I always thought of it as a problem that it cuts right through Native American's land and leaks and whatnot causing environmental messes.
The pipeline had been projected to carry oil nearly 1,200 miles (1,900km) from the Canadian province of Alberta down to Nebraska, to join an existing pipeline.
Environmentalists and Native American groups have fought the project for more than a decade.
Development of the pipeline was blocked by the Obama administration in 2015, but President Trump overturned that order and allowed it go ahead.
What is Keystone XL?
A planned 1,179-mile (1,897km) pipeline running from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would join an existing pipe. It could carry 830,000 barrels of oil each day.
It would mirror an existing pipe, also called Keystone, but would take a more direct route, boosting the flow of oil from Canada.
A section running south from Cushing in Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico opened in January 2014. At the coast there are additional refineries and ports from which the oil can be exported.
The pipeline was set to be privately financed, with the cost of construction shared between TransCanada, an energy company based in Calgary, Alberta, and other oil shippers. US-produced oil would also be transported by Keystone XL, albeit in smaller quantities than Canadian.
Why did the US and Canada want XL?
Canada already sends 550,000 barrels of oil per day to the US via the existing Keystone pipeline. The oil fields in Alberta are landlocked and as they are further developed require means of access to international markets. Many of North America's oil refineries are based in the Gulf Coast, and industry groups on both sides of the border want to benefit.
An increased supply of oil from Canada would mean a decreased dependency on Middle Eastern supplies.
According to market principles, increased availability of oil means lower prices for consumers.
Mr Trump said the project would create 28,000 construction jobs.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had also supported the pipeline and said "we are disappointed but acknowledge the president's decision" to cancel the permit to build it.
I agree that the indigenous peoples should have a huge say in the proposed routes and if they don’t want it on their lands that should be respected. I’m on the fence about the safety as long as the alternate method is by rail. Not sure if one is safer than the other. That’s where the optics come in. The oil is still flowing (150 million barrels per day) but if not in a pipe it’s above ground
. I have a rail line near here that has level crossings and the wait can be up to 10 minutes while 100’s of tankers roll by .
The cancellation of the pipeline could be seen as more than just optics if you consider Biden is making an attempt to move the country away from fossil fuel dependency. If he is moderately successful and there is a significant move towards renewable energy, the pipeline could become obsolete.I agree that the indigenous peoples should have a huge say in the proposed routes and if they don’t want it on their lands that should be respected. I’m on the fence about the safety as long as the alternate method is by rail. Not sure if one is safer than the other. That’s where the optics come in. The oil is still flowing (150 million barrels per day) but if not in a pipe it’s above ground
A thousand jobs? Well, "do something different", as Iskanka says. Maybe hawk canned beans.
I live close to the Apalachicola National Forrest. Back in the 80's or 90's there was a big uproar here about an owl or woodpecker stopping logging. My reply to anyone who bitched about it, "what did all the buffalo skinners do when there were no more buffalo? They did something else."
Here in Oregon, we have had some spills and at least one explosion when rail cars carrying fuel went off the rails. But nothing like this:
insideclimatenews.org
Even the Saudis are trying to shift investments into greener assets. The largest pork grower and processor is chinese. In dayton ohio one of the largest auto glass companies is chinese. Russia runs one of the largest aluminum foundries here in the states. If you have the expertise and the capital there are plenty of manufacturers willing to sell. They are not patriotic. Well except to benjamin franklins...
I have no complaint with how Canada's economy is dependent on it's oil business. I just don't agree that US rivers, sensitive environmental areas and violating native American tribal sovereignty should have a lower status than that oil. Canada has a problem with getting its oil to market. We don't want that pipeline, so look for a different solution.Do we need the oil so much? Look around you, everything has been transported in some way. Buildings that have been built, the roads are made of it, all built using oil to drive the machinery. Again, we need to ween ourselves from it but in the next 25 years it will still be a major source of power. All manufacturing leaves a dirty trail unless we go back to only using wood products and streams for power. The US can go back to importing its oil from the Saudis, you did in the past. And that is why the oilsands in Alberta were developed, because we wanted energy independence from the Middle East. Before fracking Canada was the US's way out from the Arabs holding an oil well to America's head.
Right now renewables are 11.5%. Got a long way to go. But you could help by not driving your car, skip all the unnecessary trips. I take my bine as much as I can. I have a car I bought in 2016, it has 22,000 km on the odometer. So 13,700 miles on it in four years. Heck, the car can last me the rest of my life. I am walking the walk, I made the conscious decision years ago that I will not be that big a part of the problem. I do heat the house with natural gas, we have mainly hydroelectric power in my province. And we are willing to sell it to you, but natural gas is cheap due to fracking so not much call for our power.
I doubt there are many people that would go to my lengths of taking a small slice out of this planet. Coming from the resource extraction and manufacturing industry I have an idea what the real costs are to our 'stuff'. Our economy would be smaller if we lived with less, that would upset the apple cart though. Our money system is built on growth. I myself want to leave a small footprint on the Earth. Not that many that think about it.
Burning wood for fuel is one of the dirtiest forms of energy. Of the carbon based fuels, natural gas is the cleanest.
