Tech | June 16, 2011 | 16 comments

Congressional panel approves bill to fast track Keystone XL pipeline

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/15/congress-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline

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JanforGore
Congress took a first step on Wednesday to fast-track a controversial Alberta tar sands pipeline, ordering Barack Obama to reach a decision on the project by 1 November.

The bill, voted through a panel of the house energy and power subcommittee, would compel Obama to over-rule demands for a further review of the project from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and disregard local opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline from landowners along its 1,700-mile route.

Republicans in Congress are planning further action to push ahead on the pipeline next week, environmentalists said.

Senator James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who is the main force among climate change sceptic in Congress, is working on a bill that would repeal a 2007 provision restricing the federal government's use of high-carbon fuels, such as those from the Alberta tar sands.

Between them, the actions are aimed at cutting off growing opposition to the pipeline – before it sinks the project.

The pipeline is intended to pass through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska before reaching the refineries on the Gulf coast of Texas.

But a series of pipeline accidents - including the shutdown of the Keystone itself for several days this month because of a leak - have amplified fears about transporting highly corrosive thick crude across the American heartland to the refineries of Texas.

Democrats said the accidents were a powerful reason not to rush to approval. "I don't think it makes any sense to set some kind of arbitrary deadline," said Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat.

But Republicans said the pipeline was already three years in the planning, and that its construction would end America's reliance on Middle Eastern oil. "It makes perfect sense," said Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

More than 100,000 people wrote to the State Department this month to express their views on the project. Nebraska state legislaters and members of Congress have also written letters of concern.

Meanwhile the EPA issued a letter last week criticising the State Department for failing to fully take into account the risks of a pipeline accident, or of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the import of more fossil fuels.

Supporters of the project have been active as well, pushed in part by a new report suggesting the pipeline was running out of time.
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16 comments // Congressional panel approves bill to fast track Keystone XL pipeline

  • HiTechCowBoy
    • +1
      HiTechCowBoy  

    • If you think this pipeline is controversial, you otta look into the fact that the U.S. Oil industry is using hydraulic fracking to recover Kerogen from shale using huge amounts of water, putting additional stress on regional aquifers and runoff which are already, impacted due to drought.

      In March of 2009, the Boulder, Colorado-based Western Resource Advocates released a study that showed six oil companies have "cornered the market" on western slope water rights in northwest Colorado totaling 7.2 million acre-feet in diversions and 2 million acre-feet in water storage rights in the Colorado and White river basins. That is enough water to supply Denver for an entire year.

      Not only have these corporations bought the rights but the water probably cannot be cleaned and reused. The In Suti process was being experimented on as the method of getting the Kerogen out of the shale which is estimated to take 3 barrels of water for every barrel of oil, but since the production cost is estimated to be between $75 and $95 a barrel I presume the oil companies will bring in Hydraulic fracking instead.

      Oil giants have “cornered the market” on Western Slope water rights, study says
      By David O. Williams | 03.20.09
      http://coloradoindependent.com/24667/oil-giants-have-cornered-the-market-on-west...

      I am doing a research study on shale oil and what I am finding out is that along with the toxic chemicals and sand being injected, Oil companies have a right to horizontally drill under land they don't own even if the property owners resist. Also, due to the Halliburton loophole, these companies don't have to disclose the chemicals they inject into the shale under the owners property.

      lawsuits about toxic water in aquifers and toxic chemicals are starting to swell.

    • 1 year ago
  • HiTechCowBoy
    • +1
      HiTechCowBoy  
    • Image

    • Speaking about Oil Pipelines. Did the corrupt Afghan government ever give a U.S. firm the right of way to build the oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea through the country? After all, that is what we went in there about.

      The Taliban would not grant access even though on May 17, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the final attempt to get the Taliban to sign the paperwork, 117 days before the 9/11 attack on the WTC.

      CNN.com
      U.S. gives $43 million to Afghanistan
      by Elise Labott CNN Washington Bureau
      http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/05/17/us.afghanistan.aid/

      I know that a report from PakNews.com on December 31, 2002 says that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan signed a framework agreement for a US $3.2 billion gas pipeline project through the three countries. Was it ever built?

      I know that this weekend, Secretary of Defense Gates and members from the U.S. Defense Department are publicly lobbying against reducing U.S. troop levels at a faster rate now that bin Laden is dead. Gates also announced that the U.S. has been in talks with the Taliban for several weeks. Are these talks ongoing so he can get his jobs back on the Board of Directors of Parker Drilling Company and NACCO, when he retires at the end of this month?

