Keystone XL: What could possibly go wrong?

[Nbadan]

On March 29th, Exxon Mobile’s Pegasus pipeline burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, flooding a residential neighborhood with thousands of barrels of heavy crude oil. Many reports suggest the media is being kept away from the site. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is opening an investigation into the spill, which he says has “damaged private property and Arkansas’s natural resources”.

This amazing aerial footage of the Arkansas oil spill was captured by video journalist Adam Randall. Here is the video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3iIdWGGlBP8

This is a minor spill compared to what would happen if Keystone broke...Don’t worry, I’m sure Exxon will clean up every bit of the nitrogen oxide, sulfurdioxide, mercury, benzene, cyanide, phenols, toluene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, copper, sulphate, and chloride in steams, lakes and the soil...

In addion, Although investment is pouring into Port Arthur’s refineries, the city itself has reaped little benefit. The old downtown’s Proctor Street, once lined with stately hotels, office buildings, and fancy cars is virtually abandoned. (One exception: a bar called Club Sistahs, which has some live bands.)

The blocks near the refineries have small, rundown homes. People living below the poverty line make up a quarter of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Per capita income is just two-thirds of the Texas average. Fewer than one in 10 people over age 25 have a college degree.

[ChumpDumper]

I haven't seen any report saying the media is being kept away from the site.

[Nbadan]

I haven't seen any report saying the media is being kept away from the site.

Duh!!

[ChumpDumper]

Many reports suggest the media is being kept away from the site.Duh, indeed.

[Wild Cobra]

OK, how old is that pipeline? I read 65 years, which means it was built in 1948.

You know, any modern pipeline will be far better built, with spill containment built in.

Last wee, a train derailed containing oil, and made a big mess too. No matter how oil is transported, there is risk.

The argument here would be decommission all old pipelines and replace them with new.

[boutons_deux]

XL pipeline is of no advantage to USA, only to Canada for exporting Latin America. America's risk, no American gain

[boutons_deux]

OK, how old is that pipeline? I read 65 years, which means it was built in 1948.

You know, any modern pipeline will be far better built, with spill containment built in.

Last wee, a train derailed containing oil, and made a big mess too. No matter how oil is transported, there is risk.

The argument here would be decommission all old pipelines and replace them with new.

The pipeline construction company/Canadians have already rejected spending $10M on the latest leak detecting technology.

[boutons_deux]

Whistleblowers in Alaska said BP would not do preventive maintenance. the BP idea was to run everything until something breaks, leaks, explodes.

[TeyshaBlue]

Duh, indeed.

lol. I Googled "Mayflower, Arkansas Oil Spill" and stopped reading at 5 pages.

Good thing the media is being kept away from the site or the whole internets might explode!111!

[Drachen]

You know what's funny TB? I must be clairvoyant because I actually knew about this before I came in here to read this post. I saw it as the top news story a few days ago on CNN.com (with pictures of the oil flowing between houses and everything). Since we know that the media is being kept away, my clairvoyant mind must have superimposed the story over the real top story on cnn.com that day (probably a story about how great oil companies are for the environment since we know that they are shills).

[TeyshaBlue]

You are clairvoyant. You clair Voyants.:king

[Drachen]

You are clairvoyant. You clair Voyants.:king

Or I Clant Voyeurs?

[TeyshaBlue]

Or I Clant Voyeurs?

Hey, it's the 2000's. I dont care if you Clant or Clair...big boy. http://www.audioandanarchy.com/images/smilies/gfightsmiley.gif

[Wild Cobra]

The pipeline construction company/Canadians have already rejected spending $10M on the latest leak detecting technology.
Need to keep the leak from happening in the first place. Leak detection itself is simple, sending people out on occasion with ultrasound sensing equipment.

[Nbadan]

Duh, indeed.

Your an idiot. How many news trucks are in the video i posted from yesterday? None.

Oil is flowing down residential streets and there are no news trucks are in the area? Meanwhile, it's raining in SA news trucks all over SA Covering the water

Idiots!

[ChumpDumper]

Your an idiot. How many news trucks are in the video i posted from yesterday? None.How many reports suggest the media is being kept from the site?

None.

How many reports focused on the neighborhood hit by the spill with full video and multiple photgraphs?

Many.

How many reports had a guy from the Sierra Club saying he walked all over the site?

At least one.

lol grammar

[Nbadan]

You know what's funny TB? I must be clairvoyant because I actually knew about this before I came in here to read this post. I saw it as the top news story a few days ago on CNN.com (with pictures of the oil flowing between houses and everything). Since we know that the media is being kept away, my clairvoyant mind must have superimposed the story over the real top story on cnn.com that day (probably a story about how great oil companies are for the environment since we know that they are shills).


You saw a picture on CNN?!?

Your an idiot

[TeyshaBlue]

"Your an idiot."
lol serendipity.

[ChumpDumper]

And if dudes can fly helicopters over the whole site unimpeded and take several minutes of video, I'm not sure what a ground viewing of the actual pipe break they are digging up will add.

It's a shitty thing that happened, but I'm trying to figure out the conspiracy angle here.

[Wild Cobra]

And if dudes can fly helicopters over the whole site unimpeded and take several minutes of video, I'm not sure what a ground viewing of the actual pipe break they are digging up will add.

It's a shitty thing that happened, but I'm trying to figure out the conspiracy angle here.
The only people who would gain from intentionally doing this, are those trying to stop keystone.

Bouton's and Dan are probably in on the conspiracy.

[Drachen]

You saw a picture on CNN?!?

Your an idiot

Funny, I remember typing that it was the top news story... Yes this story included pictures of the oil spill. Let me connect the dots for you. Pictures of the spill imply that they (news crews/photogs/etc) were close enough to the oil spill to take pictures of the oil spill.

I think the moral of this story is that Yoar an idiot.

[TeyshaBlue]

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/262747/16/Cleanup-efforts-continue-after-Arkansas-oil-spill
http://www.fox16.com/content/news/mayflower.aspx
http://wtvr.com/2013/04/01/arkansas-pipeline-leak/
http://www.katv.com/story/21840645/an-inside-look-at-mayflower-neighborhood-affected-by-oil-spill

I'm sure these stories were gathered by using news Hamsters rather than news trucks. http://homerecording.com/bbs/images/smilies/facepalm.gif

[Drachen]

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/262747/16/Cleanup-efforts-continue-after-Arkansas-oil-spill
http://www.fox16.com/content/news/mayflower.aspx
http://wtvr.com/2013/04/01/arkansas-pipeline-leak/
http://www.katv.com/story/21840645/an-inside-look-at-mayflower-neighborhood-affected-by-oil-spill

I'm sure these stories were gathered by using news Hamsters rather than news trucks. http://homerecording.com/bbs/images/smilies/facepalm.gif

Yore an idiot.

[TeyshaBlue]

Funny, I remember typing that it was the top news story... Yes this story included pictures of the oil spill. Let me connect the dots for you. Pictures of the spill imply that they (news crews/photogs/etc) were close enough to the oil spill to take pictures of the oil spill.

I think the moral of this story is that Yoar an idiot.

I'm telling ya....news hamsters.

[TeyshaBlue]

Yore an idiot.

Yuur and ideoit.

[coyotes_geek]

http://katv.images.worldnow.com/images/21840645_BG1.jpg

Obviously taken from a helicopter. Note the absence of any news trucks in this picture.

[TeyshaBlue]

HD hamster hard at work!

[coyotes_geek]

HD = hamster drone???

[TeyshaBlue]

*Trademarks Hamster Drone*

[DarrinS]

You saw a picture on CNN?!?

Your an idiot




I kinda like the "Your an idiot", too. :lmao


http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/02/us/arkansas-pipeline-spill/index.html

[coyotes_geek]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085455-01-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085928-03-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

Still no news trucks. Shameful how far away the media is being kept.

[Drachen]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085455-01-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085928-03-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

Still no news trucks. Shameful how far away the media is being kept.

Freedom of the press is dead

[Nbadan]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085455-01-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085928-03-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

Still no news trucks. Shameful how far away the media is being kept.

Your an idiot. i gotta trademark that shit....

[Nbadan]

Freedom of the press is dead

Duh! You just noticed?

[ChumpDumper]

Ooh, dan is doubling down!

Let's watch.

[Nbadan]

"Your an idiot."
lol serendipity.

You owe me royalties bitch!

[TeyshaBlue]

You owe me royalties bitch!

Bill me, fuck monkey.

[Drachen]

Ooh, dan is doubling down!

Let's watch.

MOAR YOAR!!!!

[Nbadan]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085928-03-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

It's just a 'little' oil spill.....have you seen the pictures? Two guys with a hose...

[Nbadan]

Shit can't be cleaned up with a few buoys and two guys with a hose....Exxon spilled 10,000 barrels of toxic shit, not even technically classified as oil...


The central Arkansas spill caused by Exxon’s aging Pegasus pipeline has reportedly unleashed 10,000 barrels of Canadian heavy crude - but a technicality says it's not oil, letting the energy giant off the hook from paying into a national cleanup fund.

Legally speaking, diluted bitumen like the heavy crude that's overrun Mayflower, Arkansas, is not classified as 'oil'. And it's that very distinction that exempts Exxon from contributing to the government's oil spillage cleanup fund.

"Exxon, like all companies shipping toxic tar sands, doesn’t have to pay into the fund that will cover most of the clean up costs for the pipeline’s inevitable spills,”

....tar sands oil is more likely to spill because it's more corrosive....

http://rt.com/usa/arkansas-spill-exxon-cleanup-244/

[Nbadan]

http://tfr.faa.gov//save_maps/small_3_8699.gif


The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a "no fly zone" in place in Mayflower, Arkansas since April 1 at 2:12 PM and will be in place "until further notice," according to the FAA website and it's being overseen by ExxonMobil itself. In other words, any media or independent observers who want to witness the tar sands spill disaster have to ask Exxon's permission.

Mayflower is the site of the recent major March 29 ExxonMobil Pegagus tar sands pipeline spill, which belched out an estimated 5,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") into the small town's neighborhoods, causing the evacuation of 22 homes.

The rules of engagement for the no fly zone dictate that no aircraft can fly within 1,000 feet of the ground in the five-mile radius surrounding the ExxonMobil Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill. The area located within this radius includes the nearby Pine Village Airport.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that the FAA site noted earlier today that "only relief aircraft operations under direction of Tom Suhrhoff" were allowed within the designated no fly zone.


MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/04/03/exxon-s-skies-why-does-exxon-control-no-fly-zone-over-arkansas-tar-sands-spill

[Wild Cobra]

http://katv.images.worldnow.com/images/21840645_BG1.jpg

Obviously taken from a helicopter. Note the absence of any news trucks in this picture.
I don't see any police officers either. They must be excluded too.

[ChumpDumper]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130402085928-03-ak-oil-0402-horizontal-gallery.jpg

It's just a 'little' oil spill.....have you seen the pictures? Two guys with a hose...I bet you $10,000 that more than two men are working on the Arkansas oil spill.

Do you accept?

[boutons_deux]

6 Things You Need to Know About the Arkansas Oil Spill

1. Not Your Average Crude


InsideClimate News reported [4] shortly after the spill that an Exxon official confirmed the pipeline was "transporting a heavy form of crude from the Canadian tar sands region." Specifically, it has been identified as Wabasca Heavy, Lisa Song writes, "which is a type of diluted bitumen, or dilbit, from Alberta's tar sands region" although you won't hear any Exxon folks calling it tar sands.


Dilbit is some seriously nasty stuff. She writes [5] about a previous dilbit spill by Enbridge in Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010:


Dilbit is a mixture of heavy bitumen and diluents--light hydrocarbons used to thin the bitumen so it can flow through pipelines. While most conventional crude oils will float on water, the bitumen began sinking into the river as the diluents evaporated, leaving a sludge of submerged oil that defied traditional cleanup methods. ...


Earlier this month, the EPA ordered Enbridge, Inc., the Canadian company that owns the pipeline, to dredge sunken oil from the riverbed. The cleanup has cost more than $820 million to date and could top $1 billion once the order is carried out.


The Arkansas spill wasn't as big as the Michigan spill and it was farther from main water bodies, but it's still serious business. If you want to know more about how dangerous tar sands/dilbit can be, the Dilbit Disaster [6] is a must-read.


2. Not Your Average Pipeline


The Pegasus pipeline running more than 850 miles between Patoka, Illinois and Nederland, Texas, is 20 inches in diameter and was built in the 1940s to carry crude from Texas to Illinois. But in 2006 the flow was reversed in order to carry Canadian tar sands to Texas. As Ben Jervey wrote [7] for DeSmog blog, the flow was reversed to "help relieve the tar sands crude bottleneck in Cushing, Oklahoma. (The same reason given by proponents for the construction of Keystone XL.)"


The pipeline was built to carry 65,000 barrels a day, but Exxon was allowed to expand that to 95,000 barrels a day just a few years ago.


All of these facts bring up some basic questions. What effect does a higher capacity have on the pipeline? What effect does reversing the flow have on the pipeline? And what effect does switching from conventional crude to dilbit have on the pipeline, considering it was built to have a much thinner crude flowing through it?


John H. Cushman Jr. wrote [8] for InsideClimate News:


... seven years ago, when Exxon, the pipeline's operator, turned it into a higher-volume line for diluted bitumen from Canada flowing under greater pressure to refineries on the Gulf Coast, federal rules did not require a new permit application or safety reviews, according to federal officials.


"Our regulations don't specify how much product a pipeline carries. There is no regulation if they want to change the type of crude they carry," said Damon Hill, a spokesman for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a part of the Transportation Department. "As far as reversing the flow of a pipeline, it is not a safety issue."


To reverse the line that runs from Patoka, Ill. to Nederland, Tex. required 240,000 man-hours of work on pump stations, valves, bypasses and integrity tests, Exxon said when it opened the line.


But only after the spill occurred did the agency step in with an order, issued Tuesday, that clamps down on the Pegasus pipeline, for example by limiting the pressure at which it may operate once it reopens. Noting that the pipeline's flow was reversed in 2006 so that it could carry Canadian tar sands crude 850 miles from Illinois to Texas, the agency's corrective action order remarked that "a change in the direction of flow can affect the hydraulic and stress demands on the pipeline."


3. Tax Exempt?


Who's footing the bill for the cleanup? The government has an Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund that companies which transport oil must pay into. But, as it turns out, the bitumen that Exxon was transporting in its pipeline isn't oil by government standards. Erin O'Sullivan writes [9] for Oil Change International:


In a January 2011 memorandum, the IRS determined that to generate revenues for the oil spill trust fund, Congress only intended to tax conventional crude, and not tar sands or other unconventional oils. This exemption remains to this day, even though the United States moves billions of gallons of tar sands crude through its pipeline system every year. The trust fund is liable for tar sands oil spill cleanups without collecting any revenue from tar sands transport. If the fund goes broke, the American taxpayer foots the cleanup bill.


Keep this in mind as Exxon tries to wiggle out of connecting the contents of its pipeline with tar sands.


4. No Media Access


It feels like BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster all over again when it comes to media access. Lisa Song reported that the command center for cleanup is tightly controlled by Exxon, with even the parking lot off limits and guarded by security. She wrote [10]:


The stakes are high and Exxon is running the show here, with federal agencies so far publicly invisible. The phone number of the command center in Mayflower goes to an ExxonMobil answering service based in Texas, and each day it is Exxon that distributes a unified command press release--which contains the logos of Exxon, Faulkner County and the city of Mayflower--with official updates on the progress of the cleanup. ...


A request for a media tour of the spill site today was turned down by an Exxon spokesperson, who emerged from the command center to speak with a reporter at the gate. All areas being cleaned up so far have also been off limits. There is no central location where members of the media can gather to ask questions.


5. Under Investigation


Exxon may be feeling a little bit of heat as the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has ordered a corrective action, which puts the broken pipeline under lockdown for the time being (pretty much a no-brainer). Jeannie Nuss reported [11] for the AP that, "the order signed by Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety, says 'continued operation of the Pegasus Pipeline would be hazardous to life, property, and the environment.'"


But that's not all. She writes [11]:


The federal agency's order comes as Arkansas' attorney general promised a state investigation into the cause and impact of the spill and other officials say they plan to ask Exxon to move the Pegasus pipeline to protect drinking water.


"There are many questions and concerns remaining as to the long-term impacts, environmental or otherwise, from this spill," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel wrote to ExxonMobil executives Tuesday. He also asked ExxonMobil to preserve records pending his investigation.


6. Effects on Keystone XL


So, how is this going to affect decisions about the Keystone XL pipeline? Those who have been against the pipeline because of its environmental risks have new fodder. Others who were previously in favor or indifferent may have second thoughts, especially considering that the Pegasus pipeline capacity was only about a tenth of what the Keystone XL would carry.


Any pipeline poses risks, but tar sands pipelines pose even more risks than conventional oil. "TransCanada's first Keystone pipeline leaked 12 times in its first 12 months," wrote Sierra Club's Michael Brune. "Because tar sands must be pumped at higher pressures and temperatures than conventional oil, it corrodes pipes faster."


Just days before the Arkansas spill, a coalition of environmental groups, led by the National Wildlife Federation, as well as landowners, and others filed a petition [12] with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the EPA, calling on them to enact stronger safety regulations for pipelines carrying tar sands oil. The petition may well pick up more backers in the spill's aftermath.

http://www.alternet.org/print/environment/6-things-you-need-know-about-arkansas-oil-spill

[coyotes_geek]

Your an idiot. i gotta trademark that shit....

lol media being kept away

[Paulie]

No fly zone


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKHkXpq3o8E

[ChumpDumper]

I've been assured drones can fly over the site in order to assassinate RT reporters, no matter their citizenship.

