So the energy company TransCanada would do well to be careful with their next project: the Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion pump which will cross the Yellowstone River as it brings crude oil to the U.S. from tar sands developments in Alberta. As TransCanada waits on a permit from the Obama administration this November, this pipeline project is—not surprisingly—facing some opposition from Yellowstone county residents and environmentalists in the wake of the July 1 oil leak.
“Because the size of the pipeline is so much bigger [than the ExxonMobil pipeline], there's a lot more potential for something to happen and for the spill to be much, much larger," says Dena Hoff, former chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council and a farmowner in Yellowstone County. The line is sizable: 1,711 miles long, 36 inches wide, and expected to transport up to 700,000 barrels of oil a day. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil's line is only 70 miles long and 12 inches wide, and it transports just 40,000 barrels a day.
Clearly the biggest concern for the residents is safety, given that many of them earn their livelihood from land that - as the recent spill has showed - can become unworkable if soiled by oil. Hoff wants TransCanada to “not skimp" on essential details such as the thickness of the pipeline and how deep into the ground it is buried, and to be mindful of the environment around the line.
“I'm wanting them to do it right, and not to do it the cheapest possible way," Hoff said.
Environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, have argued that conventional pipeline design regulations cannot withstand corrosive tar sands oil carried at high pressure. And Congress has gotten involved as well, with 34 members writing a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson in May urging the State Department not to grant a permit for the project until those concerns are addressed. Read the full report here.
Source: by Tara Thean, Ecocentric, Time.
