Tag Archives: pipeline

Republicans Are Very Mad About Obama’s Keystone XL Decision

by GusDransfield3 Posted on November 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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Friday morning, after years of heated battles between environmentalists and Republicans, President Barack Obama announced that he is rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline.

In a speech, the president criticized both supporters and detractors of the pipeline from placing too much emphasis on a project that, according to the State Department’s analysis, would neither create many jobs nor ruin the climate if approved. Still, reactions to his decision from Republicans in Congress and the 2016 presidential primary were swift and terrible.

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic candidates were quick to praise the decision:

Notably absent, so far, is a reaction from Hillary Clinton. She only recently took a public position against the pipeline, after years of dodging the question.

UPDATE 3:30pm ET: A couple latecomers:

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Republicans Are Very Mad About Obama’s Keystone XL Decision

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The Pipeline That Texans Are Freaking Out Over (Nope, Not Keystone)

by KianBittner Posted on May 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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Earlier this year a couple of billionaires landed a nearly $770 million contract to run a 143-mile-long natural gas pipeline through Texas’s pristine Big Bend region. As of May 11, rail shipments of pipe had begun to arrive in Big Bend’s Fort Stockton area. This recent progress on the pipeline project is fueling pushback from locals who’ve been concerned about this project since it was announced in November 2014. Big Bend is one of Texas’ last unspoiled wilderness areas and one of few remaining holdouts in a state riddled with energy transmission pipelines and large-scale oil and gas activity. Fearing potential land grabs, increased traffic, and environmental desecration, locals have been mobilizing through town hall meetings and launching activist campaigns to oppose it.

What is the Trans-Pecos pipeline? At 42 inches wide and under 1,400 pounds of pressure per square inch, the Trans-Pecos pipeline will carry as much as 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day after its projected completion in early 2017. The gas will originate in Texas’s Permian Basin, travel the length of the pipeline to the border at Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico, where it will be piped further into Mexico for industrial use and power generation. The project was commissioned by the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) as part of the country’s push to modernize its energy systems.

A consortium that includes two energy companies, Mexico-based Carso and Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, won the contract to construct the pipeline in January. Carso is owned by Carlos Slim, the world’s second-richest man, who made his original fortune by charging Mexico’s phone customers monopoly prices, while levying some of the highest fees disproportionately on the poor.

ETP is led by Republican megadonor and multibillionaire Kelcy Warren of Dallas. In February, the company brought on former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to the company’s Board of Directors to offer “strategic guidance to ETP’s executive management team,” according to a spokeswoman for the company. Even before that, Perry and Warren had ties: Perry has received at least $250,000 in campaign donations from Warren since 2011. ETP is also currently embroiled in a separate controversial pipeline project to transport crude from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois. The company is also facing claims that a representative from a subsidiary offered the services of a teenage prostitute to a landowner in exchange for letting ETP run the crude oil pipeline through his property. “We take these types of matters very seriously and are investigating further,” an ETP spokeswoman told KCRG of the claims.

What’s controversial about this project? ETP is running construction of the pipeline on the US side of the border, and Big Bend locals are frustrated with what they’re calling a lack of transparency from the company. Among their key complaints is confusion from ETP on which agency will provide regulatory oversight for the pipeline. This question hinges on whether the pipeline is designated as “interstate” or “intrastate.” The former means that the pipeline is crossing an international border, which would require a Presidential Permit, triggering more rigorous federal guidelines for the pipeline’s construction and operation. The latter, “intrastate,” would require a T-4 form from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the standard application for a permit to own and operate a pipeline through Texas.

Proposed route for the Trans-Pecos pipeline. ETP

Given current plans to have the gas transported into Mexico, some local activists argue that the pipeline should be designated interstate. But in mid-April, ETP hosted several “open house” meetings for Big Bend locals where they claimed the pipeline would be assigned the intrastate designation, and that the company had already applied for and received a T-4 permit from the Railroad Commission.

But a spokesperson for the Railroad Commission told Big Bend Now that’s not the case:

“The Railroad Commission’s pipeline safety jurisdiction applies only to intrastate pipelines that begin and end in Texas. The Energy Transfer flyer you provided me on this pipeline states the pipeline will terminate with an interconnect with a pipeline near Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico, which means this is an interstate and international pipeline under the pipeline safety authority of the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and the U.S. Department of State. In short, their flyer is incorrect, and we are contacting the company to make a correction.”