[Nbadan]

Exxon: "there is no oil in Lake Conway"

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/546149_472221222851877_1463263828_n.jpg

[Nbadan]

Meanwhile....Pipeline Protesters Take to the Streets Outside Obama Fundraiser in San Francisco

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8618337762_6c308d81cb_b.jpg

"The only oil Americans will ever see from the pipeline that benefits foreign oil companies is the dirty tar sands crude that spills from it. Over 1,000 Obama volunteers, voters and donors turned out in San Francisco to remind our president that his legacy will be judged harshly if he approves Keystone XL. And we have over 50,000 more Americans from every state of the union willing to risk arrest in peaceful civil disobedience to stop him making the most catastrophic decision of his presidency."

[ChumpDumper]

Exxon: "there is no oil in Lake Conway"Were those taken from Lake Conway?

[Drachen]

Were those taken from Lake Conway?

How can anyone be sure? there were no news trucks in that shot, so the media is being kept away from that story. I mean, shit, they didn't even have a paltry TWO guys cleaning those snakes.

[TeyshaBlue]

I haven't heard anything from my platoon of HD® Hamsters yet, so who knows?

[ChumpDumper]

Exxon: "there is no oil in Lake Conway"That's pretty much what everyone in Arkansas is saying.
PHMSA's order said Exxon learned of the problem when pressure dropped in the pipeline, and had shut valves on either side of the breach within 16 minutes.

Crude bubbled up to the surface and leaked onto residential lawns and streets and into storm drains. Local responders quickly built dikes to block it from reaching nearby Lake Conway, a popular fishing lake, before Exxon crews had mobilized to put booms on the water as a precaution.

"They saved the lake with that effort," Ed Barham, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Health, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said on Wednesday that the lake remained free of oil.

Allen Dodson, Faulkner County Judge in the county that houses the subdivision, said the dikes built from dirt and rock "held strong" in the rain.

"We've shored them up over time. Response is going well," he said on Wednesday.http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-replacing-oiled-arkansas-lawns-ruptured-pipeline-still-221508656--finance.html

[TeyshaBlue]

Were those taken from Lake Conway?

lol facebook photo server.

[Nbadan]

Chumpy: "There"s no oil in lake Conway, it's on Lake Conway"

Simple semantics, no?

[Nbadan]

Exxon's Arkansas oil spill has reached Lake Conway, says Attorney General McDaniel


"Of course there's oil in Lake Conway," says Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.


'...


"I don't understand where this distinction is coming from, from the cove and Lake Conway. The cove is part of Lake Conway…The water is all part of one body of water.

"I think it's very fair to say that Lake Conway has not received catastrophic damage, but of course there is oil in Lake Conway."

http://www.katv.com/story/21889151/mcdaniel

Chumpy knows best....waaa....waaaa.......waaaaaaa

[ChumpDumper]

One of the tributaries? A cove? I can believe it. Where else could they put dams and booms to stop it from spreading?

You're acting like all 6700 acres are black with oil and Kim Jong Un set fire to it.

[Nbadan]

Nothing to see here, move along...



InsideClimate News reporter Lisa Song was threatened with arrest on Wednesday after she entered the command center for the cleanup operation in Mayflower, Ark., where a major oil pipeline spill occurred on Friday.
...
Song had tried to enter the command compound on Tuesday, but was turned away by a security guard. On Wednesday, however, a different guard was on duty and he waved her through the gate. Inside, a second person directed her to the warehouse that houses the command center.

Inside the building, Song went to a table with a sign that said "public affairs," where she was given the name and contact information for Austin Vela, the EPA spokesman at the site. Before she could get the name of a DOT representative, however, Exxon spokeswoman Kim Jordan spotted Song and told her to leave. A second person arrived and said, "You've been asked by security to leave. If you don't you'll be arrested for criminal trespass."

Song left the compound.

Read more: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130405/insideclimate-news-reporter-threatened-arrest-ark-oil-

I said, nothing to see here, move along!

[Nbadan]

Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week.


Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.

By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that Shell had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.

Read more: http://rt.com/usa/shell-pipeline-oil-texas-409/

[boutons_deux]

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/346396/KEYSTONE-PIPELINE.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Run pipelines way beyond their exhaustion dates (60 years for the Arkansas line), same with refineries, no or very little preventive maintenance, inspection, testing, replacement, all of which continuously reduce profits, but BigOil's only priority is increasing profits.

[boutons_deux]

EPA finally release pics,there's probably 100s more

http://www.alternet.org/environment/oil-devastation-arkansas-government-relents-and-releases-photos-public-slideshow?akid=10296.187590.7M-UoS&rd=1&src=newsletter820645&t=13

[boutons_deux]

http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs9/9412-arkansas-pipeline-spill-040813.jpg
Workers cleaned up oil following a spill from Exxon's Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower, Ark., Monday. (photo: GreenPeace/Reuters)


The Press and Public Are Contained

By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
08 April 13

http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-T.jpghe first "Tar Sands Oil Arkansas" (published April 7) (http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/16841-tar-sands-oil-arkansas) discussed a number of questions raised by the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline that burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, on March 29, pumping tar sands oil Ð technically Wabasca Heavy crude oil Ð into a residential neighborhood for almost an hour.

Among the questions touched on in that piece were protecting the pipeline from terrorists, residents suing ExxonMobil in federal court, the nature of Wabasca Heavy tar sands oil, some effects of the spill, and the "martial law" atmosphere described by reporters trying to look at the cleanup site.

As the second week of toxic air in Mayflower begins, here are more of the questions this disaster raises and some of the current answers, subject to future refinement. A reader writes:

What is the point of origin of the leak? In front of whose house? Why no image of the hole in the ground or in the pipe? Was it corrosion, a weld failure, sabotage by cutting or explosives, or WHAT? Do we have to wait for NTSB for answers? Are ExxonMobil and their execs too big to jail?

The point of origin appears to be in the woods, behind the houses, and underground. The absence of images is unexplained.

Corrosion or weld failure seem to be two likely possibilities for the cause of the leak.

As reported so far, the spill started quietly, with no one aware of the moment it started. It's not clear how long it took for someone to become aware, but not too long, presumably.

The circumstances known so far make sabotage (or inadvertence) by cutting, explosion, backhoe, bulldozer, or other means seem unlikely.

Several of the press releases issued by the Mayflower Incident Unified Command Joint Information Center over the past several days conclude with the statement: "The cause of the spill is under investigation."

Since ExxonMobil and its employees have not yet been convicted of committing a crime, it seems premature to consider jailing them.

Why were the pipeline and the residential subdivision built so close together?

Close is a relative term. There's no suggestion so far that the subdivision was built illegally, or didn't have the right permits, or interfered with the pipeline right of way, or anything like that.

Interestingly, though, the Arkansas Times interviewed a former ExxonMobil pipeline worker who raised questions about the company's commitment to safety.

The report continued:
He raised, too, a question mentioned here yesterday by another pipeline engineer about the wisdom of building new subdivisions over existing pipelines, as happened in Mayflower.

Considering the potential stress of building on top of a pipeline and the high pressure used when transporting heavy crude,É the developer of Northwoods should have worked with Exxon to reroute Pegasus around the neighborhood.

Other options, he said, include replacing the section of the pipeline with newer, stronger steel or burying it deeper under the ground. But ... pipeline companies have little incentive to take costly preventive action.

Even if they get a fine the fine will be a small fraction of the cost to correct a dangerous condition, he said.
Who Is the Mayflower Incident Unified Command?

The command's letterhead includes the logos for ExxonMobil, Faulkner County, the U.S. Environmental Protection Service (EPA), and the City of Mayflower, Arkansas.

It has been hard for reporters on the scene to learn much more. Even CBS News had to stay outside the yellow tape.

Hasn't ExxonMobil been forthcoming with information and documentation relating to the Pegasus pipeline rupture?

Well, no, not really.

As a result, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has issued a subpoena for relevant documents from ExxonMobil. The deadline for complying with the subpoena is April 10, almost two weeks after the spill. ExxonMobil has said it will comply.

Why isn't ExxonMobil more open, since we give them subsidies and tax breaks worth billions of dollars every year?

Don't start with that. This is about Mayflower, Arkansas. You can read about the tax shelter and subsidy thing somewhere else, such as American Progress (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2011/05/11/9625/exxon-mobil-dodges-the-tax-man/).

But ExxonMobil does have to pay into the federally mandated fund for oil spill cleanups, right?

Yes and no. It's the "no" part that matters here.

With the Pegasus pipeline pumping Wabasca Heavy tar sands oil, ExxonMobil is not required to pay anything into the oil spill cleanup fund. Not a penny. Why? Because tar sands oil, according to the law
written by Congress and interpreted by our tax collectors, is not oil. So its pumpers are exempt from contributing to the cleanup fund.

If it were more traditional, lighter crude oil in the pipeline, someone would be paying 8 cents per barrel into the oil-spill liability trust fund.

Isn't tar sands oil like Wabasca Heavy more difficult and more expensive to clean up than lighter traditional oils?

Yes.

Doesn't that make a difference?

Apparently not to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which administers the cleanup fund. In a 2011 decision, the IRS exempted tar sands oil, diluted bitumen, dilbit fron the 8 cents tax per barrel (42 gallons).


Why doesn't Congress do something about that?

Seriously?

Seriously.

Congressman Ed Markey, D-Mass, has tried.

After a week, has the tar sands oil been contained?

Probably not.

Arkansas Online reported on March 29, the day of the spill, without indicating the source of the information, that "Oil that spilled into waterways from a ruptured pipeline in Mayflower has been contained."
The report continued:
Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson said blockades have been set up at two different locations along a waterway that flows into Lake Conway. Those blockades are preventing the contaminated water from passing.

A dam made of dirt, wood and other building materials has been erected in the initial ditch that contains a majority of the oil, with an additional blockade set up in two culverts connected to coves that allow water into Lake Conway.

The obstructions will prevent any oil from passing through for an extended period of time, possibly days, Dodson added.
If the oil was contained the first day, what's all the fuss about?

Early reports appear to have been overly optimistic.

There are more than 100 photographs on the web site (http://epaosc.org/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=8502) for the EPA On Site Coordinator, from the period March 29-April 6. They show that the oil got into active waterways almost immediately on March 29. And at least some of the oil was also flowing on the ground and into the street, ending up going down a storm drain.

EPA image #78 shows "Sorbent boom in place at discharge point from neighborhood underneath Main Street" Ð four days after the spill, on April 2.

EPA image #90 shows "Containment boom installed in Lake Conway" on April 2.

Has tar sands oil reached Lake Conway or not?

ExxonMobil reportedly says it has not.

Grist.org reporter Suzi Parker says that Arkansas Attorney General McDaniel "reported Friday morning [April 5] that there is oil in Lake Conway despite ExxonMobil's assurances to the contrary."

The Grist report (http://grist.org/climate-energy/arkansas-town-in-lockdown-after-oil-spill-nightmare/) adds:
"Great efforts have been taken to limit the spread of the oil to only one area of Lake Conway, which is referred to as the Cove, but the Cove and Lake Conway are hydrologically connected and are therefore one body of water," Aaron Sadler, spokesman for McDaniel, told Grist.

Meanwhile, access to the site continues to be tightly policed. According to InsideClimate, ExxonMobil threatened reporter Lisa Song with arrest on Wednesday when she entered the command center looking for government officials.
So is it like martial law or a police state in Mayflower, or are these just more whiners and media frenzy whippers?

Hard to tell. Of course it could be both.

The restricted area is considerably smaller than the no-fly zone's 78 square miles.

It's not clear what happened to the press conference that was announced for April 6.

Here's the way the Arkansas Times saw it as of April 6:
Public accountability remains a pressing issue. The Faulkner County judge disclaimed responsibility in refusing an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette FOI request for county records related to cleanup activities. This is on top of police-state actions by Faulkner County officials to let Exxon Mobil set rules on public access to affected areas.

The secrecy is wrong. The delegation of authority to a private company is wrong. But Faulkner County officials are deeply in the thrall of the energy industry thanks to the Fayetteville shale play. Public interest takes a backseat.
But didn't Exxon Mobil just win a big time safety award?

Yes, indeed, it did.

The National Safety Council announced on April 3 that ExxonMobil had won the 2013 Green Cross for Safety, awarded at the annual fundraising dinner in Houston that night. The award was for ExxonMobile's "leadership and comprehensive commitment to safety excellence."

According to the National Safety Council press release (http://www.nsc.org/Pages/NSC-honors-Exxon-Mobil-Corporation-with-the-Green-Cross-for-Safe):

ExxonMobil distinguished itself over a period of years for outstanding achievements in workplace safety, community service, environmental stewardship and responsible citizenship. It believes the best way to meet this commitment is through a capable, committed workforce as well as practices designed to enable safe, secure and environmentally responsible operations.

ExxonMobil accomplishes this through clearly defined policies and practices, and with rigorously applied management systems designed to deliver expected results.

It remains steadfast in its goal that "Nobody Gets Hurt."

Past recipients of the Green Cross for Safety medal include the Dow Chemical Company, Schneider Electric North America, Exelon Nuclear, FirstGroup, Delta Air Lines, UPS, DuPont, Liberty Mutual Group, Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler, Kenny Construction Company, Ryder System Inc., Intel Corporation and AK Steel.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

[boutons_deux]

BREAKING: Storm hits Mayflower, Arkansas site of Exxon oil spill. Contaminated water pumped into Lake Conway as citizen journalists report live.


http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/happening-now-storm-hits-mayflower-arkansas-causing-exxons-oil-spill-spread-yards-and-lake-conway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger% 29

[Nbadan]

WASHINGTON — Legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is rolling through the House, even as opponents launch a fresh campaign against the project.

The 1,700-mile pipeline would transport more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from western Canada to Texas refineries. It requires a presidential permit because it crosses an international border.

It has been under government review for more than four years and has become a political football.

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., briefed reporters ahead of a subcommittee hearing today on his legislation that would take the pipeline's fate out of President Barack Obama's hands and simply deem it approved.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130410/NEWS/704109893/1707#arkansas-oil-spill-will-come-up-at-keystone-xl-pipeline-hearing

[boutons_deux]

Why Tar Sands Pipelines Guarantee Disaster

It's now been almost two weeks since ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline spill put at least 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude and contaminated water into the Arkansas community of Mayflower. Many of the evacuated families still haven't been able to return to their homes.

Sierra Club organizer Glen Hooks, who grew up about 20 miles southeast of Mayflower, in Gravel Ridge, attended a meeting for the displaced families at Mayflower High School: "I had to really stare down some ExxonMobil goons who told me to leave because it was a private meeting. I politely explained that it was a meeting in a public building about a public subject with numerous public officials in attendance, and that I was planning to stay."

Glen's soft-spoken, but he's not easily intimidated. Arkansas Business Journal named him an "Eco-Hero of the Year" for his work in helping to stop new coal-fired power plants. During the Mayflower meeting, Glen listened as an ExxonMobil executive apologized to the families and said that the focus was on safety and helping the homeowners. "The meeting then moved into a phase where ExxonMobil met with individual family members about their claims in a side room guarded by no fewer than six uniformed police officers."

Here's something that ExxonMobil probably didn't tell those homeowners: In 2010, it was fined $26,200 (http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=FqJNCqwsSxHr2xdUEAxrHw) :lol :lol :lol by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for failing to regularly inspect each point where the Pegasus line crosses under a navigable waterway.

This is a pipeline that crosses under the Mississippi River (just one of the places ExxonMobil failed to do inspections). It's hard to say which is more shocking: That "safety first" ExxonMobil has been so cavalier about pipeline inspections or that it was fined such a pittance for its irresponsibility. By my calculation, $26,200 comes out to about .00009% of ExxonMobil's net income for 2010. Let's put that in perspective. If ExxonMobil's income were the same as the median family income in Faulkner County, Arkansas, which is where its pipeline leaked, then ExxonMobil's fine for putting the Mississippi River at risk would have been not quite four cents.

No matter how much ExxonMobil ends up spending to clean up the mess in Mayflower, the impact on its profit statement will be miniscule. Unfortunately, no amount of cash can buy peace of mind for the families whose homes were violated by tar sands. Tar sands crude is both more toxic and much harder to clean than ordinary crude. Just ask Enbridge, which has now spent almost $1 billion and two years trying to clean up the Kalamazoo River after the largest onshore oil spill in U.S. history. Enbridge has experience, too. There were 804 spills on its pipelines between 1999 and 2010. (http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=e24qzN9A_8lmlO_3IwwWkg) [5]

No wonder ExxonMobil is doing everything it can (http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=v1kKjgdn8SBsA4at39tpdw) [6] to keep reporters and everyone else as far away from the Mayflower disaster as possible. The more the American public learns about the real cost of tar sands crude, the more opposition to the Keystone XL and other tar sands projects will increase.
Keystone XL opponents often point out that Americans assume all the risk of tar sands pipelines, while oil companies will rake in all the profit from tar sands exports. But let's be clear about the sort of risk we're talking about. If the pipeline is built, it's not a question of whether it will fail, but of when and where. We're not risking a disaster. Disaster is certain. We just don't know what the exact magnitude of the disaster will be. What if the Pegasus pipeline had failed under the Mississippi rather than in Mayflower?

