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Keystone XL clears one hurdle: Positive EA from State Dept.
The U.S. Department of State has issued a positive environmental assessment of TransCanada’s plans to ship Alberta oil sands crude to Texas refineries, but the next three months promise to be an epic showdown between forces on both sides of the issue and a pivotal test of President Barack Obama’s promise to fight climate change by reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
The State Department gave the strongest endorsement yet of the Keystone XL project to ship 500,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen on a 1,700-mile, $7 billion pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
In one of its strongest findings, the report concluded that the need for heavy crude in the Gulf Coast would continue to grow over the next decade, even in a low-demand scenario.
If XL was not built, refineries would look for heavy crude from other sources and transport it by other U.S. pipelines, railroads, trucks or barges.
And, if they turned to crude produced outside North America, those imports would exacerbate reliance on oil from unstable regimes, the report said.
Production to other markets Whether or not XL proceeds, Canadian producers will seek means of moving their production to markets other than the U.S., the impact statement said, referring to proposals by Enbridge and Kinder Morgan to ship crude from British Columbia ports to the Asia-Pacific region.
The 1,000-page report also sided with arguments that greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands production are much greater than those from other crude sources.
It said emissions from bitumen-sourced gasoline are about 17 percent higher than the average U.S. crude, but only 2 percent higher than those of other heavy oils, such as from Venezuela.
But Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones emphasized that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not made a final decision to issue the presidential permit that TransCanada needs to start construction.
“Some are touting that (this report) is a victory and some are touting that it is a loss,” she said. “These characterizations are wrong, because this is not a decision document; (it) presents the analytical and the data information that we have regarding the environmental impacts.”
The report, issued Aug. 26, sets a 90-day clock running that includes public hearings in six states along the XL route, while eight U.S. agencies — including Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency — will decide whether Keystone is in the national interest.
Girding for battle Environmental groups are girding for a head-on battle that has included a sit-in demonstration outside the White House and threats to confront bulldozers along the pipeline route.
Kenny Bruno, campaign director of San Francisco-based Corporate Ethics International, said activists are ready to “put their bodies on the line in front of bulldozers to prevent construction … so the fight is very, very far from over.”
Erich Pica, president of the Friends of Earth, said that if Obama approves XL “it’s frankly open season” on his pledge to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels.
“There can be no excuses, there can be no explanations,” he said. “It is President Obama who will decide whether or not to grant permission for the tar sands oil to pour over our borders.”
Danielle Droitsch, an analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, said the State Department is “ignoring the concerns of the public. The report is not objective and it is not thorough. We shouldn’t underestimate the enormous controversy over this pipeline and what’s going to happen in the next stage of the national interest determination.”
Misguided thinking TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling, who has said opponents are misguided in thinking that blocking Keystone XL will slow oil sands development, said the fundamental issue is U.S. energy security.
Through XL, the U.S. can “secure access to a stable and reliable supply of oil from Canada where we protect human rights and the environment, or it can import more higher-priced oil from nations who do not share America’s interests or values.”
Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, said the State Department has found “there are no environmental reasons to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring American consumers a sure and steady supply of oil from our close friend and neighbor Canada.”
“It is in America’s economic and national security interest for the State Department to now take the next step and allow this critically important pipeline to be built,” he said.
—Gary Park
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