      Now that the U.S. Military and the USGS announced in in June 2010 (one year ago), that Afghanistan has $1 trillion worth of Minerals, and in February of 2011 that recent oil and gas discoveries in Afghanistan totaling 1.8 billion barrels of crude oil, worth hundred of billions of bucks, had also been discovered and confirmed, it is a perfect time for Gates to return to the private sector energy industry positions.

      Minerals in Afghanistan worth $1 trillion US Says
      June 14, 2010|By the CNN Wire Staff
      http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-14/world/afghanistan.minerals_1_mineral-afghanis...:WORLD

      Research and Markets: New Oil Discovery in Afghanistan: Looking at Increased Investor Interest and the Geo-Political Implications
      February 10, 2011
      http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110210005040/en/Research-Markets-Oil-Dis...

    • 1 year ago
  • ecoalex
    • 0
      ecoalex  

    • Despite accidents the pipeline construction continues.By Nov1 it will be far on it's way to completion,WTF? Even tho the ogallala aquifer is under most of the path of it,the pipeline will be allowed,just as the water in the marcellus shale gas region will be sacrificed for 30 years of gas.The pollution will last over centuries.

    • 1 year ago
  • EcoCapitalist
    • -1
      EcoCapitalist  

    • ENERGY EFFICIENCY, Solar Panels, Wind, Biofuels, Geothermal, Hydropower, Wave-generation are the answer. Technologies that can be implemented domestically, reduce pollution (that cause Asthma, and Cancer....smoking is bad for you, burning coal is too), and reduce GHG emissions simultaneously. Further more, where exactly are all the jobs associated with this pipeline? Renewable energy technologies are ten times more labor intensive.

      I really don't understand the Republican party any more. They claim that Ronald Reagan is their hero, but Mr. Reagan created the EPA, fought for the Clean Air and Water Acts (and was anything but an isolationist, fighting the Soviet Commies...you'd think republicans would support the war in Libya). The Republican party is now the Christian, conservative right...I miss being able to say that I'm an independent; the Republican party is leaving me no choice but to support a president who seems to not understand that economic stimulus should be used on infrastructure not tax breaks.

    • 1 year ago
  • Steamed_N_More
    • +1
      Steamed_N_More  

    • My state is under the gun to pass this through. I was incensed by the state endowing the rights of eminent domain authority being granted to corporations. I was also enraged by the company going ahead with the project as if it was a done deal. The promotion clips by the XL stated that it would create jobs! Yeah! Boom and bust like communities in Alaska, that left home buyers underwater then. Touting less dependence on foreign oil! Canada is a part of the USA? We can't maintain our infrastructure well today, and sure haven't guarded natural resources as well as we should, either. So fast tracking this deal is a red flag, and I want to send the company home. Why? Because, "THIS IS MY LAND!"

    • 1 year ago
  • ptr23
    • +1
      ptr23  

    • When it comes to congress to decide between people, planet or profit you know they are going to pick profit. Thanks JanforGore for consistently posting about this.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • ptr23:

      Thanks, I just wish more people understood what this is really all about for the present and future. I guess you have to post about a sex scandal or some other politically partisan bull to get people to respond here.

    • 1 year ago
  • squarethecircle
    • +1
      squarethecircle  

    • They don't care about people or planet that is certain. This can not happen. If we have to go there and disassemble the pipeline as it is built then that is what we will do. Noone is listening to us. Our resources and planet are priceless.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • squarethecircle:

      They're not listening to us because many of us are too concerned about talking about peoples' weiners. We can't complain that we aren't being listened to if most of us aren't talking about it and demanding the change. You think Keith Olbermann will divulge this? Would that then get peoples' attention? It isn't important unless he or some other pundit says it? I wonder how many Democrats who claim to care about the enivironment would now allow Obama to condone this pipeline because it is an election year. Perhaps that
      is why there is so much silence on these matters.

    • 1 year ago
  • squarethecircle
    • 0
      squarethecircle  
    • JanforGore:

      The silence is so people won't get up because once they do they won't sit back down. Keep the attention off these issues and don't let us see any of the real cicumstances affecting people and planet. I love this site but how many actually see what is posted here? A few thousand....certainly enough if we all go spread what is read...if not a few thousand vs millions of unaware minds seems daunting. Don't stop bringing these stories forward and putting them in everyones face, but I am feeling a strong need to do much more right now.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • What good is having a Democratic president if Republicans still run this Congress? I see this going through and Americans on the whole not caring because for one, this is something else the MSM isn't covering and two, they are being lied to about it. Where the hell is the environmental "movement" in this country? Time to pour some tarsands down the halls of Congress!

    • 1 year ago
  • Kate_Smith
  • JanforGore
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