Here's something we do know: The first Keystone XL disaster will be far worse than what happened in Mayflower, since TransCanada's pipeline will pump ten times as much tar sands crude as the Pegasus does.

I wish the disaster in Mayflower had never happened. Now that it has, though, I hope we heed its two biggest lessons: 1. How oil companies talk about safety has no connection to how they act. 2. The last thing you want to wake up and find in your backyard is a tar sands spill.

http://www.alternet.org/print/environment/why-tar-sands-pipelines-guarantee-disaster

[boutons_deux]

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2013/04/ruptured-pegasus-pipeline-arkansas.gif.492x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg


Exxon pipeline rupture is 22 feet long, indicating immense pressure, possible criminal negligence.
Two weeks ago today, Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline carrying diluted bitumen (http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/exxon-wont-pay-cleanup-fund-because-arkansas-oil-spill-isnt-oil.html) from Canada ruptured catastrophically (http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/oil-spill-arkansas-exxon-pipeline-breaks-spilling-84000-gallons-dangerously-close-lake-conway.html), creating a 22-foot long gash that unleashed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil (http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/arkansas-oil-spill-could-be-almost-300000-gallons.html) and toxic chemical diluents into the Central Arkansas town of Mayflower. Since then, the local media has faced strong intimidation from Exxon (http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/exxon-controls-local-media-coverage-arkansas-oil-spill-citizen-journalists-use-guerrilla-reporting-tactics-should-pros-be-doing-more.html), local residents have become sick from the toxic fumes, a severe thunderstorm threatened cleanup (http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/severe-weather-threatens-exxon-oil-spill-cleanup-mayflower-residents-feel-health-effects-lawyers-discuss-class-action-lawsuit-and-more-video-update.html) efforts, leading officials to release contaminated water (http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/happening-now-storm-hits-mayflower-arkansas-causing-exxons-oil-spill-spread-yards-and-lake-conway.html) into Lake Conway and the Attorney General (http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/pipeline-rupture-22-feet-long-indicating-immense-pressure-possible-criminal-negligence.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger% 29#) of Arkansas has launched an investigation, as a number of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of residents.

“I think when people found out that there was a rupture and there was a 65-year-old pipeline, I think that almost everybody assumed that there was some small crack due to age,” he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. “The rupture was 22 feet long. Twenty-two feet is not something one would think would happen gradually. So now we’re starting to ask all new questions.”

http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/pipeline-rupture-22-feet-long-indicating-immense-pressure-possible-criminal-negligence.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger% 29

[Wild Cobra]

LOL...

A rupture like that can happen at once. What's the author of this article smoking?

[boutons_deux]

A rupture like that can happen at once

who said it didn't rupture all at once?

"Twenty-two feet is not something one would think would happen gradually" implying it was abrupt not gradual rupture.

[Wild Cobra]

who said it didn't rupture all at once?

"Twenty-two feet is not something one would think would happen gradually" implying it was abrupt not gradual rupture.
LOL... And they are an expert at...

I have seen multiple pipes and tubing rupture. I can say that it is very common to rupture like that, all at once.

Think of tearing cloth. Once you get it started, the rest goes very easy. In the case of pipes and tubes, it continues till the pressure is reduced. that 22' could have happened in under a second, easily.

[boutons_deux]

another BigNastyOil saves money and causes a disaster

Chevron Report Details Failures That Led To Richmond Refinery Fire

Corrosion that damaged a steel pipe led to a disastrous fire at Chevron’s Richmond refinery last August (http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/tag/richmond-refinery-explosion), oil company officials confirmed in a report released Friday.

The investigation report was submitted to Contra Costa Health Services on the Aug. 6 refinery fire that sent a toxic plume of smoke into the air and some 15,000 people to hospitals complaining of breathing problems.

In the report, Chevron representatives said that damage to the crude oil pipe was not appropriately documented after inspections in 2002 and 2011.

“We have identified what went wrong and are taking steps to prevent a similar incident in the future,” Nigel Hearne, the refinery’s general manager, said in a statement.
:lol :lol :lol

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/04/12/chevron-report-details-failures-that-led-to-richmond-refinery-fire/

[Nbadan]

Oil Lake...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vkg1poD5s8M

[DMX7]

Big Oil is looking out for me, so I'm not really worried.

They wouldn't hurt the environment for money -- this, we know.

[boutons_deux]

cut all safety corners,

ignore warnings

no preventative maintenance and no "serious" inspections

run everything till it blows up

We're BigNastyOil, don't bother to trust us, we're untouchable, we own the regulators and enforcers, so GFY, because we will certainly fuck you

[boutons_deux]

Silver Linings Playbook: Exxon Says Wildlife Hit By Arkansas Spill Were Mostly ‘Reptiles, Primarily Venomous Snakes’ (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/14/1862721/silver-linings-playbook-exxon-says-wildlife-hit-by-arkansas-spill-were-mostly-reptiles-primarily-venomous-snakes/)
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snakeoil1.jpg

Oily snakes — or snake oil?

Sure, you thought nothing good could come from ExxonMobil’s pipeline spill of some 200,000 gallons into the residential streets of Mayflower, Arkansas. After all, it was “low-quality Wabasca Heavy crude oil from Alberta.” And a technicality (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/02/1810571/exxons-duck-killing-pipeline-doesnt-pay-taxes-to-oil-spill-cleanup-fund/) has spared Exxon from having to pay any money into the fund (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/14/1862721/silver-linings-playbook-exxon-says-wildlife-hit-by-arkansas-spill-were-mostly-reptiles-primarily-venomous-snakes/#) that will be covering most of the clean up costs — a 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120731/oil-spill-liability-trust-fund-coast-guard-tar-sands-refineries-excise-tax-irs-epa-enbridge).

But ExxonMobil reports (http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/exxmobile.pdf) from the Mayflower Incident Unified Command Joint Information Center that even this cloud of oil has a silver lining:

The majority of the impacted wildlife has been reptiles, primarily venomous snakes.
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/oilduck-300x1992.jpg (http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/oilduck-300x1992.jpg)

Strangely, HuffPost reports (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/13/exxon-arkansas-spill_n_3076493.html?utm_hp_ref=green), “According to its Facebook page, the Helping Arkansas Wild Kritters (HAWK) Center, which has worked to help scores of animals hurt by the March 29 spill, has not rescued any venomous snakes, (https://www.facebook.com/hawkcenter) but has cared for many birds.”


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/14/1862721/silver-linings-playbook-exxon-says-wildlife-hit-by-arkansas-spill-were-mostly-reptiles-primarily-venomous-snakes/

[boutons_deux]

Arkansas TV stations pull ad criticizing Exxon after legal threats
A satirical ad criticizing Exxon Mobil that was set to air this week on Arkansas TV stations was pulled at the last minute after the company threatened legal action.

The 30-second, crowd-funded ad, titled "Exxon Hates Your Children," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXV6FW9Vg0I) is part of a campaign (http://exxonhatesyourchildren.com/) organized by three groups targeting the $10 billion per year U.S. taxpayers spend to subsidize Exxon and other fossil-fuel industry giants. Oil Change International (http://priceofoil.org/), The Other 98% (http://other98.com/), and Environmental Action (http://environmental-action.org/) accuse the company of acting like a bully.

"Instead of engaging their critics appropriately, Exxon uses its billions to hire high-priced lawyers to make scary-sounding but unsupported legal claims to suppress criticism," said David Turnbull of Oil Change International. "It's a window into how they have preserved billions in taxpayer handouts for their industry for so many years."

http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/04/arkansas-tv-stations-pull-ad-criticizing-exxon-after-legal-threats.html

[boutons_deux]

13 Oil Spills in the last 30 Days
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-11-AnOilyDirtyMonth620pxhuffpo.jpg


http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-11-AnOilyDirtyMonth620pxhuffpo.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Is Dilbit Oil? Congress and the IRS Say No
The oil industry has often said that dilbit, a heavy crude oil from Canada's tar sands, isn't much different from conventional crude oil. But when it comes to paying into a federal fund used to clean up oil spills, it's different enough to deserve a sizeable tax break.

Dilbit (http://insideclimatenews.org/topic/dilbit) is exempt from the tax, because the 1980 legislation that created the tax states that "the term crude oil does not include synthetic petroleum, e.g., shale oil, liquids from coal, tar sands, or biomass..."

The Internal Revenue Service cited that 1980 text in a 2011 memo that confirmed the exemption for at least one company (http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/405311-oil-spill-liability-trust-fund-irs-2011-memo.html).

The tax helps support the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/osltf.asp), whose primary funding comes from an 8-cent-per-barrel excise tax on domestically produced and imported crude oil and on imported refined products such as gasoline.

Money from the fund is helping to clean up the 2010 oil spill in Michigan, where a ruptured pipeline spewed more than 1 million barrels of diluted bitumen, or dilbit (http://insideclimatenews.org/topic/dilbit), into the Kalamazoo River. Unlike conventional crude oil, which floats on water, much of the dilbit (http://insideclimatenews.org/topic/dilbit)sank into the river. Removing it has been so difficult that cleanup crews are still struggling to mop it up, making the Michigan disaster the most expensive oil pipeline spill in U.S. history.

The accident has cost $809 million so far, with $765 million paid by Enbridge, Inc.—the Canadian company whose pipeline ruptured—and its insurance company. The remaining $44 million is coming from the fund.

The nation's refineries pay the excise tax (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ch03.html) for imported crude oil, and these fees are considered standard practice in industry, said Esa Ramasamy, an editorial director at Platts (http://www.platts.com/), a global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider. "It is accepted as part of the daily business routine. It's like an insurance policy ... [for] anything that can harm the environment."

Ramasamy said the 1980 definition of crude oil dates back to a time when it wasn't financially feasible to produce tar sands oil on a large scale. The first sizeable shipments of dilbit into the U.S. didn't occur until 1999.

Tar sands production is now "a huge industry," he said, and Congress didn't expect that when the tax was created.

The U.S. currently imports more than 1.2 million barrels of Canadian dilbit and synthetic crude (another kind of tar sands oil) per day. The tax exemption is worth at least $35 million a year, and that figure will grow as the industry seeks to buildthousands of miles of new pipelines (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120430/exclusive-map-tar-sands-pipeline-boom)—including the much-debated Keystone XL—to handle increased imports.

Watchdog and environmental groups say it makes no sense to exempt tar sands oil from a tax that is used to clean up tar sands spills.

"The key issue is, is tar sands crude oil?...When it comes to taxes, [the industry] get[s] to make the argument that tar sands isn't crude oil," said Anthony Swift, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who has spent years advocating for better pipeline safety. "But when it comes to the safety of moving tar sands in pipelines, they say it's just like crude oil."

Swift and other watchdogs say the exemption is particularly galling because dilbit is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional crude—something that the industry disputes.

"The question is why we should continue this exemption given that it's clear tar sands oil is more likely to spill because it's more corrosive...and more and more tar sands is coming into the U.S.," said Lorne Stockman, research director at Oil Change International, an advocacy group that supports clean energy.
The National Academy of Sciences (http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49461) has launched a study on dilbit and pipeline corrosion, but it will be limited to a review of the existing literature and won't involve any new research.

Ramasamy, the Platts oil expert, said tar sands imports might be subject to some other kind of environmental tax.
"Oil sands tend to be more acidic and corrosive than conventional crude," he said. "It takes a special kind of refinery to process them, because of the toxicity of [the] crudes. So I find it hard to believe there is no environmental tax on those crudes."

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120731/oil-spill-liability-trust-fund-coast-guard-tar-sands-refineries-excise-tax-irs-epa-enbridge?page=show

Short answer: change the law so imported dilbit is excise taxed at 8% like imported "oil".

Best Answer: block importation of dilbit completely. BigOil makes all private gains, while Human-Americans take all the risks.

[SA210]

"Appearing at the home of an outspoken critic of the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama on Wednesday night told a group of high-dollar donors that the politics of the environment "are tough."

Mr. Obama appears to be leaning toward the approval of the pipeline, although he did not specifically mention it to the donors. But he acknowledged that it is hard to sell aggressive environmental action — like reducing pollution from power plants — to Americans who are still struggling in a difficult economy to pay bills, buy gas and save for retirement."*

Will Obama even try to stop the environmentally devastating Keystone XL? Meeting with donors who oppose the Keystone pipeline, he pretty mush surmised that caring for the environment is "inconvenient," but we should definitely vote for more Democrats to be in office. Why? Whose interests does that protect? Does Obama do everything corporations tell him to do? Cenk Uygur breaks down the piping hot BS.


TYT: Obama & Keystone XL: A Politically Inconvenient Truth



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOW8aHkl9b8

[boutons_deux]

A new report shows that Keystone XL would carry 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equal to 51 coal plants worth of carbon.

Another way to put it: that's as much CO2 as 37.7 million cars (http://act.350.org/letter/kxl-sprint-day-4/?akid=3007.653919.J1rdqc&rd=1&t=1#) to the road -- more cars than are currently driving in California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, New York and Florida combined.

But the State Department's initial report on the pipeline says it would have negligible climate impacts.

http://act.350.org/letter/kxl-sprint-day-4/?akid=3007.653919.J1rdqc&rd=1&t=1

[boutons_deux]

Slide show how Canada is pillaging and raping pristine wilderness

http://www.energy-reality.org/action/?utm_source=Energy+Reality&utm_campaign=75534db67d-Tar_Sands_Email4_12_2013&utm_medium=email

BigNastyOil shills and dupes: NIMBY, so I don't care

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Exacerbates Climate Change


The Keystone XL Pipeline (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AmlzP3xNDhUHGfWcB0iUPg2yCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqMDg xZXM0BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=14jm3rjmi/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm%3Fid=is-the-keystone-pipeline-a-shortcut-12-02-19%26WT.mc_id=SA_syn_Yahoo) would move enough tar sands oil to result in another 181 million metric tons of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere yearly. A new report prepared by environmental group Oil Change International (OCI) analyzes what the climate change impacts of the proposed pipeline (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AlAEyz_RGxtsnVnyTj4FhhKyCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaWd 2Ymg3BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=13enfqs59/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//priceofoil.org/2013/04/16/cooking-the-books-the-true-climate-impact-of-keystone-xl/) might be.

Consultants hired by the U.S. State Department determined that completing the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport tar sands from Canada to Texas would have no impact on greenhouse gas emissions (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Al1U_9tAF.8CFrhgMCF6I_uyCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaTN jbzlmBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=14qo7f18s/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm%3Fid=tar-sands-and-keystone-xl-pipeline-impact-on-global-warming%26WT.mc_id=SA_syn_Yahoo), largely because they assumed that the tar sands oil would flow regardless. But the new report challenges that assertion, noting that the tar sands are stranded in Alberta and face few good pipeline prospects (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=ApiNNEY7c7UjpB.Cp.Vfc6.yCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqc2F obm1zBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=14incgaqk/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm%3Fid=gateway-pipeline-poses-unknown-environmental-threat%26WT.mc_id=SA_syn_Yahoo), either to Canada's west coast or via reversing the flow of existing pipelines to North America's east coast. "Other options like rail or truck are not feasible for the transportation of large quantities," said Elizabeth Shope, anti–tar sands advocate with environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a conference call with reporters, noting that such alternative transportation more than triples the cost of moving tar sands oil. "It's increasingly clear that without Keystone XL, the tar sands will not be able to expand at such a reckless pace."

If Keystone XL is built, and an additional 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AvUntxmbhWsdqY5wcdp7.DiyCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaGF mbHBnBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzUEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=147ea3a57/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm%3Fid=how-to-turn-tar-sands-into-oil-slideshow%26WT.mc_id=SA_syn_Yahoo) flows south each day, the climate change impacts will be "unacceptable," said former NASA climatologist James Hansen (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Am1YN4Bi.L2i_.5QFHEO16GyCu9_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqY2d xYjVxBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzYEc2VjA01lZGlhQ XJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNrdTJzZWdzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDOWQzNDhiYTctM2EzYi0zODI1LWFkOGMtOTg0OTkyMW E4NzJlBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGdyZWVuBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQR0ZXN0A2J1Y2tldF9yZW1vdmVk;_ylv=0/SIG=14astk9e9/EXP=1367502282/**http%3A//blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/04/12/why-jim-hansen-stopped-being-a-government-scientist-video/) on the conference call. "Yet, governments are not only allowing the development of any fossil fuel that can be found, but particularly unconventional oil like tar sands and shale oil." Based on an estimate of 598 kilograms of greenhouse gases per barrel of oil, Keystone's more than 300 million barrels a year would result in more pollution than that emitted by 37.7 million passenger cars.

http://news.yahoo.com/keystone-xl-oil-pipeline-exacerbates-climate-change-103000967.html

WC retort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU

[boutons_deux]

Grade Inflation: GOP Still Pushing False Keystone Job Numbers (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/18/1889301/grade-inflation-gop-still-pushing-false-keystone-job-numbers/)


During his opening statement on Tuesday’s Subcommittee hearing, Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) said (http://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/files/Markups/EP/20130416/HMKP-112-IF03-MState-W000413-20130416.pdf):

At this point we are all familiar with the benefits of this project that would bring more Canadian oil to Midwestern and Gulf Coast refineries. The estimated 20,000 direct and 100,000 indirect jobs alone would likely make it a more successful jobs program than any project in the $800 billion dollar stimulus package or any other job creating effort the president currently has in the works.