The Railroad Commission did not respond to phone calls or emails from Mother Jones. In a recent email, Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners, says that only the small section of pipeline that crosses the international border requires a presidential permit, while the remaining 140-plus miles of pipeline across West Texas would fall exclusively under the Texas Railroad Commission’s authority.

How might this project affect the natural habitats? The Big Bend area is a geologically rich, wide-open expanse of mountains, desert, and ranch land; the nearby UNESCO biosphere reserve Big Bend National Park is home to 1,200 species of plants and scores of mammals, birds, reptiles, and other animal species. While the exact route isn’t yet known, the proposed direction shows the pipeline running through private ranch land, close to Big Bend Ranch State Park, and even closer to the Chinati State Natural Area, an undeveloped swath of land known for its diverse flora and fauna. In Texas, pipeline companies are legally allowed to use eminent domain to seize private land if an agreement isn’t reached with individual landowners. ETP’s Granado says that land condemnation is “always an option of last resort.”

But Big Bend is the kind of place where locals take private property seriously and have a distaste for outside interlopers. As local former justice of the peace and rancher Mary Luedeke told San Antonio Express-News, if “you go to talking about condemning something by eminent domain, you’ll get shot in this part of the country.” Anticipating a potential land grab, some locals have already sought legal counsel from San Angelo lawyer Joe Will Ross, who often handles eminent domain cases. (Citing his clients’ interests, Ross declined to comment for this story.)

More than anything, many locals object to what they see as a potential start to wider oil and gas activity in a region that has, up until now, managed to avoid it. “We don’t want the pipeline to impact the sanctity of this region,” says David Keller of Big Bend Conservation Alliance, which is organizing informational meetings on the pipeline for residents in affected counties. “If you go to Midlands just a couple hours north of here, it’s just an industrial wasteland, a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry. We see what that does to other communities,” he says, adding: “Big Bend is the last frontier of Texas. Wide-open spaces, beautiful open landscapes, antelope, all that, and we don’t want it to start getting industrialized.”

What’s next for the Trans-Pecos pipeline? Despite mounting opposition, ETP is laying the groundwork for construction, which they’ve announced will begin late this year or early 2016, with hopes of having natural gas flowing by 2017. The company has sent out land surveyors, one of whom was caught trespassing on a ranch; according to Granado, the rail shipments of pipe that began arriving in Big Bend this week will continue to do so through early July.

Correction: This article originally stated that the pipeline would run through public land areas.

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The Pipeline That Texans Are Freaking Out Over (Nope, Not Keystone)

Posted in Anchor, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Pipeline That Texans Are Freaking Out Over (Nope, Not Keystone)

Obama Just Vetoed the GOP’s Keystone Bill, and This Democratic Presidential Hopeful Is Pissed

by pawel Posted on February 25, 2015

Mother Jones

Jim Webb is sounding increasingly serious about running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Last week, National Journal‘s Bob Moser wrote a cover story wondering whether the former Virginia senator could “spark an anti-Hillary uprising,” in which Webb explained that his absence from the campaign trail this winter was, in part, the result of major knee surgery to fix problems leftover from his days in the Vietnam War.

Webb struck his first blow against his fellow Democrats on Wednesday. But rather than targeting Clinton, his likely presidential opposition, he struck out against the party’s incumbent, President Barack Obama. In a series of tweets, Webb lashed out at the president for vetoing a bill that would have approved construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Webb’s tweetstorm doesn’t tell the whole story. A letter from the EPA released earlier this month argued that, thanks to recent drops in oil prices, Keystone XL could prove disastrous for carbon emissions.

As I detailed in December, Jim Webb had an atrocious record on climate change and environmental issues while he served in the Senate. Standing up for Virginia’s roots as a coal state, Webb tried to thwart Obama’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses through EPA regulation, and he helped block Democratic attempts to pass a cap-and-trade law.

Clinton, for her part, has regularly sidestepped addressing whether she wants to see the pipeline constructed, though she has generally been supportive of other environmental efforts made by the Obama administration.

