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The Keystone XL pipeline project has been billed as a way to both cut America’s reliance on oil from overseas and create sorely needed jobs. But opponents say the pipeline will destroy valuable farmland and pose a major risk to the environment.
At a recent event with young people in Denver to promote his jobs bill, a speech by President Obama was interrupted by a protester who urged the president to reject the pipeline project.
“We're looking at it right now, all right?" President Obama replied. "No decision's been made, and I know your deep concern about it, so we will address it."
Where should America get its energy?
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 The proposed pipeline would bisect the U.S., running from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. |
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The Keystone pipeline is at the heart of a larger debate over how America will satisfy its considerable appetite for energy.
Currently, the U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil every day. About 60% of our oil comes from other countries - primarily from Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. America’s relationship with Canada is particularly stable, making the U.S. eager to import as much oil as possible from its neighbor to the north.
The 1700-mile long Keystone pipeline would run from the oil-rich “tar sands” region of Alberta, Canada to Houston, Texas, where it would be refined into gasoline and material for other petroleum-based products. It is slated to run through farmland in Nebraska, where many ranchers and farmers oppose its construction. Many environmentalists are also concerned about the impacts.
“Tar sands oil is 16 times more corrosive than traditional oil, which means that there will be more pipeline ruptures, more leaks,” activist Jane Kleeb told the NewsHour. “And it also produces three times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.”
However, State Department and Keystone representatives told the NewsHour that many farmers have already allowed the pipeline to run through their land in a process called easement. In addition, they maintain that oil is a natural product that poses minimal risk to the environment when handled correctly.
Memories of the Gulf oil spill linger
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Many people who oppose the pipeline construction remember the Gulf oil spill of 2010 and say a similar accident could happen if the pipeline is built. |
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The memory of the Gulf oil spill in the spring of 2010 is still fresh for environmentalists. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, managed by the British company BP, exploded. It took months to stop the flow and the Gulf economy suffered greatly as a result.
Bill McKibbin, an environmental activist and writer, says the pipeline’s path over a major underground water source in Nebraska is of particular concern.
“For some reason, we're running this particular pipeline over the Ogallala aquifer, the biggest source of freshwater in the middle of our continent,” he said on the NewsHour. “I mean, the desire to prevent a terrestrial BP spill is an important part of this.”
Supporters of the pipeline argue environmentalists aren’t seeing the whole picture of America’s energy needs.
“We need cheap, abundant, reliable energy,” Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute told the NewsHour. “The oil sands in Canada have over 100 billion barrels of oil in them. And we need it now...particularly because we want North American energy production.”
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