In reality, Keystone would create 3,900 temporary jobs and only 35 permanent (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/state-dept-keystone-report-plays-down-climate-fears-88313_Page3.html), while providing “negligible socioeconomic impacts,” according to a report (http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/draftseis/index.htm) by the State Department. While Republicans may try to blame the administration for the less than ideal jobs numbers, the report was actually written (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/07/1688231/keystone-assessment-conflicts/) by a private consulting firm (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/18/1889301/grade-inflation-gop-still-pushing-false-keystone-job-numbers/#) with links to the pipeline’s owner, TransCanada Corp., as well as Exxon Mobil, BP and the Koch brothers.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/18/1889301/grade-inflation-gop-still-pushing-false-keystone-job-numbers/

[boutons_deux]

EPA releases harsh review of Keystone XL environmental report

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a sharply critical assessment of the State Department’s recent environmental impact review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, certain to complicate efforts to win approval for the $7-billion project.

In a letter to top State Department officials overseeing the permit process for the pipeline, the EPA lays out detailed objections regarding greenhouse gas emissions related to the project, pipeline safety and alternative routes. Based on its analysis, the EPA said it had “Environmental Objections” to the State Department’s environmental assessment due to “insufficient information. ”

A State Department spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The State Department assessment concluded that Keystone XL would have a minimal impact on the environment. But the EPA analysis appears to challenge that conclusion.


The EPA’s assessment came during the public comment period for the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that the State Department issued last month. The study is supposed to be an exhaustive look at the effect of the proposed pipeline on air, water, endangered species, communities and the economy.

Other federal agencies have the right to comment on the assessment, but the EPA’s is the one most anxiously awaited because a negative analysis by the regulator could raise barriers to the project’s approval.

President Obama said in late 2011 that he would decide the pipeline’s fate, and a final decision is expected by summer.


http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-75579247/

[boutons_deux]

From a 350.org newsletter

"Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013

Friends,

Great news: sometime mid-morning yesterday we reached our goal, when the millionth public comment was submitted to the State Department opposing the Keystone XL pipeline. That's a lot.

In fact, at about the same hour the President put out an Earth Day proclamation saying "nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change." Now we have a chance to see if he means it!

The 350 team put together this graphic to celebrate the occasion and send a message to the President -- can you share it around with your social networks?

Click here to share on Facebook (http://act.350.org/go/3046?t=1&akid=3039.653919.n2Ivhz)

If you're not on Facebook, consider forwarding this email to friends and family to share the good news.

Not long after we crossed the 1 million threshold, the EPA put out a statement that called the State Department's first analysis of the pipline 'insufficient,' pointing out that they got the numbers wrong on the risk of oil spills and the climate impact of the pipeline. That's a sure sign that the relentless pressure we're putting on is having an impact.

All these things came the day after many of us gathered in over 1000(!) living rooms, theaters and auditoriums across the globe to watch the Do the Math Movie, which covered the growth of our movement over the past year or two.

As impressive as all that is, I'm more excited for what comes next. The fossil fuel resistance is growing, and when the heat rises this summer, we're going to show how powerful we've become.

Many thanks for all you've done, and much more soon,

Bill"

[boutons_deux]

Is JK telegraphing a decision against XL?

Kerry Says ‘The Science Is Screaming At All Of Us And Demands Action’. Will He Forsake The Climate For 35 Jobs? (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/22/1903881/kerry-says-the-science-is-screaming-at-all-of-us-and-demands-action-will-he-forsake-the-climate-for-35-jobs/)Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a strong Earth Day message (http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/04/207828.htm) on climate change, calling it a “clear and present danger.”

He also repeated the line from his powerful March remarks on climate change (http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/03/206395.htm) that “the science is screaming” at us to act. But that raises the question — are Kerry and his boss really listening?

The White House started sending signals (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/16/1730621/guardian-white-house-officials-gave-strong-indications-the-president-is-inclined-to-approve-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/) last month “the president is inclined to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.” And, for what it’s worth, David Gordon, State’s director of policy planning when Condoleezza Rice was Secretary, just told a Canadian newspaper (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/obama-set-to-okay-pipeline-former-insider-says-as-poll-shows-support/article11446197/) “I would say the chances are about four-to-one” Obama approves the tar sands pipeline.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/22/1903881/kerry-says-the-science-is-screaming-at-all-of-us-and-demands-action-will-he-forsake-the-climate-for-35-jobs/

I'm pessimistic. Barry has repeatedly proved himself to a conventional political asshole (Harvard law grad, no surprise), not the bomb-throwing revolutionary the country needs to change direction and resisit the 1% and corporatocracy.

[boutons_deux]

Coming Down The Pipeline


http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-Y.jpgesterday, the 45-day "public comment" period on our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, ended, with over 800,000 comments weighing in on the elongated death-funnel designed to transport the world's dirtiest fossil-fuel from the ecological moonscape they've created in Alberta to refineries on the Gulf coast in Texas, and thence to the world, or what's left of it after we burn a good piece of it down. There is starting to be a stirring in the elite press that the White House may be preparing to quietly endorse this bag job. (My man Chuck Todd opined yesterday that he expects the administration to approve the completion of the pipeline some Friday afternoon, maybe at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend.) The State Department's only public hearing on the project - conducted a week ago in Nebraska - turned out to be something of a pep rally for pipeline opponents (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/keystone-xl-hearing-state-department-hearing_n_3113223.html).

It really is remarkable at this point how completely tattered the case for building the pipeline actually is. The jobs claims have been debunked time and again as inflated. The public-safety promises from TransCanada, the corporation seeking to completely the pipeline, have collapsed as badly as that pipeline in Arkansas did. And, in a country that prizes bipartisanship as much as this one allegedly does, the coalition against the pipeline is as diverse as could ever be expected - ranchers and tree-huggers, scientists and Native American activists. On the other side is money and power, and a simple brute desire not to be frustrated by the lines of ranchers, tree-huggers, scientists, and Native American activists. That's the whole fight now. One side wants what it wants because it wants it. Period. The president has to decide where he's lining up.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/comments-closed-on-keystone-pipeline-042313

McKibben claims the "over 800k" is over 1M

[boutons_deux]

Exxon Earns $9.5 Billion Q1 Profit One Month After Arkansas Oil Spill That It Pays No Taxes To Help Clean Up (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/25/1917601/exxon-first-quarter-profit-2013/)

One month after dumping 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil from a ruptured pipeline in Arkansas, the most valuable (http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2013/04/17/exxon-mobil-corp-passes-apple-inc-as.html) and profitable corporation in the world ExxonMobil announced higher first quarter profits. Exxon earned $9.5 billion (http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/news_release_earnings_1q13.pdf) in the first quarter, compared to $9.45 billion last year, and Exxon’s total oil and natural gas production declined 3.5 percent.


Meanwhile, Exxon is exempt from paying taxes (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/02/1810571/exxons-duck-killing-pipeline-doesnt-pay-taxes-to-oil-spill-cleanup-fund/) toward the oil spill liability fund that helps clean up spills like in Arkansas, where wildlife have been killed and covered by oil. The 1980 law exemption applies to diluted bitumen so companies escape paying the 8-cents-per-barrel fee to the fund that helps clean up hundreds of spills each year. At the federal level, Exxon’s tax rate comes to only 13 percent.

Here is how else Exxon spends its dollars, and what it receives in return:

– Exxon spent $12,970,000 on lobbying in 2012 to protect low tax rates and block pollution controls and safeguards for public health. In the first three months of 2013, Exxon spent $4.84 million lobbying (http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldxmlrelease/2013/Q1/300563423.xml).

– The company sent $3.6 million (http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000129) in total political contributions to PACs, candidates, and outside groups for the 2012 election cycle, and 89 percent of contributions went to Republicans. It has spent over $76,000 (http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000000129&cycle=2012) for the 2014 cycle so far.

– Exxon receives an estimated $600 million in annual federal tax breaks (http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/green/report/2012/07/26/11880/romney-tax-plan-many-happy-returns-for-big-oil/#.UIf368y0-SA.email). In 2011, Exxon paid just 13 percent in taxes. The company paid no federal income tax in 2009, despite $45.2 billion record profits.

– In the first quarter, Exxon bought back $5.6 billion of its stock (http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/news_release_earnings_1q13.pdf), or 59 percent of its profit, which enriches the largest shareholders and executives of the company.

– This year, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson received a 15 percent raise (http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20130412-exxon-mobil-ceo-rex-tillerson-gets-15-percent-raise-to-40.3-million.ece) to a $40.3 million salary.



http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/25/1917601/exxon-first-quarter-profit-2013/

[boutons_deux]

Living in autoritarian, entitled BigOil's hell

Houston's Most Polluted Neighborhood Draws the Line at Alberta Tar Sands If the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, 90 percent of the tar sands crude that flows through it will be processed near an embattled Houston neighborhood called Manchester. Residents are joining up to demand a healthier future.

While it’s OK to visit the playground, she says, it’s not OK to bring her camera. On several occasions, security guards from the Valero refinery next door have appeared and ask her to leave, claiming that taking pictures in the park was “illegal.” They’ve even brought in Houston police as reinforcements. Valero, one of the major oil companies operating in this industrial part of Houston, keeps its security busy: Nieto says that they have harassed documentary filmmakers and journalists. And when college students (http://truth-out.org/news/item/16035-houstons-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-the-line-at-alberta-tar-sands#) participating in an “alternative spring break” program came to the park to talk to her about the neighborhood’s problems, a guard drove up in an unmarked vehicle and took video of the meeting on his cellphone.“I'm not afraid of the attention I'm getting from these people,” Nieto says, “because we want people to know that we're aware.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/16035-houstons-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-the-line-at-alberta-tar-sands

[Wild Cobra]

Living in autoritarian, entitled BigOil's hell

Houston's Most Polluted Neighborhood Draws the Line at Alberta Tar Sands If the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, 90 percent of the tar sands crude that flows through it will be processed near an embattled Houston neighborhood called Manchester. Residents are joining up to demand a healthier future.

While it’s OK to visit the playground, she says, it’s not OK to bring her camera. On several occasions, security guards from the Valero refinery next door have appeared and ask her to leave, claiming that taking pictures in the park was “illegal.” They’ve even brought in Houston police as reinforcements. Valero, one of the major oil companies operating in this industrial part of Houston, keeps its security busy: Nieto says that they have harassed documentary filmmakers and journalists. And when college students (http://truth-out.org/news/item/16035-houstons-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-the-line-at-alberta-tar-sands#) participating in an “alternative spring break” program came to the park to talk to her about the neighborhood’s problems, a guard drove up in an unmarked vehicle and took video of the meeting on his cellphone.“I'm not afraid of the attention I'm getting from these people,” Nieto says, “because we want people to know that we're aware.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/16035-houstons-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-the-line-at-alberta-tar-sands
How about showing us the law that allows that.

I simply don't believe it, especially "ThuthOut."

[Nbadan]

While many questions remain following ExxonMobil’s March 29 tar sands oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, a new independent study has revealed the existence of high levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the area.

The new research, co-published by the Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group and Global Community Monitor, indicates that the 500,000 gallons of heavy bitumen oil released by a gash in ExxonMobil’s aging Pegasus pipeline has released hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) as defined by the 1990 US Clean Air Act.

According to a press release in conjunction with the new study, the total of 30 toxic chemicals include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, n-hexane and xylenes. Consequences of exposure to these chemicals include damage to the human nervous system, muscular weakness and blurred vision, while breathing ethylbenzene and benzene in particular can cause cancer and reproductive issues.

According to April Lane of the Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group, health reports collected from residents in the four weeks following the spill show they are demonstrating symptoms consistent with exposure to hazardous chemicals and independent air testing.

http://rt.com/usa/exxon-study-cancer-spill-596/

[Nbadan]

Elected officials in rural Nebraska pass anti-Keystone pipeline resolution
Source: Omaha World Herald
By Joe Duggan



LINCOLN — Elected officials in a rural Nebraska county along the path of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline passed a resolution Tuesday opposing the highly controversial project, a leading opposition group reported.

Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, said the Holt County Board of Supervisors passed the resolution at a meeting in O’Neill. She called it the first anti-pipeline resolution passed by an elected body in the state, although at least one pro-pipeline position has been adopted in a different county.

An assistant in the Holt County Clerk’s office said Tuesday the board was still meeting so she could not confirm the wording of any motions or resolutions discussed or voted upon.

Shawn Howard, a spokesman for the company seeking to build the Keystone XL, said he was unaware of any such resolution.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130430/NEWS/705019955/1685#elected-officials-in-rural-nebraska-pass-anti-keystone-pipeline-resolution

[Homeland Security]

They always said that Obama would show his true colors once he wasn't bound by the need to run for re-election anymore.

Turns out his true colors are those of a measured pragmatist. All his leftist rhetoric ever was was lip service to draw campaign contributions from the socialist fringe.

What delicious schadenfreude there is now from watching the impotent rage of the hard left.

[Wild Cobra]

They always said that Obama would show his true colors once he wasn't bound by the need to run for re-election anymore.

Turns out his true colors are those of a measured pragmatist. All his leftist rhetoric ever was was lip service to draw campaign contributions from the socialist fringe.

What delicious schadenfreude there is now from watching the impotent rage of the hard left.
Looks to me like his true colors are cozying up the the Muslim Brotherhood.

[boutons_deux]

Obama urged by Democrat backers to reject pipelineThe biggest backers of the Democratic causes urged Barack Obama (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama) on Friday to take historic action on climate change (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change) by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/keystone-xl-pipeline).

In a letter seen by the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/may/10/letter-barack-obama-keystone-xl-pipeline-project), 150 high-profile figures, who between them raised millions for Obama's two election campaigns, urged the president to use the next four years to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/may/10/letter-barack-obama-keystone-xl-pipeline-project)"Yours is the last presidency in which it is possible for America to choose a responsible path forward for itself, before climate disruption becomes unmanageably dangerous," the letter said.

Opponents of the pipeline fear the project seems headed for approval, despite Obama's promises to act on climate change in his second term. Obama told a group at a west coast fundraiser last month: "the politics of this are tough."

The letter contends that the Keystone XL project would be the most important environmental decision of Obama's presidency.

Opponents of the pipeline say it will open up the vast store of carbon in the Alberta tar sands. The pipeline could pump up to 830,000 barrels a day of tar sands crude to refineries on the Texas coast.

"This decision more than any other will signal your direction, your commitment, your resolve," the letter said. "It is the biggest, most explicit statement you will make in this historic moment, the moment when America turns from denial to solutions – or fails to."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/10/keystone-xl-obama-democrats-backers-pipeline?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-3%20Main%20trailblock:Network%20front%20-%20main%20trailblock:Position7

My bet? He approves XL, in spite of all the hype about US becoming again a leading producer to its own oil.

[Homeland Security]

Looks to me like his true colors are cozying up the the Muslim Brotherhood.
secret muslim!!!!1!! al qaeda is behind the global warming hoax!!!!1! damn these engineerses thinking they know more than me!!!

[boutons_deux]

Just like the Gulf is still fucked, the Arkansas oil spill continues to fuck

Arkansas Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill Are on Their Own
The Arkansas Department of Health says people with dizziness, nausea and headaches have the option to leave, and it is their personal choice. :lol
"Overall, air emissions in the community continue to be below levels likely to cause health effects for the general population," Arkansas regulators wrote on a state-operated website (http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/hazwaste/mayflower_oil_spill_2013/) that tracks Mayflower's air monitoring data.

Despite these reassurances, residents have suffered headaches, nausea and vomiting—classic symptoms of short-term exposure to the chemicals found in crude oil.

"Figuring out how to protect people after a disaster like this is very hard," said Aaron Bernstein (http://chge.med.harvard.edu/about/people/aaron-bernstein), a public health expert and associate director of Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment. "People living near the spill early on could definitely have gotten sick" from the concentrations present in the air.

Much of the attention is focused on airborne levels of benzene, a known carcinogen that is toxic at very low doses. But crude oil also contains hundreds of other chemicals, and for some of these compounds, little is known about their effects on human health.

Given the gaps in scientific research, public health experts say it's hard to know what levels of exposure are safe.


The people with acute symptoms are going through something that is "real and really debilitating," said Wilma Subra (http://leanweb.org/about-us/staff/wilma-subra), an environmental consultant who has spent decades working with communities hit by chemical accidents. Subra is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant and works extensively with people impacted by the BP Gulf spill.


Subra said she's concerned that only 22 families were evacuated. "They focused on the 22 homes ... but all around there's residential homes, churches, schools, and those people were just ignored."

Three days after the spill, indoor air monitoring showed that the air inside the elementary school—which lies about half a mile from the rupture site—was safe to breathe. But eight students were sent home after falling sick (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/11/us-exxon-spill-mayflower-insight-idUSBRE93A0PI20130411) from headaches and vomiting.

Shelia Harrell, who lives two blocks from where the crude oil bubbled out of the ground, said that although residents on the other side of the subdivision were evacuated, she received no guidance about whether she should leave her home as a precaution.

So Harrell and her husband stayed put, enduring several nights of burning, acrid odors. Now she's worried about what exactly she was exposed to during that time.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130508/arkansas-residents-sick-exxon-oil-spill-are-their-own

[boutons_deux]

Grayson bitch slapping Boner for the Repugs' unConstitutional H.R.3 "Northern Route Approval Act"


http://graysonforcongress.com/sites/default/files/LettertoSpeaker5-21-13.pdf

[boutons_deux]

Exposed: Canadian Oil and Gas Workers, Many Unions, Now Oppose Keystone XL Pipeline

Amidst the ongoing jobs-vs-environment debate, however, one voice is noticeably absent: the bitumen workers in Canada who are largely against long-term tar sands extraction and the building of the pipeline.