While Webb objected to Obama’s decision to veto this specific bill, it’s still unclear whether the two Democrats disagree on the underlying issue. Obama has strenuously rejected attempts by congressional Republicans to force immediate approval of the pipeline, but his administration has not yet said definitely if it intends to let the project go forward eventually.

Continued:

Obama Just Vetoed the GOP’s Keystone Bill, and This Democratic Presidential Hopeful Is Pissed

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, Radius, Safer, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Obama Just Vetoed the GOP’s Keystone Bill, and This Democratic Presidential Hopeful Is Pissed

BREAKING: President Obama Will Veto Congress’ Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

by VilmaHerrmann Posted on January 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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President Barack Obama is planning to veto a bill that would force approval of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, according to the Associated Press:

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the president’s position hasn’t changed since November, when pipeline supporters in Congress last attempted to push through its approval—an effort that fell just one vote shy of the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. Obama was adamant then that approval for the pipeline come not from Congress, but from the State Department, which normally has jurisdiction over international infrastructure projects like this one. A final decision from State has been delayed pending the outcome of a Nebraska State Supreme Court case, expected sometime early this year, that could alter the pipeline’s route.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McDonnell and other Republicans have vowed to make passage of a new Keystone XL bill a top priority for the new year, and they seem prepared to move forward with a vote later this week. The bill is likely to pass. But the challenge for Republicans is to garner enough support from Democratic senators to achieve the 67 votes required to override a presidential veto. Yesterday, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told reporters he had just 63 votes.

Even if Congress fails to override Obama’s veto, it still won’t be the end of what has become the flagship issue for US climate activists; the possibility remains that the State Department could still approve the project. But the Obama administration may be leaning against approval. In December, the president said the pipeline is “not even going to be a nominal benefit to US consumers.”

This post has been updated.

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BREAKING: President Obama Will Veto Congress’ Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

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BREAKING: The Senate Just Voted Not to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

by LaraMurray Posted on November 17, 2014

green4us

Republicans have vowed to try again next year when they control the Senate.  Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is rounding up support for a Senate vote tomorrow on the Keystone XL pipeline. James Berglie/ZUMA UPDATE (11/18/14, 6:17 pm ET): A controversial bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline failed in the US Senate Tuesday evening. It received 59 “aye” votes, just shy of the 60 needed to send the bill to President Obama’s desk. The fight isn’t over yet; Republicans have said they plan to prioritize approving the pipeline once they take control of the Senate next year. Below the headlines last week about President Obama’s major climate agreement with China, another environmental story was gaining steam: A vote in Congress to force approval of Keystone XL, a controversial pipeline that would carry crude oil from Canada down to refineries on the Gulf Coast. On Thursday, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of the pipeline, as it has done numerous times in the past. The Senate is expected to vote on an identical bill tomorrow. Previous Keystone legislation has always stalled in the Senate due to opposition from Democrats. But the vote tomorrow will likely have more Democratic support than ever before, making it the closest the pipeline has yet come to approval. Here’s what you need to know: What’s happening with Keystone this week? As of Sunday, according to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the bill is still one vote shy of the 60 it would need to break a Senate filibuster, pass Congress, and land on the president’s desk. If enacted, the legislation would green-light a construction permit for the pipeline, removing that authority from the State Department, which currently has the final say because the project crosses an international border. President Obama has said that his administration would only approve the project if it didn’t increase total US carbon emissions; a State Department report in January suggested that the pipeline was unlikely to effect America’s carbon footprint because the oil it would carry would get exported and burned one way or the other. But the final decision was postponed indefinitely in April and is awaiting the outcome of a court case in Nebraska that could alter the pipeline’s route. Congressional Republicans have accused Obama of willfully kicking the decision down the road for as long as possible; on Thursday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week’s vote was long overdue after years of the administration “dragging its feet.” Why is the vote happening now? When Republicans take control of the Senate next year, with a host of new climate skeptics in tow, they could pass a new round of Keystone legislation—perhaps even with enough support to override a presidential veto. So why rush? The answer revolves around the Senate race in Louisiana, where incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu is locked in a run-off campaign with Republican challenger Bill Cassidy, who currently serves in the House. The special election is scheduled for Dec. 6, and Landrieu appears to be trailing Cassidy. Landrieu represents a state with close ties to the oil industry, and she has long been one of the pipeline’s most vocal advocates. Last week she introduced the Keystone bill in what many on Capitol Hill have described as a last-ditch political maneuver to score points with her constituents before the runoff. Cassidy introduced the House version of the bill shortly thereafter. This morning, anti-pipeline activists set up shop in front of Landrieu’s residence in Washington: A pipeline has gone up on Sen Landrieu’s front lawn as ClimateChange activists protest expected up vote @350 #NoKXL pic.twitter.com/aixaZF0Vpd — john zangas (@johnzangas) November 17, 2014 If the bill passes, will President Obama sign it into law? Probably not. At a press conference in Burma last week, Obama said that his “position hasn’t changed” and that the approval process should go through the proper State Department channels. It’s hard to imagine that after all of Obama’s statements on Keystone’s carbon footprint, the approval process, and his series of climate promises last week, he would capitulate on the pipeline merely for the benefit of one Senate Democrat who appears unlikely to win anyway. It seems more likely that he would save Keystone approval as a bargaining chip to keep the GOP-run Congress from attacking his other hard-won climate initiatives. We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out over the next few days.

