefit of a prospective years-long business deal between the U.S. and its neighbor is that it will strengthen the ties between our nations. It is as close to shopping at home as our nation can get in the energy market.
While burning the oil will create more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the choice is not between having the Canadian oil refined and burned or leaving it in the ground. If it wasn’t put to use in the United States it would have been sold abroad, probably to China, and burned there. The effect on the world’s atmosphere would be the same. No, not exactly, because the oil burned to move the crude from Canada across the Pacific would have increased the pollution by an additional large number of tons. Moving it through a pipeline a much shorter distance will require far less energy and be much safer.
ARE THERE RISKS? Sure. Pipelines can rupture, just as deep sea drilling operations can fail, and oil tankers can run into reefs and break apart. But a steel pipeline running through populated areas where a leak would be soon detected may be the safest way there is to move the stuff from where it is produced to where it will be processed.
TransCanada will, to be sure, use the most sophisticated sensing technology available to detect any loss of pressure that would indicate and locate a leak: oil is very expensive.
Tomorrow would be a good time to start the Keystone XL.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