“We're diametrically opposed to the construction of it,” said David Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), which represents 35,000 Canadian oil and gas workers, including thousands laboring in the country's tar sands. “The Keystone XL is not good for the economy, it's not good for the environment, it violates all kinds of First Nations rights.”

Coles says the union also opposes “the unfettered expansion” of tar sands extraction, saying “it's not in the best interest of Canada and it's not in the best interest of our members.” Coles and members of his staff were arrested in 2011 during a series of sit-ins in front of the White House to protest the pipeline. He says the CEP planned to send a delegation to subsequent rallies opposing the project, but called off plans after U.S. construction unions threatened to picket them.

It also claims the pipeline will establish “20,000 immediate private sector jobs that do not rely on any government funding.”

The alleged 20,000 figure was first pushed by TransCanada, the company slated to build the pipeline should President Obama approve it. The company boldly insists the XL will spur another 119,000 auxiliary jobs.



a comprehensive study (http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_012312_FIN.pdf) by Cornell Global Labor Institute casts severe doubt on these numbers. Researchers point out that half of the steal used for the pipeline will be manufactured abroad, most of the jobs that the pipeline creates will be temporary, and 85% to 90% of those jobs will go to workers from outside the U.S. states which the pipeline passes through.


The State Department's Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/) for the Keystone XL, which was released earlier this year, has been roundly condemned for relying on consultants with direct ties (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/keystone-xl-contractor-ties-transcanada-state-department) to TransCanada. Still, the study that was designed to help President Obama make up his mind found that the pipeline would create only 35 permanent and 15 temporary jobs. Based on testimony that backers of the pipeline delivered to Canada's National Energy Board, Coles even estimated the number of jobs created could be as low as seven.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/16700-exposed-canadian-oil-and-gas-workers-many-unions-now-oppose-keystone-xl-pipeline

[boutons_deux]

British Columbia Rejects Tar Sands PipelineEfforts to expand production from the Alberta tar sands suffered a significant setback on Friday when the provincial government of British Columbia rejected a pipeline project because of environmental shortcomings.

In a strongly worded statement, the government of the province said it was not satisfied with the pipeline company's oil (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/oil) spill response plans.

The rejection of the pipeline – which was to have given Alberta an outlet to Pacific coast ports and markets in China – further raises the stakes on another controversial tar sands pipeline, Keystone XL.

Barack Obama is still weighing a decision on that pipeline, intended to pump tar sands crude to the Texas gulf coast.

British Columbia, in its official submission to a pipeline review panel, said the company had failed to demonstrate an adequate clean-up plan for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. It set five new conditions for the project's approval.

"Northern Gateway has presented little evidence about how it will respond in the event of a spill," Christopher Jones, a lawyer representing the province, said in a statement to the federal government panel reviewing the project.

"It is not clear from the evidence that Northern Gateway will in fact be able to respond effectively to spills either from the pipeline itself, or from tankers transporting diluted bitumen," Jones added.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/01/tar-sands-canada-pipeline-enbridge

:lol

but Barry's gonna get down on his knees and suck off Rex Tillerson :lol

[boutons_deux]

‘Every Plant And Tree Died’: Huge Alberta Pipeline Spill Raises Safety Questions As Keystone Decision Looms (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/06/18/2167151/every-plant-and-tree-died-huge-alberta-pipeline-spill-raises-safety-questions-as-keystone-decision-looms/)


http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Alberta-pipeline-spill-e1371564188551.jpg

As the Obama administration’s decision regarding whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline draws nearer, the latest disaster is raising serious concerns about the safety of Canada’s rapidly expanding pipeline network.

A massive toxic waste spill (http://globalnews.ca/news/637772/pipeline-in-northern-alberta-leaks-9-5-million-litres-of-industrial-waste-water/) from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta is being called one of the largest recent environmental disasters in North America. First reported on June 1, the Texas-based Apache Corp. didn’t reveal the size of the spill until June 12, which is said to cover more than 1,000 acres.


Members of the Dene Tha First Nation tribe are outraged that it took several days before they were informed that 9.5 million liters of salt and heavy-metal-laced wastewater had leaked onto wetlands they use for hunting and trapping.

“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha.

As the Globe and Mail reports (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/apache-pipeline-leaks-60000-barrels-of-salty-water-in-northwest-alberta/article12494371/), the Apache disaster is not an anomaly:
The leak follows a pair of other major spills in the region, including 800,000 litres of an oil-water mixture from Pace Oil and Gas Ltd., and nearly 3.5 million litres of oil from a pipeline run by Plains Midstream Canada.
After those accidents, the Dene Tha had asked the Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta’s energy regulator, to require installation of pressure and volume monitors, as well as emergency shutoff devices, on aging oil and gas infrastructure. The Apache spill has renewed calls for change.

Following initial speculation that the leak stemmed from aging infrastructure, officials from Apache Corp. revealed (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/northern-alberta-pipeline-was-only-five-years-old-before-toxic-spill/article12536856/) that the pipeline was only five years old and had been designed to last for 30.


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/06/18/2167151/every-plant-and-tree-died-huge-alberta-pipeline-spill-raises-safety-questions-as-keystone-decision-looms/

As we heard from BP/Alaska, etc, BigOilGas does almost no preventative maintenance/replacement, but runs everything until it stops, leaks, fails, explodes. Then payoff the dead workers' families after many years of litigation delay to screw them down, pay a handslap fine, also litigated to to nothing, etc, etc.

IOW, "Just Trust Us" to maximize profits and fuck over anything and anybody that reduces profits.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

They always said that Obama would show his true colors once he wasn't bound by the need to run for re-election anymore.

Turns out his true colors are those of a measured pragmatist. All his leftist rhetoric ever was was lip service to draw campaign contributions from the socialist fringe.

What delicious schadenfreude there is now from watching the impotent rage of the hard left.
You really think there's that much rage from the hard left? Some people (like me) call out Obama for being a middle-right winger on economic/foreign policy issues, however most "liberals" I know blindly defend the guy and have convinced themselves he's a liberal.

[boutons_deux]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/05/18/business/PILE/PILE-articleLarge.jpg


A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit

a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.

Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/oil_petroleum_and_gasoline/oil_sands/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) boom.

And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.

The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups that challenge the science behind climate change. The company sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas, where it is burned as fuel.

The coke comes from a refinery alongside the river owned by Marathon Petroleum, which has been there since 1930. But it began refining exports from the Canadian oil sands — and producing the waste that is sold to Koch — only in November.
“What is really, really disturbing to me is how some companies treat the city of Detroit as a dumping ground,” said Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan state representative for that part of Detroit. “Nobody knew this was going to happen.” Almost 56 percent of Canada’s oil (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) production is from the petroleum-soaked oil sands of northern Alberta, some 2,000 miles away.

An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke, of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled. Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta. Much is just piled up there.

Detroit’s pile will not be the only one. Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States, which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keystone_pipeline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) pipeline, have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.

Marathon Petroleum’s plant in Detroit processes 28,000 barrels a day of the oil sands bitumen.

Residents on both sides of the Detroit River are concerned that the coke mountain is both an environmental threat and an eyesore.

“Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, one of Windsor’s Parliament members. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.”

Coke, which is mainly carbon, is an essential ingredient in steelmaking as well as producing the electrical anodes used to make aluminum.

While there is high demand from both those industries, the small grains and high sulfur content of this petroleum coke make it largely unusable for those purposes

“It is worse than a byproduct,” Ms. Satterthwaite said.“It’s a waste byproduct that is costly and inconvenient to store, but effectively costs nothing to produce.”

Alberta backed away from plans to use the petroleum coke as a fuel source, partly over concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions. Some of it is burned there, however, to power coking plants.

The Keystone XL pipeline will provide Gulf Coast refineries with a steady supply of diluted bitumen from the oil sands. The plants on the coast, like the coking refineries concentrated in California to deal with that state’s heavy crude oil, are positioned to ship the waste to China or Mexico, where it is burned as a fuel. California exports (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/us/oil-exports-have-become-huge-business-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area.html) about 128,000 barrels of petroleum coke a day, mainly to China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[boutons_deux]

Narrow and Flawed, Federal Pipeline Safety Study Fails to Settle Controversy

Diluted bitumen, a controversial form of heavy Canadian oil, poses no more risks to pipelines than conventional oil, according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday (http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/717624-sr-311-diluted-bitumen-prepub-final.html) by the National Academy of Sciences.

But environmentalists and pipeline watchdogs said the study's scope was so narrow and its methodology so flawed that it does little to settle the controversy over whether diluted bitumen, or dilbit, is more dangerous to humans and the environment than the light, conventional crude oil that most U.S. pipelines were built to handle.

Some of the challenges the academy faced in preparing the report are mentioned in the body of the report. But the study's executive summary, where the authors presented their main findings, reflects none of the uncertainties behind the data.

PHMSA hired the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) (http://www.nasonline.org/) to conduct the study. But it specifically limited the scope of the report to an examination of whether pipelines carrying dilbit are more likely to leak than pipelines carrying conventional crude oil.

Mark Barteau (http://che.engin.umich.edu/people/barteau.html), chair of the 12-member NAS committee that conducted the study, told reporters during a Tuesday press call that the committee did not consider the consequences of a spill — and that the committee members
didn't have the expertise to discuss that issue. :lol

The issue is important because dilbit behaves differently from conventional crude oil when it spills into water. A 2010 dilbit spill in Michigan's Kalamazoo River is still being cleaned up nearly three years later (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20121011/epa-dilbit-enbridge-6b-pipeline-kalamazoo-river-cleanup-tar-sands-oil-sands-keystone-xl-landowners-environment). Unlike conventional oil, which usually floats on water, dilbit is composed of bitumen—a heavy crude oil—and light hydrocarbons used to thin the bitumen so it can flow through pipelines. During the Kalamazoo spill, the light chemicals gradually evaporated, leaving the bitumen to sink into the riverbed.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130626/narrow-and-flawed-federal-pipeline-safety-study-fails-settle-controversy

[boutons_deux]

No one knows how to stop these tar-sands oil spills

Thousands of barrels of tar-sands oil have been burbling up into forest areas for at least six weeks in Cold Lake, Alberta, and it seems that nobody knows how to staunch the flow.

An underground oil blowout at a big tar-sands operation run by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has caused spills at four different sites over the past few months. (This is different from the 100-acre spill in Alberta that we told you about (http://grist.org/news/pipeline-spills-oil-waste-over-more-than-100-acres-of-alberta/) last month, which was caused by a ruptured pipeline.)

Media and others have been blocked from visiting the sites, but the Toronto Star obtained documents and photographs about the ongoing disaster from a government scientist involved in the cleanup, who spoke to the reporter on condition of anonymity. The prognosis is sickening. From Friday’s article (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/19/nobody_understands_ongoing_spills_at_alberta_oilsa nds_operation.html):

The documents and photos show dozens of animals, including beavers and loons, have died, and that [nearly 34 tons] of oily vegetation has been cleared from the latest of the four spill zones. …
“Everybody (at the company and in government) is freaking out about this,” said the scientist. “We don’t understand what happened. Nobody really understands how to stop it from leaking, or if they do they haven’t put the measures into place.”


The disaster raises big, scary questions about the safety of the underground oil extraction method being used:

The company’s operations use an “in situ” or underground extraction technology called “cyclic steam stimulation,” which involves injecting thousands of gallons of superhot, high-pressure steam into deep underground reservoirs. This heats and liquefies the hard bitumen and creates cracks through which the bitumen flows and is then pumped to the surface. …
Oil companies have said in situ methods are more environmentally friendly than the open-pit mining often associated with the Alberta oil sands, but in situ is more carbon and water-intensive.


And perhaps more spill-intensive:

“This is a new kind of oil spill and there is no ‘off button,’” said Keith Stewart, an energy analyst with Greenpeace who teaches a course on energy policy and environment at the University of Toronto. “You can’t cap it like a conventional oil well or turn off a valve on a pipeline.

“You are pressurizing the oil bed so hard that it’s no wonder that it blows out. This means that the oil will continue to leak until the well is no longer pressurized,” which means the bitumen could be seeping from the ground for months.


The spills are happening on traditional territory of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, whose members are understandably seething. From iNews 880 (http://www.inews880.com/news/edmonton/story.aspx?ID=2009648):

[Beaver Lake Cree Nation citizen Crystal] Lameman says as a Treaty Status First Nation person she feels her rights and treaties are being violated as she is not being allowed in her ancestor’s traditional hunting ground.

“We should have free access to it as treaty status Indians and we have no access to it and we can’t trust what we’re being told now,” explains Lameman.

… The First Nation is pursuing a constitutional challenge that argues the impacts of the oil sands are infringing their treaty rights to hunt, fish and trap.


In case you’d forgotten, it’s just this kind of tar-sands oil that would be shipped down the middle of America through the Keystone XL pipeline. If the Obama administration approves the pipeline project, even more tar-sands oil extraction is likely in Alberta (https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.350.org/images/kxl-own-words-v2.pdf) [PDF] — and even more spills.


http://grist.org/news/no-one-knows-how-to-stop-these-tar-sands-oil-spills/

[boutons_deux]

Amid Pipeline Debate, Two Costly Cleanups Forever Change Towns


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/11/us/PIPELINE-1/PIPELINE-1-articleLarge.jpg



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/us/amid-pipeline-debate-two-costly-cleanups-forever-change-towns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[boutons_deux]

...

[boutons_deux]

Remember The Tar Sands Leaks That No One Knew How To Stop In July? They’re Still Leaking. (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/25/2676791/remember-the-tar-sands-leaks-that-no-one-knew-how-to-stop-in-july-theyre-still-leaking/)

The first of the four ongoing leaks at the Primrose site was reported May 20, and may well have (http://o.canada.com/2013/07/25/oil-spill-alberta-underground/#.UfKdpJVW-x0.twitter) started leaking long before that. As of September 11, the leaks have spilled more than 403,900 gallons (http://www.aer.ca/compliance-and-enforcement/incident-reporting-current-and-archive) — or about 9,617 barrels — of oily bitumen into the surrounding boreal forest and muskeg, the acidic, marshy soil found in the forest. In addition, 14,491 metric tons — 31,947,188 pounds — of “impacted soils” have been removed from the site, along with 515 cubic meters — 18,151 cubic feet — of oily vegetation. Two beavers, 49 birds, 105 amphibians and 46 small mammals have been killed as a result of the spill, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator.

Back in July, CNR attributed (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/29/2283411/tar-sands-oil-has-been-leaking-into-alberta-for-10-weeks-and-no-one-knows-how-to-stop-it/) the cause of the four leaks to “mechanical failures of wellbores in the vicinity of the impacted areas,” but the Alberta Energy Regulator said in August that it was “far to early (http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=5423)” to determine the cause of the event. CNRL said (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/canadian-natural-resources-blames-mechanical-failures-races-to-control-bitumen-leaks/article13523157/) that the seepage was “now controlled to specific containment areas where it is effectively recovered as it reaches the surface” — basically, that the leaks were being monitored and the oil cleaned up, but the leaks weren’t being stopped.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/25/2676791/remember-the-tar-sands-leaks-that-no-one-knew-how-to-stop-in-july-theyre-still-leaking/

[angrydude]

You know this is just a fight between two rich people don't you?

[boutons_deux]

You know this is just a fight between two rich people don't you?

blocking XL pipeline is BigCarbon and BigCapital vs Human-Americans and the environment

[boutons_deux]

Smells like XL will be approved

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/ustr_tarsands

[Fabbs]

[FONT=arial]Amid Pipeline Debate, Two Costly Cleanups Forever Change Towns


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/11/us/PIPELINE-1/PIPELINE-1-articleLarge.jpg
In May, the E.P.A. found that Enbridge had drastically underestimated the amount of oil still in the river. The agency estimated that 180,000 gallons had most likely drifted to the bottom, [SIZE=4]more than 100 times Enbridge’s projection.

Big Oil scuzbags will lie about anything. :rolleyes

[angrydude]

blocking XL pipeline is BigCarbon and BigCapital vs Human-Americans and the environment

wrong. It's between trains and pipelines.

[boutons_deux]

wrong. It's between trains and pipelines.

I'm RIGHT, as always.

XL, no matter how transported, is BigCarbon vs Human-Americans and the environment.

[Fabbs]

And now the North Dakota fields get Big Oils spill scuz.
Or was this the 1st spill?

ND farmer finds oil spill while harvesting wheat
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota farmer who discovered an oil spill the size of seven football fields while out harvesting wheat says that when he found it, crude was bubbling up out of the ground.

Farmer Steve Jensen says he smelled the crude for days before the tires on his combines were coated in it. At the apparent break in the Tesoro Corp.'s underground pipeline, the oil was "spewing and bubbling 6 inches high," he said in a telephone interview Thursday.

What Jensen had found on Sept. 29 turned out it was one of the largest spills recorded in the state. At 20,600 barrels it was four times the size of a pipeline rupture in late March that forced the evacuation of more than 20 homes in Arkansas.

But it was 12 days after Jensen reported the spill before state officials told the public what had happened, raising questions about how North Dakota, which is in the midst of an oil boom, reports such incidents.

The spill happened in a remote area in the northwest corner of the state. The nearest home is a half-mile away, and Tesoro says no water sources were contaminated, no wildlife was hurt and no one was injured.

The release of oil has been stopped, state environment geologist Kris Roberts said Thursday. And the spill — spread out over 7.3 acres, or about the size of seven football fields, — has been contained.