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BREAKING: The Senate Just Voted Not to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

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Is Shipping Oil by Rail As Dangerous As the Keystone Pipeline?

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BREAKING: The Senate Just Voted Not to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted in alo, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Green Light, Monterey, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on BREAKING: The Senate Just Voted Not to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

That old, rusty underwater pipeline? Nothing to worry about!

by dfonis5 Posted on March 4, 2014

That old, rusty underwater pipeline? Nothing to worry about!

By

Kate Ter Haar

Recently, scenes from the frozen Great Lakes region have brought to mind the post-apocalyptic icy landscape of the Lands Beyond the Wall. The Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan is currently facing its own “winter is coming” scenario, and it doesn’t involve a horde of aggressive snow zombies with a penchant for disembowelment (we hope). This threat, however, could result in the destruction of a vast ecosystem, threatening drinking water supplies and the livelihoods of local fishermen.

To stave off disaster, Michiganians are loudly voicing their concerns about a section of oil pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile-wide body of water separating the upper peninsula of Michigan from the rest of the state, and conjoining Lakes Michigan and Huron. Called Line 5, the segment, part of a pipeline built in 1953, has undergone minimal repairs in the past 60+ years. As production from Alberta’s tar sands has soared over recent years, many are beginning to question whether Line 5 can handle more of that oil. Pipeline owner Enbridge expanded the line’s capacity by about 10 percent last year, to nearly 23 million gallons per day. The National Wildlife Federation released a video in October 2013 showing broken supports that suggest corrosion along Line 5, and is demanding that it be replaced entirely.

Enbridge’s position is that the pipeline has “been operating there for decades and operating safely.” But plenty of things tend to operate less effectively after decades of use. A few examples: nuclear waste receptacles, Kobe Bryant’s legs, capitalism.

Enbridge already has a bad rep in Michigan after one of its pipelines burst in 2010 and poured over a million gallons of tar-sands oil into the Kalamazoo River watershed. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, that little oopsie was the costliest pipeline disaster in the nation’s history – and, because tar-sands oil is far more difficult to clean up than the standard variety,  the cleanup is still going on three and a half years later.

A cleanup in the straits — where parts of the pipeline lie under 270 feet of water — would be much harder still, as the Associated Press notes:

The Straits of Mackinac epitomizes a potential worst-case scenario for a pipeline accident: an iconic waterway, ecologically and economically significant, that could be fiendishly hard to clean up because of swift currents and deep water that’s often covered with ice several months a year.

In December, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter of concern to federal pipeline officials about environmental risks posed by the aging pipeline.

The oil and natural gas industry has a hell of a streak going when it comes to pipeline spills, so speaking strictly in terms of mathematical probability, Line 5 should be perfectly fine. That’s how statistics work – right?


Source
Sunken Great Lakes Oil Pipeline Raises Spill Fears, The Associated Press

Eve Andrews is a Grist fellow and new Seattle transplant via the mean streets of Chicago, Poughkeepsie, and Pittsburgh, respectively and in order of meanness. Follow her on Twitter.

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That old, rusty underwater pipeline? Nothing to worry about!

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Huge pipeline accidents cause spills, kill dozens in China

by Volodyslav7uk Posted on November 27, 2013

Huge pipeline accidents cause spills, kill dozens in China

By

Aaron Choi

This is what Qingdao normally looks like.

