EDITORIAL: Oil Valued Greater than Planet Earth

On the surface, the Keystone XL Pipeline seems like a beneficial proposal.

In a 1- to 2-year period, approximately 3,900 people will be directly employed in the construction of the pipeline. After construction, 35 permanent jobs would remain.

Refining companies pay market prices for crude oil, and would gain significant profit selling into the wholesale market.

Conflictingly, it will be damaging and depleting for the environment.

Tar sands will be extracted and transported through the proposed underground pipeline. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council warn it is the dirtiest source of oil on Earth.

Producing 17 percent more greenhouse gases than an average barrel of crude oil, tar sands are an unconventional petroleum deposit that contains sand, clay, water, and bitumen a heavy black viscous oil.

The U.S. State Department has released their revised environmental impact statement report (EIS).

It determines that Alberta’s tar sand oil will find its way to market one way or another and that the planned pipeline is safer and cleaner than transporting by rail or tanker.

There is a 45-day comment period. Next, they will review and address all comments. Finally, the President will announce the approval or denial of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Being a nation dependent on oil, the U.S. is top-ranked in oil consumption annually around the world.

We use more oil in a year than the next top four contenders, China, Japan, India, and Russia, combined. The Keystone XL Pipeline will only add to this number.

Once completed, about 830,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil per day will be transported from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. The southern portion, from Cushing, Okla., down to Nederland, Texas, is the Gulf Coast Project, which is already underway.

TransCanada is the company responsible for the construction of the Keystone Pipeline.

A report by Cornell University Global Labor Institute states that since 2010, when the first Keystone Pipeline began operation, 35 spills have occurred in the U.S. and Canada.

Leaks and spills threaten rivers, aquifers and communities all along the route. A break in a pipeline can lead to oil flooding rivers, coating wildlife and spreading to marshlands, backyards, businesses and farmland.

Because of the diluted bitumen’s toxic, corrosive, and heavy composition, tar sands pipeline spills occur more frequently than spills from pipelines carrying conventional oil.

Besides tar sand, the executive summary written by TransCanada explains in detail other environmental issues associated with the pipeline.

From erosion and/or contamination to the loss and/or compaction of soil will disturb approximately 15,493 acres of land.

Stream sedimentation including 56 perennial rivers and streams as well as roughly 25 miles of floodplains will affect roughly 1,073 water bodies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified 13 federally protected or candidate species that could be impacted due to habitat loss or water contamination.

These are just few damaging environmental effects that this pipeline will cause.

The construction of the northern leg is pending Presidential Permit by President Barack Obama, which would authorize it to cross through the United States-Canadian border.

Allowing the Keystone XL Pipeline to be built would be temporarily beneficial to the economy at the price of permanent destruction of the environment.

A likely reason the U.S. is so dependent on oil could be lying within the political clout of the oil industries themselves.

Oil and gas companies make high amounts of revenue distributing their products. If business slows down, they lose money. It seems like they aren’t willing to let that happen even to help preserve our environment and non-renewable resources.

Regardless of the Keystone XL Pipeline, demand for oil is not slowing down.

Our reserves will run out eventually and damage to the ozone and climate change will start to catch up with us.

Our continued dependence on high-volume usage of oil and gas continues to pump greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere damaging our ozone layer. Environmental organization in Canada, Pembina Institute, said the Keystone XL Pipeline would cause an additional emission of 22.4 megatons of greenhouse gasses.

Now is the time to start investing and pursue alternate, renewable energy sources.

For comments, questions and concerns about the Keystone XL Pipeline, visit http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/.