Jacob Wiedmer, who was helping Jensen harvest his wheat crop, likened the Sept. 29 discovery to the theme song from "The Beverly Hillbillies" television show.

"It was just like Jed Clampett shooting at some food ..." he said of the oil coming from the ground. "Except we weren't hunting, we were harvesting."

Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who says he wasn't even told about what happened until Wednesday night, said the state is now investigating its procedures for reporting spills.
(Fabbs here. As if that wasn't gone over before the whole idea of a pipeline here was brought up.)

"There are many questions to be answered on how it occurred and how it was detected and if there was anything that could have been done that could have made a difference," Dalrymple said Thursday, when questioned at a news conference on a separate topic.

"Initially, it was felt that the spill was not overly large," Dalrymple said. "When they realized it was a fairly sizable spill, they began to contact more people about it."

Jensen said he had harvested most of his wheat before the spill, but the land is no longer usable for planting.

"We expect not to be able to farm that ground for several years," he said.

Tesoro Logistics, a subsidiary of the San Antonio, Texas-based company that owns and operates parts of Tesoro's oil infrastructure, said in a statement that the affected portion of the pipeline has been shut down.

"Protection and care of the environment are fundamental to our core values, and we deeply regret any impact to the landowner," Tesoro CEO Greg Goff said in a statement. "We will continue to work tirelessly to fully remediate the release area."

Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club, said the spill is an example of the lack of oversight in a state that has exploded with oil development in recent years.
"We need more inspectors and more transparency," Schafer said. "Not only is the public not informed, but agencies don't appear to be aware of what's going on and that's not good."

Eric Haugstad, Tesoro's director of contingency planning and emergency response, said the hole in the 20-year-old pipeline was a quarter-inch in diameter. Tesoro officials were investigating what caused the hole in the 6-inch-diameter steel pipeline that runs underground about 35 miles from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border.

Roberts said state and federal regulators are monitoring the cleanup, and Tesoro estimated it would cost $4 million.

A natural layer of clay more than 40 feet thick underlies the spill site and has "held the oil up" so that it does not spread to underground water sources, Roberts said.

"It is completely contained and under control," Roberts said Thursday. "They got very lucky."

___

Follow James MacPherson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/macphersonja

[Fabbs]

^^^ Gregory Goff, CEO of Tesoro Logistics LP of San Antonio which owns and operates the broken pipleline.
Prior to joining us, Mr. Goff served as Senior Vice President, Commercial for ConocoPhillips Corporation.
$10 million a year. That is simply what is reported. Who knows how much he really makes.
I'm sure he is really concerned with the spills damaging effects. :rolleyes

[boutons_deux]

up the fine to $1M/gallon spilled and let's see if they start to do preventative maintenance/replacement on pipelines.

The strategy is "run it all until it breaks, blows up, etc, bury the victims, cleanup, pay the families, pay the handslap fines" and carry on as before.

[boutons_deux]

New Report Reveals Koch Brothers Could Make $100B Profit if Keystone XL Pipeline is Built

http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/kochmap.jpg


“The Kochs have repeatedly claimed that they have no interest in the Keystone XL pipeline, this report shows that is false,” said Victor Menotti, executive director of IFG.

“We noticed Koch Funded Tea Party members and think tanks pushing for the pipeline. We dug deeper and found $100 billion in profits, $50 million sent to organizations supporting the pipeline, and perhaps 2 million acres of land. That sounds like an interest.”

Other findings in the report include:


The Kochs will earn 1 million times more than the average worker of the pipeline.
The Kochs alone own more than 19 billion metric tons of carbon emissions in their tar sands holdings.
Think tanks funded by the Kochs have released nearly 1,000 pro-Keystone XL reports or statements.
Kochs have already made billions from insider trading and stand to do that again with tar sands.
Koch Industries has a history of violence against people and the environment.
The Koch Brothers seek to alter the public debate and control the policy debates in Washington.


“The past two weeks of the government shutdown (http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/17/government-shutdown-impacted-health-and-environment/) brought to light the irresponsible influence of Koch-funded groups,” said Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska.

“Rewarding the Koch Brothers with Keystone XL, who at every turn fund campaigns to mislead Americans on everything from climate to gas prices, is like the President advocating for Sen. Cruz to be the Majority Leader. It makes no sense. Farmers and ranchers in Nebraska are depending on President Obama to see our national interest is not served with a pipeline that lines the pockets of climate deniers and foreign oil.”

http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/20/koch-brothers-100-billion-profit-keystone-xl-pipeline-built/

Yeah, the Kock Bros say they have no interest in XL, like they said the didn't support Cruz' govt shutdown. :lol

[boutons_deux]

Report Questions Keystone XL Pipeline's Integrity

A consumer advocacy group says it has documented more than 100 excavations of potential construction problems across a 250-mile stretch of the Keystone XL pipeline’s Texas portion, raising questions about the integrity of one of the the most controversial crude oil transportation projects in recent history, which stretches below more than 600 rivers and streams in the state.

The segment of the Keystone XL pipeline that will pipe crude oil from Cushing, Okla., to the oil refineries in Texas’ Gulf Coast (http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/) is nearly complete, and the Canadian energy company Transcanada says the extension will come online this year or early next. Unlike the hotly contested northern segment of the pipeline, which connects Oklahoma to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, the southern section doesn’t require federal approval because it does not cross any international boundaries.

But with its report, the group, Public Citizen, is calling for more scrutiny over the southern leg's construction. On top of calls for more testing of the pipeline, the report asks federal regulators to review TransCanada’s construction records, and to strengthen inspection requirements. Public Citizen also says that Congress should hold oversight hearings to make sure regulators follow recommendations.

“This is one of those instances in which we can’t afford to be wrong,” said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who directs the group’s Texas chapter. “The consequences of a failure could be enormous.”

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/11/12/report-questions-keystone-xl-pipelines-integrity/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=alerts&utm_campaign=News%20Alert:%20Subscriptions

[boutons_deux]

Looks like the WH is rigging the XL environmental review, asking a fox to guard the hen house.

Politico reported this week that Energy Resources Management (ERM) - the contractor hired by the State Department to conduct the crucial environmental analysis of Keystone XL - is a member of no fewer than five oil-industry trade groups that are pushing for approval of Keystone XL.1
It is simply fantasy to expect that a company with such deep ties to the oil-industry would be capable of an impartial decision on a project that the industry has been so desperately demanding.

[boutons_deux]

Researchers find 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada

http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2013/12/29/7-500-mile-ring-ofmercuryfoundaroundcanadastarsands/jcr:content/mainpar/adaptiveimage/src.adapt.960.high.1388440456566.jpg



Scientists have found a more than 7,300-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing oil and shipping it throughout Canada and the U.S.

Government scientists are preparing to publish a report that found levels of mercury are up to 16 times higher around the tar-sand operations — principally due to the excavation and transportation of bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies, according to Postmedia-owned Canadian newspapers like The Vancouver Sun (http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Mercury+levels+rising+expanse+around+Alberta+oilsa nds/9332186/story.html).

Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk recently presented the findings at a toxicology conference in Nashville, Tenn.

The revelations add to growing concerns (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/10/study-keystone-xlpipelinewonthavesignificantimpactonenvironment.h tml) over the environmental impact of mining the tar sands. Many environmentalists charge that extracting oil from the sands will lead to an increase in carbon emissions (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/dirtyfuels_tar.asp), the destruction of the land, water contamination and health problems for Canadians. The debate over the tar sands crossed over into the United States when energy company TransCanada proposed building the Keystone XL pipeline (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/20/canada-regulatoroksoilpipelinetopacificcoastamidnativeopp osition.html) to transport crude oil to the southeastern U.S. for refining and distribution.

Kirk and her colleagues' research shows that the development of the tar sands may be responsible for spreading mercury — which can cause nervous-system damage — far beyond the areas where drilling and transportation are taking place.

The research suggests that the tar-sand development has created a ring of mercury contamination, with areas close to the sands showing much higher levels of mercury than before development.

The researchers collected samples of dirt, snow, birds eggs and other materials from more than 100 sites to perform their analysis.

While the mercury levels found around the sands are still lower than in other parts of Canada (notably around coal plants and incinerators), mercury is particularly worrisome to environmentalists because it can bioaccumulate, meaning it becomes more concentrated as it works its way up the food chain.

In a report published in October, another Canadian researcher found elevated levels of mercury in bird eggs (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/mercury-levels-rising-near-alberta-oil-sands-study-finds/article14855997/) downstream from the tar sands.

Kirk and her team also found traces of methylmercury, a more toxic form of mercury, in snow for the first time in the area.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/29/7-500-mile-ring-ofmercuryfoundaroundcanadastarsands.html

BigCarbon, polluting the planet.

[boutons_deux]

Bluegrass Uprising

As American energy production booms, thousands face pipelines in their backyards.

By the end of the summer, distressed property owners and other Kentucky residents had united in an uprising against the pipeline. The project hasn’t aroused much public outcry in the other seven states it would cross. But in Kentucky, the proposed route traverses hallowed terrain: the eponymous Bluegrass Region, where the Kentucky Derby’s prizewinning horses graze; rolling hills pocked by springs, rivers, and aquifers that flow through the limestone soils and give Kentucky bourbon its characteristic taste. Opponents say a pipeline spill could destroy Kentucky’s traditional economies. Signs saying No Proposed Bluegrass Pipeline now line many of the rural roads; one sits at the edge of Reed’s yard. Officials in several counties and one city have passed resolutions protesting the pipeline or pleading with the state or federal government to consider the potential impact on property rights and the environment. Since at least October, land agents hired by the pipeline developers have been privately making deals with property owners—but some, like Reed, say they won’t budge.

* * *
It’s becoming a familiar battle for the fossil-fuel industry, as it scrambles to build new infrastructure to move the massive quantities of oil and gas that it’s producing in the Northeast, Southwest, Rockies and Great Plains. As technology has made it easier and more cost-effective to extract natural gas and oil trapped in rock formations, fossil-fuel production has boomed in the United States, reversing a decades-long decline in domestic fuel production. (The International Energy Agency predicts that the United States will be the world’s number-one producer of oil and gas by the end of 2015.) But despite President Obama’s brag in 2012 that he’s overseen enough new pipelines to “encircle the Earth and then some,” the United States is fracking and drilling so enthusiastically that the builders of pipelines can barely keep up. “Developing new pipeline capacity…will not be without difficulties,” the Brookings Institution wrote in a 2013 report. “Landowner rights…pose potential obstacles that can slow down the construction process.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20967-bluegrass-uprising

(red state) Na'vi putting up a good fight, but SkyPeople always win.

[boutons_deux]

Canadian Support Of Keystone XL Pipeline Is Falling, New Poll Says (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/16/3172311/keystone-canadian-support-poll/)

Canadian support for the Keystone XL pipeline has begun to drop off, according to a new poll.

The poll (http://www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls/POLNAT-W14-T593E.pdf), released Thursday by Nanos Research Group, surveyed 1,000 Canadians in mid-December and found that 52 percent of them supported building Keystone XL, a result that’s down 16 percentage points from 68 percent in April. The poll also found opposition for the pipeline grew to 40 percent, up from 28 percent in April. Canadians’ views of Keystone XL have also soured, according to the poll: 48 percent said they have a positive or somewhat positive impression of the pipeline, down from 60 percent in April.

Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research and Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told Bloomberg (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-15/canada-support-for-keystone-pipeline-declining-nanos-poll-says) he thinks the poll’s results could make the Canadian government concerned for the future of the project.

“This has implications for the anti-Keystone movement in both countries,” he said.

The new poll brings the Canadian support level on par with the most recent U.S. polls on Keystone XL. A December Bloomberg National Poll found 56 percent of American respondents supported the project, but that 58 percent also supported requirements that Canada reduced carbon dioxide emissions of the project.

The poll also comes as Canadian government projections (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/14/canada-carbon-emissions-2030-tar-sands) predict that emissions in the country will increase by 38 percent by 2030, largely due to expanding extraction of the tar sands. Emissions from the tar sands are predicted to quadruple between 2005 and 2030, reaching levels of 137 million Metric tons — more, according to Tar Sands Solutions (http://tarsandssolutions.org/member-blogs/the-trouble-with-2030), than the combined emissions of every Canadian province east of Ontario.


“Who’d have imagined that digging up the tar sands would somehow add carbon to the atmosphere?” 350.org founder Bill McKibben told the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/14/canada-carbon-emissions-2030-tar-sands). “That Canada watched the Arctic melt and then responded like this will be remembered by history.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/16/3172311/keystone-canadian-support-poll/

[boutons_deux]

Looking for a Way Around Keystone XL, Canadian Oil Hits the Railshttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/business/energy-environment/looking-for-a-way-around-keystone-xl-canadian-oil-hits-the-rails.html

[RandomGuy]

...
Kirk and her team also found traces of methylmercury, a more toxic form of mercury, in snow for the first time in the area.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/29/7-500-mile-ring-ofmercuryfoundaroundcanadastarsands.html

BigCarbon, polluting the planet.

[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

I think we are only beginning to learn about the damage that is, and will be, done.

Seems like an extremely risky endeavor, with limited payback.

[boutons_deux]

I think we are only beginning to learn about the damage that is, and will be, done.

Seems like an extremely risky endeavor, with limited payback.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylmercury

[boutons_deux]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rxqUXqPzog#t=17

[boutons_deux]

Pretending Keystone XL Politics Is Science


. It turns out that “the analysis of greenhouse-gas emission presented by the State Department in its new environmental impact statement … includes dozens of references to reports by Jacobs Consultancy, a group that is owned by a big tar sands developer and that was hired by the Alberta government—which strongly favors the project.”
? (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/files/2014/02/oil-sands-refinery.jpg)An oil sands refinery in Alberta. © David Biello

You might expect a bigger public outcry given that State’s Inspector General was already investigating (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/31/state-department-ig-wont-release-keystone-xl-report-on-a-contractor-friday/)accusations that the environmental consultancy hired by the department to produce the report, Environmental Resources Management, has financial ties to TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline. Despite the fact that InsideClimate is a Pulitzer-winning investigative news outlet, its scoop was a classic week-two, follow-up story – the kind the public too often overlooks.

The problem is not the media, however, but rather the State Department. The first glut of articles, the one most people notice and that largely defines public opinion (http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/05/the-anchoring-effect-how-the-mind-is-biased-by-first-impressions.php), appeared the day that the environmental impact report was released. Most, including those from The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/us/politics/report-may-ease-way-to-approval-of-keystone-pipeline.html?_r=0) and the Associated Press (http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022802976_apxkeystonepipeline.html), mentioned the Inspector General’s investigation of ERM, but State didn’t give journalists time to dig into the report to identify other concerns like the role of Jacobs Consultancy.

Instead, State issued a press release on January 31, the Friday before the Super Bowl. A select group of reporters received a link to the report and an invitation to a privateteleconference (http://www.state.gov/e/oes/rls/remarks/2014/221129.htm) that morning. On the call, they were told that the report was under embargo until 3 p.m., giving them about five hours to read and digest a document that runs (http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/finalseis/index.htm) over 11 volumes with appendices. The executive summary alone has 44 pages, with over 18,000 words, not to mention charts, graphs, and tables.


Pretending Politics is Science

To complicate matters, the State Department official who led the teleconference and fielded questions from reporters was Kerri-Ann Jones (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/130147.htm), State’s Assistant Secretary of Scientific Affairs, who kept referring to the report as a “technical” document. However, the report was never about science. It’s simply politics. A week before the report came out, The Wall Street Journal reported (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579339150469162312):

“One person familiar with the process at the State Department said the environmental-impact report will be crafted in a way that gives the president wide leeway to make a decision. Another official said the report is expected to be relatively vague, so Mr. Obama would be able to cite it to support a decision for or against the pipeline.”



http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2014/02/14/pretending-keystone-xl-politics-is-science/

[Wild Cobra]

There is still no proper scientific studies that show CO2 is the demon the alarmists say it is.

[boutons_deux]

There is still no proper scientific studies that show CO2 is the demon the alarmists say it is.

:lol

[Winehole23]

A Nebraska judge ruled Wednesday that the state violated its constitution when it allowed the governor to approve the route of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that could significantly delay the $5.3 billion project.

District Court judge Stephanie F. Stacy blocked Gov. Dave Heineman (R) (http://www.dominalaw.com/documents/LB-1161-Court-Order-Feb-19-2014.pdf)and other defendants “from taking any action on the governor’s January 22, 2013 approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline route,” such as allowing land to be acquired by eminent domain for the project.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nebraska-judge-strikes-down-legislatures-move-allowing-keystone-xl-route/2014/02/19/5601e916-99a7-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html

[Wild Cobra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nebraska-judge-strikes-down-legislatures-move-allowing-keystone-xl-route/2014/02/19/5601e916-99a7-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html

Cool.

[Winehole23]

you're against the pipeline?

[Wild Cobra]

you're against the pipeline?
I haven't decided on that pipeline. In reality, I know very little of the issues surrounding it. If you notice, i haven't said a great deal on it.

However, I do like it when the constitution prevails over someone trying to usurp it.

[Winehole23]

one person's constitutionalism is another's judicial activism. a judge overturned an executive action.

[Winehole23]

A consulting firm that helped write an environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline complied with federal rules regarding possible conflict of interest, the State Department's inspector general said Wednesday in a report that buoyed supporters of the controversial pipeline and disappointed critics.