Pipeline accidents in China during the past week have killed more than 50 people, led to the arrests of nine officials, caused two large oil spills, and triggered evacuations. Both of the ruptured pipelines were owned by China’s largest oil refiner, China Petroleum, also known as Sinopec. Here are the basics:

Leak and explosion on Friday

A pipeline ruptured in the eastern port city of Qingdao, causing crude to gush into streets and into the sea. Several hours later, with cleanup underway, the crude exploded, igniting a street filled with shops and apartments. The latest confirmed death toll is 55 people, with nine still missing and 136 reported injured. Oil dispersants are being sprayed over an oil spill stretching from Jiaozhou Bay into the Yellow Sea. The government blamed human error. On Tuesday, the AP reported that seven company officials and two Qingdao city employees were in custody.

Leak on Tuesday

On the other side of the country, in Anshun City in the southwestern Guizhou province, a crane toppled over on Tuesday at a high-speed railway construction site, splitting open a pipeline used to transport gasoline. Residents within a mile of the accident were evacuated and the Press Trust of India is reporting that an estimated 2,200 tons of gasoline has spilled. A team of 110 people is working to repair the pipe and mop up the toxic fuel.

WTF is going on?

A fossil-fueled energy boom feeding China’s economic growth is what’s going on.

“The ever-growing refining capacity and oil infrastructure in China had certainly seen a rising number of incidents,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, told Bloomberg. “The Sinopec pipeline explosion will surely see a prolonged investigation and a safety review.”


Source
9 Detained After Oil Pipeline Blasts in China, AP
Residents Evacuated After Sinopec Oil Leak in Guizhou: Xinhua, Bloomberg

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Huge pipeline accidents cause spills, kill dozens in China

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Exxon fined for Arkansas spill, sued over Yellowstone spill, and still just keeps making piles of money

by illenassi Posted on November 8, 2013

Exxon fined for Arkansas spill, sued over Yellowstone spill, and still just keeps making piles of money

By

Shutterstock

The federal government wants to fine Exxon $2.7 million for the March oil spill from its 70-year-old pipeline in Mayflower, Ark. The ruptured pipe spewed 5,000 gallons of tar-sands oil and triggered the evacuation of 22 houses, some of which had to be bulldozed.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration sent a letter [PDF] to the Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. on Wednesday proposing the civil penalty because the company failed to heed test results and take other steps that could have prevented the spill. The fine isn’t final yet; Exxon has 30 days to file an appeal. And an appeal seems likely considering that Exxon is claiming PHMSA’s analysis contains “fundamental errors.”

Meanwhile, Montana and the U.S. Department of Interior informed Exxon last week that they plan to sue the company over a 63,000-gallon oil spill from a pipeline two years ago in the Yellowstone River. That’s on top of $3.4 million in state and federal fines that have already been assessed. From the Associated Press:

The move puts Exxon on notice that Montana and the Department of Interior expect the company to make up for harm done to wildlife and their habitat. The company also is being asked to pay for long-term environmental studies and for lost opportunities for fishing and recreation during and since the cleanup.

Exxon spent millions on cleanup, but it turns out that its cleanup workers did a pretty shitty job:

“You picked up the oil, but you picked up the stuff that makes the habitat work, as well,” said Bob Gibson, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We know there’s damage out there that has not been mitigated, cleaned up or compensated for. We need to decide what further can be done.”

But what does Exxon care? The company made $45 billion in profit last year. A couple million here and there in fines and legal fees doesn’t even make a dent.


Source
Montana, U.S. to seek damages for oil spill, Associated Press
Notice of probable violation and proposed compliance order, PHMSA
Exxon faces $2.7 mln fine for Arkansas pipeline spill, Reuters

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Exxon fined for Arkansas spill, sued over Yellowstone spill, and still just keeps making piles of money

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Exxon fined for Arkansas spill, sued over Yellowstone spill, and still just keeps making piles of money

Keystone XL won’t use state-of-the-art spill technology

by marsxxzaa Posted on June 19, 2013

Keystone XL won’t use state-of-the-art spill technology

By Claire Thompson

Dan Holtmeyer

These women don’t trust TransCanada’s assurances about safety.

