Fox News cites a description of the protest against the Keystone XL pipeline last Sunday as being like “a big O-shaped hug.” But as a participant I can assure that it was much more than that. On Nov. 6, over 10,000 people from all over the world held hands encircling the White House in a display of solidarity. The first movement to ever accomplish this feat, our message was to stop President Barack Obama from issuing a permit to TransCanada to build this pipeline, scheduled for Dec.31.
The company hopes to create a massive pipeline that would connect the Tar Sands of Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. It would carry up to 900,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day, scarring 1,600 miles of America’s heartland. The pipeline would carve its way through six states, indigenous territories, the Ogallala aquifer and other fragile ecologies, leaving devastation in its path. Entrix, a company that TransCanada funds, was the one hired to predict all possible environmental damage: an obvious conflict of interest.
Supporters of the pipeline argue that it will create jobs and decrease our reliance on unethical Middle Eastern oil. TransCanada claimed that 20,000 construction jobs and 250,000 indirect jobs would be created: a gross exaggeration. They revoked this claim after the Cornell Global Labor Institute began an investigation on what jobs were included in these numbers. They found that many of those counted were unrelated, including dancers, choreographers and speech therapists.
Researchers from the institute believe that job opportunity will not increase whatsoever; the number of jobs created will be the same as those taken away. Speakers at the protest gave alternative solutions to generate jobs. Green energy was at the forefront of discussion with biogas, wind, and solar industries viewed as the employers of the future. But due to current government subsidies, the oil companies have the advantage over public energy pricing. The low cost of oil, however, can only be viewed as cheap when the cost of environmental and societal damage is ignored.
Contrary to popular belief, the pipeline will not lower oil prices. The bitumen will be processed in existing refineries in the Gulf Coast, and exported for trade. The XL pipeline will divert oil from the existing Keystone pipeline, decreasing oil flow to the U.S. Midwest and therefore increasing oil prices. This will not be the only cost increase from the project.
Healthcare costs will skyrocket in this region. Bitumen is a more corrosive, acidic, viscous, and unstable form of crude oil that will need to be under immense heat and pressure to flow through the pipe. Although TransCanada insists that the Keystone pipeline is one of the safest, evidence points to the contrary. In one year the existing line has had 12 leaks, including a 21,000-gallon spill in North Dakota. It was the youngest pipeline to ever be issued a corrective action order, yet the company plans to use the same materials to build the new XL.
Protesters warned Obama of these events with chants like “if you build it, it will leak.” Cleaning up a bitumen leak is nearly impossible. A leak in the new pipeline could put the nation’s largest aquifer, the Ogallala, in jeopardy. Contamination would ruin the freshwater supply for seven states within the Great Plains. Toxic fumes, containing known carcinogens, would saturate the air and groundwater. No plant, animal, or human could survive prolonged exposure to toxic bitumen, not to mention the inevitable effects of resulting climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions, or GHG’s, would increase exponentially with the development of the Tar Sands. The Canadian oil produces 82 percent more GHG’s than conventional crude, and Tar Sands emissions have increased 300 percent since 1990. These numbers can only go up if the XL pipeline is created, tipping the scale in favor of global warming. NASA’s scientist, Jim Hansen, has labeled the pipeline as “game over for the climate” and was arrested in front of the White House while protesting development of the Tar Sands.
Jessica Bready is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].