The report said the contractor, Environmental Resources Management, fully disclosed that some staff members who worked on the State Department report had previously done work with the pipeline operator, Calgary-based TransCanada. None of the work for TransCanada involved Keystone XL, and all of it occurred before the staff members began work at ERM, the report said.


The State Department followed federal guidelines regarding use of outside contractors, the report said, "and at times was more rigorous than that guidance."


Still, the report said the State Department's process for hiring outside contractors can be improved, adding that requirements for documenting how contractors are selected were "minimal."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/state-department-keystone-xl-ig-report_n_4861859.html

[boutons_deux]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/state-department-keystone-xl-ig-report_n_4861859.html

BigOil, BigCorps, with ALEC, dictate the laws, regulations to corrupt, compromised govt staffed with corporate shills, lobbyists, corrupted professionals. :sleep

XL = 100Ks jobs, and energy security! :lol

Kock Bros, etc gonna export without ANY concern for energy security, only concern for their self-enrichment security!

Lie Here, Lie Now, Lie Always!

[Nbadan]

New Post-ABC News poll: Keystone XL project overwhelmingly favored by Americans
Source: Washington Post


Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The findings also show that the public thinks the massive project, which aims to ship 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta and the northern Great Plains to refineries on the Gulf Coast, will produce significant economic benefits. Eighty-five percent say the pipeline would create a significant number of jobs, with 62 percent saying they “strongly” believed that to be the case.

At the same time, nearly half of those interviewed — 47 percent — say they think Keystone will pose a significant risk to the environment.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-post-abc-news-poll-keystone-xl-project-overwhelmingly-favored-by-americans/2014/03/06/d74c58c6-a4a1-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

People are for it because they think it means jobs and energy for America, if they knew it meant 34 jobs and the oil would go to China whilst our children pay for the pollution, I wonder how many would still be worth it?

[boutons_deux]

"will produce significant economic benefits" :lol

to whom? :lol

all the Repug's Drill Here, Drill Now fracked oil hasn't made a dent in US transport or heating fuel.

and here's that shitbag, criminal BP raping the spirit of the export ban:

BP Splitter Refinery Seen Skirting U.S. Oil Export Ban

The British oil giant has signed on to take at least 80 percent of the capacity of a new $360 million mini-refinery in Houston that will process crude just enough to escape restrictions on sales outside the country.

Amid a flood of new U.S. oil, the demand for simple, one-step plants capable of transforming raw crude into exportable products such as propane is feeding a construction boom along the Gulf Coast. If the new processing units continue to multiply, they could render moot the politically sensitive debate over whether to ease the restrictions in place since the Arab oil embargo of 1973.

“It’s a relatively inexpensive way around the export prohibition,” said Judith Dwarkin, chief energy economist for ITG Investment Research Inc. “You can lightly ruffle the hydrocarbons and they are considered processed and then they aren’t subject to the ban.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/bp-splitter-refinery-seen-skirting-u-s-oil-export-ban.html

[boutons_deux]

Koch Brothers Are The Largest Land Owners Of Canada’s Tar Sands (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/20/3417175/koch-brothers-are-largest-land-owners-of-canadas-tar-sands/)

The Koch Brothers are known for many things — their vast financial empire, their conservative political ideology, their active political involvement, their support of the Keystone XL pipeline — but their Alberta, Canada land ownership has not been as widely discussed. A Washington Post feature (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/) has brought this subject back to attention as the Keystone XL debate heats up and discussion over the relationship between the Koch Brothers and their Republican allies takes on even greater significance in an important election year.
According to (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/) the Washington Post, which uses a report from the activist group the International Forum on Globalization as a foundation, a Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres in the northern Alberta oil sands, an area nearly the size of Delaware. The Post confirmed the group’s findings with Alberta Energy, the provincial government’s ministry of energy.


“What is Koch Industries doing there?,” asks (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/) the Washington Post. “The company wouldn’t comment on its holdings or strategy, but it appears to be a long-term investment that could produce tens of thousands of barrels of the region’s thick brand of crude oil in the next three years and perhaps hundreds of thousands of barrels a few years after that.”

In 2012, InsideClimate News reported (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada) on the Koch family’s long-term investments in Canada’s heavy oil industry, calling it an essential part of the company’s massive growth since 1959.

In a wide-ranging analysis (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada), InsideClimate News found that Koch Industries has been involved with almost every aspect of the tar sands industry, from mining bitumen to transportation, exportation, distribution and, of course, refining the petrochemicals — a large part of their empire.

The report (http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada) found that Koch Industries is “one of Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers, and exporters, with more than 130 crude oil customers,” and is also responsible for about 25 percent of oil sands crude imports into the U.S., for use at its refineries.

In their recent report (http://kochcash.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Embargo_Report.pdf) The Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb about the Koch Brothers and the Keystone XL pipeline, the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) contends that Koch Exploration Canada, the Koch Industries subsidiary that buys and sells land for energy development, could profit by up to $100 billion with the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. While this number is up for debate, it is clearly not a losing investment. And at the very least the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would lower transportation costs of getting the oil to refineries, increasing the production margins of those refineries, whether Koch-owned or not.

“The biggest way Koch could benefit from Keystone is by the pipeline’s acting as the ‘keystone’ of oil industry strategy to increase the ‘takeaway’ capacity for producers of Canadian crude, whereby getting more oil to more lucrative markets, and ending the deep discounts on Canadian crude currently glutting markets,” IFG’s Victor Menotti told (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/) the Washington Post.

In Alberta, like in many places in the U.S., owning the land and owning the mineral rights beneath the surface are different things. According (http://www.energy.alberta.ca/Org/pdfs/FS_Royalties.pdf) to the Alberta Department of Energy, 81 percent of the surface mineral rights in the province are owned by the provincial Crown, with the remaining 19 percent owned by National Parks, First Nations, or individuals or corporations that acquired the land in the 1800s before the modern rights went into effect.

Koch Industries has held the line (http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/keystone-xl-pipeline/) that they have no financial stake in the Keystone XL Pipeline and “are not party to its design or construction,” or “a proposed shipper or customer of oil delivered by this pipeline.”

Most people in the path of oil and gas development find themselves helpless in the face of the industry’s deep pockets and political affiliations. Landowners and farmers are left to deal with the environmental and health impacts of nearby fracking and drilling, often polluting or drying up their water sources. It would seem that the Koch brothers would be happy to sell their land away for a little profit — and with little risk of physical or psychological harm. They doubtlessly have land to spare. And until the true impacts come to their own backyard — as they recently (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/21/3316881/exxon-ceo-protests-fracking/) did for ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson outside of Dallas — that isn’t likely to change.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/20/3417175/koch-brothers-are-largest-land-owners-of-canadas-tar-sands/

[boutons_deux]

Oil Company Threatens Landowners: Give Us Property Rights Now, Or You’ll Get Less Money (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/03/3422501/transcanada-nebraska-landowners-deadline/)


http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AP94966045883-638x425.jpg

TransCanada has doubled down on Nebraska landowners refusing to sign over their land to Keystone XL, warning them that if they don’t accept the current offers by May 14, future offers will be far less lucrative.

The deadline comes months after TransCanada upped its cash offers (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/27/3208851/transcanada-increases-keystone-buyouts/) to Nebraska residents by as much as 700 percent to try to persuade them to allow their land to be used for the pipeline’s route. In January, the energy company offered one family $61,977.84 to allow the pipeline to run through their farmland, a huge increase from the $8,900 the company offered them in 2012. The company has offered landowners as much as $250,000 (http://journalstar.com/news/local/transcanada-sets-deadline-for-easement-offers/article_fb1afded-1bd6-510d-9d5e-908655e214d6.html) to turn over their land, with some easements including crop damage and land-use compensation.

Now, however, the company says it will not be making any further increases to the easement offers.

“No matter what we do, some people are going to criticize us, but these offers are not going up,” TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said (http://journalstar.com/news/local/transcanada-sets-deadline-for-easement-offers/article_fb1afded-1bd6-510d-9d5e-908655e214d6.html).

There are still about 115 landowners who are refusing to sign easements with TransCanada — close to 25 percent of Nebraska’s landowners who are in the proposed path of the pipeline, Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, told ThinkProgress. Kleeb said she’s seen the same tactic used by TransCanada multiple times since 2010 — the company will threaten landowners with deadlines, saying their easements will go down if they don’t sign, but every time the easements have only increased. TransCanada has also threatened Nebraska landowners with eminent domain and have said they’ll take away their signing bonuses, but each time, nothing has come from their threats, Kleeb said.
“This new deadline is just an arbitrary deadline – they have set many, many deadlines,” Kleeb said. “This is an empty threat, and our landowners are laughing at it.”

Kleeb said she’s confident this deadline won’t convince Nebraska landowners to accept TransCanada easements. TransCanada wants to be able to say that they’ve gotten 100 percent of the landowners to cooperate in Nebraska before Obama makes his decision, Kleeb said, but she doesn’t think that will happen.

“The landowners that haven’t signed with TransCanada yet — for them, it’s not about the money, and we aren’t sure why TransCanada hasn’t gotten that message yet over the last five years,” she said. “They don’t want more money — they want their lives back, and they certainly don’t want the terms of the contract that TransCanada continues to put in front of them.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/03/3422501/transcanada-nebraska-landowners-deadline/

Sooner or later, cornhuskers gonna get cornholed.

[TeyshaBlue]

Btw...the Washington Post article in post #110 is complete and utter bullshit....not that it matters to thinkprogress (lol).

[TeyshaBlue]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/03/washington-post-falls-for-left-wing-fraud-embarrasses-itself.php

[boutons_deux]

What's utter bullshit is the Kock Bros' claim that they no interest in XL pipeline

[boutons_deux]

Koch Subsidiary Told Regulators It Has 'Direct and Substantial Interest' in Keystone XL

In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has "nothing to do with any of our businesses."

But the company has told Canadian energy regulators a different story.

In 2009, Flint Hills Resources Canada LP (http://www.fhr.com/refining/canada.aspx), an Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries, applied for—and won—"intervenor status" in the National Energy Board hearings that led to Canada's 2010 approval of its 327-mile portion of the pipeline. The controversial project would carry heavy crude 1,700 miles from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.
In the form it submitted (https://www.neb.gc.ca/ll-eng/Livelink.exe/fetch/2000/90464/90552/418396/550305/556601/557343/557339/C-8-1_-_Flint_Hills_Resources_Canada_LP_-_Application_for_Intervenor_Status_-_A1J8R7_.pdf?nodeid=557340&vernum=0) to the Energy Board, Flint Hills wrote that it "is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters. Consequently, Flint Hills has a direct and substantial interest in the application" for the pipeline under consideration.

InsideClimate News contacted the Flint Hills manager who filed the Canadian document. She referred questions to Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden, who did not return calls. Neither did Koch spokespeople.

That analysis, also published on Reuters.com (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/10/idUS292515702420110210) and later cited by various news organizations, found that Flint Hills is deeply involved in the Canada-Alberta oil sands trade and is well positioned to benefit if more heavy crude is exported to the United States.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20111004/koch-brothers-koch-industries-flint-hills-financial-interest-canada-energy-board-keystone-xl-pipeline?page=show

[TeyshaBlue]

What's utter bullshit is the Kock Bros' claim that they no interest in XL pipeline

No, the claims made in the moonbat hit piece (lol thinkprogress) were complete bullshit. But keep ignoring the bitch slap and move your goal posts again, little bitch.:lmao

[Nbadan]

…Although no final decision has been made, two high-level sources in the Obama administration told me recently that the president has all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline – a dramatic move that would light up Democratic voters and donors while further provoking the wrath of Big Oil. Finally, Obama is positioning the U.S. to play a key role in negotiations on a new global-climate treaty that will begin next year, establishing American leadership on climate issues and giving him one last chance to lead the world to a cooler future before he leaves the Oval Office

.................................

Exactly how the president has weighed the decision on Keystone is a closely guarded secret in the White House, known only to a few senior advisors like Valerie Jarrett and Dan Pfeiffer. But it's no surprise that I was told recently by members of the administration that the pipeline would, in fact, be rejected. "If the president is really serious about his legacy on climate change, he can't have that and approve Keystone," an Obama insider told me. "The only question now is the timing of the announcement."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-last-shot-20140423?page=2
22

We'll see....

[Winehole23]

GOP derails Keystone vote in the Senate: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/205903-gop-blocks-energy-bill-scuttling-keystone-vote

[boutons_deux]

The biggest foreign lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers.

The Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres -- an area nearly the size of Delaware -- in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, according to an activist group (http://kochcash.org/koch-interest-in-keystone-xl-pipeline-confirmed/)that studied Alberta provincial records. The Post confirmed the group’s findings with Alberta Energy, the provincial government’s ministry of energy. Separately, industry sources familiar with oil sands leases said Koch’s lease holdings could be closer to two million acres. The companies with the next biggest net acreage positions in oil sands leases are Conoco Phillips and Shell, both close behind.

What is Koch Industries doing there? The company wouldn't comment on its holdings or strategy, but it appears to be a long-term investment that could produce tens of thousands of barrels of the region's thick brand of crude oil in the next three years and perhaps hundreds of thousands of barrels a few years after that.

The finding about the Koch acreage is likely to inflame the already contentious debate about the Keystone XL Pipeline and spur activists and environmentalists seeking to slow or stop planned expansions of production from the northern Alberta oil sands, or tar sands. Environmental groups have already made opposing the pipeline their leading cause this spring and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has called the Koch brothers Charles and David “un-American” and “shadowy billionaires.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/

[boutons_deux]

Koch Subsidiary Told Regulators It Has 'Direct and Substantial Interest' in Keystone XL

In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has "nothing to do with any of our businesses."

But the company has told Canadian energy regulators a different story.

In 2009, Flint Hills Resources Canada LP (http://www.fhr.com/refining/canada.aspx), an Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries, applied for—and won—"intervenor status" in the National Energy Board hearings that led to Canada's 2010 approval of its 327-mile portion of the pipeline. The controversial project would carry heavy crude 1,700 miles from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.

In the form it submitted (https://www.neb.gc.ca/ll-eng/Livelink.exe/fetch/2000/90464/90552/418396/550305/556601/557343/557339/C-8-1_-_Flint_Hills_Resources_Canada_LP_-_Application_for_Intervenor_Status_-_A1J8R7_.pdf?nodeid=557340&vernum=0) to the Energy Board, Flint Hills wrote that it "is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters. Consequently, Flint Hills has a direct and substantial interest in the application" for the pipeline under consideration.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20111004/koch-brothers-koch-industries-flint-hills-financial-interest-canada-energy-board-keystone-xl-pipeline?page=show

hit piece? yes, FACTS hit REAL HARD :lol

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Ruling Loosens Four-Decade Ban On Oil Exports

The Obama administration cleared the way for the first exports of unrefined American oil in nearly four decades, allowing energy companies to start chipping away at the longtime ban on selling U.S. oil abroad.

In separate rulings that haven't been announced, the Commerce Department gave Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Enterprise Products Partners LP permission to ship a type of ultralight oil known as condensate to foreign buyers. The buyers could turn the oil into gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

The shipments could begin as soon as August and are likely to be small, people familiar with the matter said. It isn't clear how much oil the two companies are allowed to export under the rulings, which were issued since the start of this year. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security approved the moves using a process known as a private ruling.

For now, the rulings apply narrowly to the two companies, which said they sought permission to export processed condensate from south Texas' Eagle Ford Shale formation. The government's approval is likely to encourage similar requests from other companies, and the Commerce Department is working on industrywide guidelines that could make it even easier for companies to sell U.S. oil abroad.

In a statement Tuesday night, the Commerce Department said there has been "no change in policy on crude oil exports."

Under rules imposed after the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, U.S. companies can export refined fuel such as gasoline and diesel but not oil itself except in limited circumstances that require a special license. The embargo essentially excludes Canada, where U.S. oil can flow with a special permit.

Lawmakers enacted the ban after Arab countries declared an embargo on shipments to Western nations because of their support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The embargo caused oil prices to quadruple and led to rationing at gas stations across the U.S.

But as drilling companies tap shale formations across the U.S., so much oil is flooding out of the ground that prices for ultralight oil have fallen as much as $10 or more below the price of traditional crude. As a result, producers have lobbied aggressively to relax the export ban, saying they could get a higher price from foreign buyers than from U.S. refiners.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-ruling-would-allow-first-shipments-of-unrefined-oil-overseas-1403644494

[Winehole23]

Human health and environmental impacts in Canada: http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-High-Cost-of-Oil.html

Even folks in Texas have been affected: http://www.texasobserver.org/keystone-xl-transcanada-crossing-line/

[boutons_deux]

Human health and environmental impacts in Canada: http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-High-Cost-of-Oil.html

Even folks in Texas have been affected: http://www.texasobserver.org/keystone-xl-transcanada-crossing-line/

BigOil and their Repug whores don't GAF, priorities are to gut EPA and approve KXL

[Winehole23]

Obama will sign it and Dems will vote for it, yet you write them off as hapless dupes owned by corporations, when in fact they carry water for them, just like the Republicans.

[boutons_deux]

Obama will sign it and Dems will vote for it, yet you write them off as hapless dupes owned by corporations, when in fact they carry water for them, just like the Republicans.

list for me the Dems, leadership and others, who are pushing hard for approving KXL and gutting of EPA?

Dems will mostly go along with Repug craziness, which is why they are so hard to support.