TransCanada swears that once the Keystone XL pipeline is operational, it will be totally safe. The company is apparently so confident — despite already having had to dig up and replace faulty stretches of the pipeline’s southern leg — that it doesn’t see the need to invest in state-of-the-art spill-detection technology. TransCanada is like that obnoxious seventh-grade skateboarder too confident in his sick moves to bother with a helmet.

The internal spill detectors TransCanada currently uses — in which sensors alert remote operators if pressure along the pipeline drops — are standard for the industry, but they’re designed to catch high-volume spills. Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

Keystone XL would have to be spilling more than 12,000 barrels a day — or 1.5 percent of its 830,000 barrel capacity — before its currently planned internal spill-detection systems would trigger an alarm, according to the U.S. State Department, which is reviewing the proposal.

New external technology, on the other hand, can identify much smaller leaks. For example, acoustic sensors can pick up the sound of oil escaping through a pinhole-size opening. And helicopters doing flyovers can be fitted with trash-can-size devices that detect oil vapors in infrared sunlight, potentially spotting leaks flowing at rates of less than 10 barrels per day.

Bloomberg Businessweek calculated that it would cost about $705,000 — $5,000 per mile — to install advanced fiber-optic cable technology along 141 critical miles of the pipeline, areas where drinking water, ecosystems, and population centers are at risk. That’s hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the overall $5.3 billion cost of the pipeline. And investing in better spill-detection technology pays off:

Equipment available to spot spills more quickly would have cut 75 percent off the estimated $1.7 billion toll in property damage caused by major incidents on oil lines from 2001 to 2011, consultants said in a December report prepared for the [U.S. Transportation Department].

Though the U.S. EPA recommended these new external detection tools be used on Keystone XL, a TransCanada representative told Bloomberg that they haven’t yet been sufficiently tested on projects the scale of Keystone, and that they produce too many false positives to be reliable. But it’s not like the current system is doing a bang-up job, either:

Internal systems such as the one planned for Keystone XL have a spotty record catching leaks, according to the Transportation Department’s report, prepared by the engineering firm Kiefner & Associates Inc., of Worthington, Ohio. Members of the public reported 23 percent of the 197 oil and liquids pipeline leaks between January 2010 and July 2012, according to the study, compared to 17 percent identified by the pipeline companies.

TransCanada claims to be studying, at the EPA’s request, whether it could implement the new technologies along environmentally sensitive portions of the pipeline.

The company has had its share of safety issues — record numbers of leaks and a shutdown on the original Keystone pipeline, an explosion of a natural-gas pipeline, accusations that it cuts corners on construction. And a report by researchers at Cornell estimates that we could see 91 major spills over 50 years from Keystone XL. So maybe it couldn’t hurt for TransCanada to spring for some new and improved safety features this time around.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Keystone XL won’t use state-of-the-art spill technology

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GOP to Obama on Keystone: Don’t think about climate

by vserko45 Posted on May 27, 2013

GOP to Obama on Keystone: Don’t think about climate

By John Upton

tarsandsaction

The GOP asked Obama to please not listen to these people, arguing that climate change and Keystone XL are separate issues.

Many Americans are worried that if the Keystone XL pipeline is built, even more sludgy bits of what used to be Canada will end up going up in smoke and heating up the planet.

Now Republican lawmakers are asking the president in a letter to please not let himself be one of those people — because the pipeline and the climate are “wholly unreated.”

Environmentalists have been calling on Obama to reject the pipeline because the pollution produced when Canadian tar sands oil is burned after it’s refined along the Gulf Coast will hasten global warming. With Democratic support for the pipeline waning, Beltway chatter has suggested Obama might hedge his bets by approving the pipeline and simultaneously introducing new climate change regulations, as  The Hill reports.

In response, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and 22 of their colleagues penned a letter urging Obama to not consider climate change when he makes his decision on Keystone.

“We are concerned by recent proposals that you pair approval of the Keystone XL pipeline with enactment of new environmental regulations and energy taxes,” the lawmakers wrote. “You should approve the Keystone XL pipeline project on its merits alone without suddenly moving the goal posts after more than four years of review by tethering its fate to wholly unrelated and economically disastrous new regulatory policies. The American people can afford no less.”

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GOP to Obama on Keystone: Don’t think about climate

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on GOP to Obama on Keystone: Don’t think about climate