Blog 12: The Environment: Keystone Pipeline

Using the internet, find and read two articles about the proposed Keystone Pipeline. Describe the project. What is it? Where is it located (all states)? Why do people support it? Why are people against it? How could it help the U.S.? How could it possibly hurt the U.S.? What is President Obama's opinion? In the end, do you think it is a good idea, or a bad idea? Explain.


The Keystone Pipeline is a pipeline system that will link a supply of Canadian crude oil with the more major United States refining markets. The first part of the project involves construction of the bullet line that will be linking the crude oil form Canada through the midwestern states of the U.S. The Second part of the project is actually putting the pipeline in place. The pipeline will begin at Hardisty, Alberta then stretch through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and finally Texas.
Environmental groups do not support the project, while labor groups are for the proposed idea. Environmentalists say that the pipeline will destroy the ecologically sensitive areas. The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada are also opposed to the project arguing that the pipeline only supports the US market , will provide a very small number of Canadians with permanent jobs and reduce canadian energy security. Nebraska lawmakers disapprove of the pipeline being routed through areas like the Sand Hills region and Ogallala aquifer (a major source of drinking water and irrigation). However, the Keystone Pipeline project that would have the ability to carry 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to Texas is a plan that is supported by Obama administration supports the proposed plan as long as the pipeline is rerouted as they see fit.
I feel that the project sounds very good in theory, but I opine that routing a pipeline from Canada all the way to Texas is not something that can have a positive outcome. Pragmatically speaking, there is too many variables (the pipeline being underground, the length of the pipeline, indistinguishable tectonic plate shifts, etc.) that affect how successful the project will actually be.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline
http://www.transcanada.com/keystone.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/09/obama-administration-may-put-off-keystone-pipeline-by-ordering-new/