Keystone Pipeline (merged)

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extracts from

https://www.vox.com/22306919/biden-keys ... ate-change

Canada-based TC Energy first proposed the 1,200 mile Keystone XL pipeline in 2008 as a way to quickly pump 830,000 barrels of tar sands (a.k.a. oil sands) per day from Canada’s Alberta province across the border to Steele City, Nebraska. Once there, the Keystone XL extension would converge with existing pipeline infrastructure, traveling south to Texas for processing in Gulf Coast oil refineries.

The majority of the oil is mined by injecting hot water into wells 75 meters below ground to liquefy the oil for pumping, which is why tar sands oil has a reputation for being among the dirtiest types of oil.

Because oil spills from tar sands pipelines are commonplace, scientists and activists argued that a “robust analysis” to examine the risks to water resources and the communities that depend on them should be conducted before the Keystone XL project goes forward.

In July 2020, the Supreme Court killed any hope of completing Keystone XL under the Trump administration, siding with environmental groups from Montana who argued that the Army Corps of Engineers’ permitting process for the Keystone XL pipeline should undergo a full environmental review because it would cross bodies of water.

“ConocoPhillips, Shell, Statoil from Norway, [and] the Koch Brothers have sold their stakes in the tar sands and moved on, which means there’s less need for these pipelines than previously expected,” Biggs added.

All this won’t be enough if the US and Canada continue to allow fossil fuel expansion projects. There are several tar sands pipelines in the area, including the controversial Line 3, which would bring a million barrels per day from Alberta’s tar sands to Superior, Wisconsin. Activists want Line 3 to be subject to the same rules as Keystone XL, to bring Canada in line with its climate targets and to allow the US to retain leadership on climate change.

“There’s no question that Canada would and could be more ambitious with its climate goals if it could disjoint itself from its tar sands industry,” the NRDC’s Swift told me.

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Part of the gunk sinks into ground and water table. Another part becomes sticky paste:
https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/env ... 730995007/
This month in Kansas

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‘So many unanswered questions’
Jane Kleeb of the Bold Alliance, which opposes fossil fuel pipelines, said she wants the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to conduct an examination of the integrity of the entire pipeline.

Kleeb said that Bold had raised questions about the use of substandard steel in the Keystone system back in 2010 and the total number of leaks — 25 according to Bold — on a relatively new pipeline is a concern.

“There’s so many unanswered questions that we have,” she said.

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/por ... sas-spill/