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL Pipeline: Lame-Duck Congress Fast-Tracks Legislation

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/keystone-xl-pipeline-lame-duck-congress-fast-tracks-legislation-n247761

[Winehole23]

what could go wrong? the low price of oil


Alberta’s embattled oil sands face well known risks from foreign radicals, movie stars, environmentalists and stalled pipelines projects. But there may be an even scarier threat: plain old economics.


The lure of the oil sands is that they hold some of the world’s biggest petroleum reserves. The bad news is that getting this resource out of the ground and ready for refining is expensive, by some estimates the planet’s most costly major oil source. Oil prices have to stay lofty to make investments in the sector pay. Any faltering in prices could cause profits to be elusive, or evaporate.


Just how close new oil sands projects are to being a dicey investment proposition is an open question. For competitive reasons, some major companies – such as Imperial Oil Ltd., developer of the mammoth $30-billion Kearl megaproject – aren’t forthcoming on the oil prices needed to earn a decent return.


But the National Energy Board, culling through publicly available data from the industry, recently pegged the minimum price needed for new projects to be commercially viable at $85 to $95 (U.S.) a barrel.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/economics-biggest-threat-to-embattled-oil-sands/article546652/

[boutons_deux]

what could go wrong? the low price of oil

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/economics-biggest-threat-to-embattled-oil-sands/article546652/

Sky People getting punked by their allies the Saudis.

[Winehole23]

"sky people?"

[boutons_deux]

"sky people?"

a pop culture allusion, try google.

[Spurminator]

list for me the Dems, leadership and others, who are pushing hard for approving KXL and gutting of EPA?

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/04/10/eleven-democrats-push-obama-to-approve-keystone/

Source: Google.

[boutons_deux]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/04/10/eleven-democrats-push-obama-to-approve-keystone/

Source: Google.

leaders? they pushed for XL, and like Landrieu, most lost anyway, were in red states.

Rumors around that Obama will block XL and Senate can't override.

[boutons_deux]

CEO of TransCanada Concedes just 50 permanent jobs from Keystone XL Pipeline (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/17/1345441/-CEO-of-TransCanada-Concedes-just-50-permanent-jobs-from-Keystone-XL-Pipeline)


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/17/1345441/-CEO-of-TransCanada-Concedes-just-50-permanent-jobs-from-Keystone-XL-Pipeline?detail=email#

Repugs' LIE is that blocking KXL is preferring environment over 50K jobs.

The Repugs' TRUTH is Repugs are paid by BigCarbon to fuck the people, fuck the environment.

[boutons_deux]

The Keystone XL pipeline must be built because it is the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Keystone XL pipeline must be built only so that the people who oppose it are defeated.

The Keystone XL pipeline must be built because it is no longer a construction project, it is an article of the conservative faith.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_GOP_Must_be_Crazy

[DarrinS]

Most Americans Support Keystone XL Pipeline

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/keystone-xl-poll_n_6186606.html

[boutons_deux]

Most Americans Support Keystone XL Pipeline

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/keystone-xl-poll_n_6186606.html

Most Americans don't give a shit, are disengaged, and/or are ignorant and/or stupid. The BigOil LIES have been relentless, just as they have been for denying GLOBAL WARMING.

[Fabbs]

Most Americans Support Keystone XL Pipeline

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/keystone-xl-poll_n_6186606.html
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/avatarpandorarules.jpg
12 leaks already, lets do this thing!
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aswift/the_first_keystone_tar_sands_p.html

[boutons_deux]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/avatarpandorarules.jpg
12 leaks already, lets do this thing!
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aswift/the_first_keystone_tar_sands_p.html

and this:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jul/03/yellowstone-river-suffers-oil-spill

[boutons_deux]

There's Been HOW Many Pipeline Spills in Alberta in The Last Four Months?? (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/17/1345431/-There-s-Been-HOW-Many-Pipeline-Spills-in-Alberta-in-The-Last-Four-Months)


http://images.dailykos.com/images/116425/large/abcolor.gif?1416221241


Over the past year WCNN has reported on many Crude oil and Toxic produced water spills all over Alberta, in fact we have reported over 600,000 Litres of toxic crap that has been spilled just last month and yet not one mainstream media outlet has picked up the incidents.

So lets take a look back at just the last month (October) and see just what the mainstream is not telling you.


Oct 3, 2014 – Canadian Natural Resources Limited – 11Km East of Delia – 10,000 litres of Crude oil
Oct 5, 2014 – Nexen Energy ULC – 2.5Km SouthWest of Kinosis – 5,800 litres of Toxic water
Oct 5, 2014 – Cenovus Energy Inc – 56Km East of Brooks – 9,800 litres of Toxic water
Oct 5, 2014 – Nexen Energy ULC – 41Km SouthEast of Ft. McMurray – 13,000 litres of Condensate
Oct 10, 2014 – Husky Oil – 30Km SouthEast of Vermilion – 50,000 litres of Crude oil and 25,000 litres of toxic water
Oct 13, 2014 – Arc Resources – 5Km North of Redwater – 150,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 11, 2014 – TAQA North Ltd – 44Km SouthWest of Spirit River – 24,000 litres of Crude oil
Oct 14, 2014 – Whitecap Resources Inc – 37Km NorthWest of Sexsmith – 10,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 15, 2014 – Penn West Petroleum Ltd -14Km SouthEast of Slave Lake – 52,000 litres Crude oil
Oct 14, 2014 – Zargon Oil & Gas Ltd – 26Km NorthWest of Vauxhall – 8,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 17, 2014 – TAQA North Ltd – 32Km NorthWest of Rocky Mountain House – 18,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 21, 2014 – Harvest Operations Corp – 20Km East of Galahad – 200,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 26, 2014 – Apache Canada Ltd -9Km East of Zama City – 50,000 litres of Toxic water

Total = Over 625,000 Litres of toxic crap spilled in Alberta for just the month of October and not one Mainstream media reports about it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/17/1345431/-There-s-Been-HOW-Many-Pipeline-Spills-in-Alberta-in-The-Last-Four-Months?detail=email

[boutons_deux]

America’s Oil And Gas Industry Averaged At Least 20 Spills Per Day In 2013 (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3437109/oil-spills-2013/)

Despite missing data from one of the largest natural gas-producing states (http://voices.yahoo.com/top-ten-natural-gas-producing-states-united-12159029.html?cat=3) in the nation,an EnergyWire analysis (http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059999364) released Monday found that the U.S. oil and gas industry was responsible for at least 7,662 spills, blowouts, and leaks in 2013 — an average of about 20 spills per day.

The figure represents an 18 percent increase in the number of spills EnergyWire counted in 2012, when 6,546 accidents were tallied. Though most of the spills were small, their combined volume added up to more than 26 million gallons of oil, gas, hydraulic fracturing fluid, and other substances, the report said.

The increase in drilling accidents since 2012 is particularly jarring because the United States has not actually seen an increase in drilling sites. According to January data (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/eagle-ford-shale-insight/2014/01/oil-drilling-increased-in-2013-even.html) from the American Petroleum institute, the total number of wells in the country in 2013 stayed largely the same, actually decreasing one percent since 2012.

The decrease, according to API, is because the U.S. drilled substantially less gas wells in 2013, but increased its oil drilling — a trend seen most notably in Montana. There, spills were up 48 percent, largely in line with the 42 percent increase in rig count figures. In North Dakota’s booming Bakken Shale, though, spills jumped by 42 percent while rig numbers dropped 8 percent, another startling figure apparently driven by hasty, irresponsible development.

“We still have this mentality that we have to go faster and faster,” Don Morrison of the environmental group Dakota Resource Council, told EnergyWire (http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059999364). “When you’re rushing, things go wrong.”

Despite exhaustive state-by-state analysis of data, EnergyWire was unable to retrieve spill information from Louisiana, because the state did not apparently have an accessible list of spills. Louisiana officials reportedly told the publication that the information could be found in a Coast Guard’s National Response Center database, which is shut down. The state has not yet fulfilled EnergyWire’s March 21 Freedom of Information Act request for the data.

The lack of information from Louisiana is especially troubling given the amount of potential the state has for spills. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_sum_lsum_dcu_sla_a.htm), Louisiana was second only to Texas in 2013 in both total and operating refinery capacity, and also has an enormous industrial sector consisting of multiple refineries and petrochemical plants. Louisiana in 2011 was one of the country’s top natural gas producers (http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/haynesville_natural_gas_field.html), accounting for a little under 10 percent of total natural gas production in the nation.

As EnergyWire’s report notes, data for each state’s spill records are difficult to compile. There is no national database for oil spills or other fossil fuel-related accidents. (An exhaustive Nexis search was required for ThinkProgress’ list of the 45 worst fossil fuel disasters (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/17/3056321/year-fossil-fuel-disasters/) of 2013.) Each state reports spills differently — some requiring official public records requests, and some charging money for the information.

And even that information is not always comprehensive. According to an October report in the Associated Press, nearly 300 oil spills and 750 “oil field incidents” that occurred in North Dakota since January 2012 went unreported (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/27/2843021/oil-spills-unreported/) to the public. Like many other oil-producing states, North Dakota regulators are not obliged to tell the public about oil spills under state law.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3437109/oil-spills-2013/

[CosmicCowboy]

http://www.gobluedevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Driveway-oil-stain-www-sealgreen-com.jpg

[boutons_deux]

McConnell: First Bill In GOP Senate Will Be To Approve Keystone Pipeline
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcconnell-first-bill-keystone?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL pipeline may no longer make economic sense, experts say

http://www.trbimg.com/img-548f15af/turbine/la-na-keystone-20141216-001/750/750x422

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-keystone-20141216-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-keystone-20141216-story.html)

[Cry Havoc]

The GOP should just get the foreplay over with and declare war on the natural environment.

[boutons_deux]

The GOP should just get the foreplay over with and declare war on the natural environment.

Obama protects Alaska's 'precious' Bristol Bay from oil, gas development

In a boon to commercial fishermen, conservationists and Alaska Natives, President Obama on Tuesday withdrew the waters off Alaska’s Bristol Bay from oil and gas development, vowing to protect the world’s biggest sockeye salmon fishery.

Calling the region “one of America’s greatest natural resources and a massive economic engine, not only for Alaska but for America,” Obama said he was taking it “off the bidder’s block” and would “make sure that it is preserved into the future.”

“Bristol Bay has supported Native Americans in the Alaska region for centuries,” Obama said. “It supports $2 billion in the commercial fishing industry. It supplies America with 40% of its wild-caught seafood. It is a natural wonder, and it’s something that’s just too precious to be putting out to the highest bidder.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bristol-bay-leases-20141216-story.html

Barry's gonna go Crazy N!gg@ and kick some Repug ass for 2 years.

next up, rescheduling mj from I to IV, for which the Exec has unilateral authority.

[boutons_deux]

BigOil raping the planet again
(http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/19/3612952/montana-yellowstone-river-oil-spill/)
50,000 Gallons Of Crude Oil Spills Into Partially Frozen Yellowstone River (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/19/3612952/montana-yellowstone-river-oil-spill/)

The 12-inch diameter steel pipe breached and spilled anywhere from 12,600 to 50,000 barrels of oil nine miles upriver from the town of Glendive, with an unknown amount of it spilling into the partially frozen river, according to a statement from Bridger Pipeline LLC. The company said the spill occurred at 10 a.m. and they “shut in (http://www.kxlf.com/news/oil-leak-confirmed-in-yellowstone-river-near-glendive/)” the flow of oil just before 11 a.m. — meaning that though the pipeline section could still empty itself of its contents, no new addition oil would flow into the spilled area.

“Oil has made it into the river,” Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin confirmed (http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/crews-to-clean-up-oil-spilled-into-yellowstone-river-from/article_89bcd50d-60ed-5a98-9a3d-4cecffa020e4.html) to the AP on Monday. “We do not know how much at this point.” Observers spotted oil, some of which was trapped under the ice, up to 25 miles downstream from Glendive. This photo (http://mtstandard.com/news/local/ice-hampers-oil-spill-cleanup-in-yellowstone-river-residents-report/article_7419424f-8ee0-5b8b-9217-9dbb26c488e3.html) from the Billings Gazette shows the oil visible through the icy river from the air.


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/19/3612952/montana-yellowstone-river-oil-spill/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Cli mate+Progress%29

[Winehole23]

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21639501-fall-price-oil-and-gas-provides-once-generation-opportunity-fix-bad

[Fabbs]

From the article Boutons posted. You know the Keystone spill is coming. Oil kuuntts.

The proposed — and controversial — northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline would be three times the diameter of the breached Bridger pipeline, and pump more than 34 million gallons of oil per day through the Dakotas down into Nebraska and into the southern leg in Oklahoma and Texas. Many landowners and local residents are concerned about what a potential spill would mean for critical watersheds and aquifers — not to mention what subsequent increased tar sands oil production means for Canadian watersheds.

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL Owner Files Eminent Domain Proceedings For Nebraska Land

TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, filed eminent domain proceedings against 90 Nebraska landowners Tuesday to gain access to the final acreage needed to build the controversial project.

“Eminent domain is a last resort and our first priority is always to negotiate voluntary agreements with landowners,” TransCanada’s Keystone projects land manager Andrew Craig said in a written statement.

“We have made numerous offers to negotiate generous agreements with landowners,” he said. “We have waited as long as we could under state law before beginning the process — as we said we would.”
TransCanada’s eminent domain filings are the latest step in a years-long war over the pipeline, which can’t go forward without President Barack Obama’s go-ahead.

Nebraska is currently the project’s most contentious battlefield. A 2012 law allowed the Nebraska governor to bypass the state Public Service Commission and give the $5.3 billion TransCanada project the go-ahead. Approval for the current route was granted in 2013.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/keystone-xl-owner-files-eminent-domain-proceedings-nebraska-land/

cornhuskers getting cornholed.

[boutons_deux]

Pipeline breach located beneath Yellowstone River (http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/01/20/pipeline-breach-located-beneath-yellowstone-river/)
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/01/20/pipeline-breach-located-beneath-yellowstone-river/

[boutons_deux]

Keystone Senate Yea Votes: Seven Times More Oil & Gas Money

Senators who voted to push through development of the Keystone XL pipeline today have received, on average, $570,034 in contributions to their campaigns and leadership PACs from the oil and gas industry (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E01) over the course of their careers.

The 35 senators who voted against bill have received, on average, just $78,641 from the industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/30/keystone-senate-yea-votes-seven-times-more-oil-gas-money

100% corruption

[Winehole23]

Bowing to the pressure of socialist, enviro-Nazis, Barack Hussein Obama vetoed the Keystone XL Pipeline despite that both houses of Congress passed the jobs/energy bill and most Americans approve of the project. This week the Senate failed to override the veto but eight Senators voted against Obama.

http://rightwingnews.com/democrats/vote-to-override-obamas-veto-of-keystone-pipeline-fails-but-these-eight-democrats-voted-against-obama/

[boutons_deux]

"the jobs/energy bill and most Americans approve of the project"

:lol

jobs! :lol

energy! :lol ... will be refined/exported.

"Most Americans" ... are TeeVee informed! :lol

[DarrinS]

Meh, seems like there's more than enough oil.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/03/03/america-lacks-room-store-oil/

[boutons_deux]

Meh, seems like there's more than enough oil.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/03/03/america-lacks-room-store-oil/

heard a couple days ago that "full" oil storage, was really about 60% full.

so why has SA gas jumped from $1.72 to $2.20+ in a couple weeks? speculators? raising the price "because they can"?

[DarrinS]

heard a couple days ago that "full" oil storage, was really about 60% full.

so why has SA gas jumped from $1.72 to $2.20+ in a couple weeks? speculators? raising the price "because they can"?

I'll take $2.20 over $3.20.

[Fabbs]

I'll take $2.20 over $3.20.
Way to answer the question.

[boutons_deux]

I'll take $2.20 over $3.20.

I'll take $1.70- over $2.20+

[Winehole23]

Way to answer the question.glibness dodges and ducks. classic DarrinS.

[TeyshaBlue]

heard a couple days ago that "full" oil storage, was really about 60% full.

so why has SA gas jumped from $1.72 to $2.20+ in a couple weeks? speculators? raising the price "because they can"?

mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N0VW0LZ20150222?irpc=932

http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/consumers-powersource/2015/02/26/Refinery-stike-to-aggressively-spike-gas-prices-in-weeks-ahead/stories/201502260184

The reasons for the seaonal spike are easily uncovered without resorting to trader hysteronics.

[boutons_deux]

As Internal Documents Show Major Overreach, Why Is FBI Spying on Opponents of Keystone XL Pipeline?

A new report confirms for the first time that the FBI spied on activists in Texas who tried to stop the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Documents from the FBIreveal it failed to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened its investigation, which was run from its Houston field office.

The files document "substantial non-compliance" with Department of Justice rules. The Tar Sands Blockade mentioned in that report was one of the main groups targeted by the FBI.

Agents in Houston office also told TransCanada they would share "pertinent intelligence regarding any threats" to the company in advance of protests.

We are joined by Adam Federman, contributing editor to Earth Island Journal and co-author of the new investigation published by The Guardian, "Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL opponents."

In February, he also revealed how the FBI has recently pursued environmental activists in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and Idaho for "little more than taking photographs of oil and gas industry installations."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30796-as-internal-documents-show-major-overreach-why-is-fbi-spying-on-opponents-of-keystone-xl-pipeline

Repugs OUTRAGED that their fradulent "social welfare" dark money orgs were exclusively "targeted" (they weren't) by IRS, but will Repugs be outraged that FBI criminalizes dissent against BigOil?

[DarrinS]

boots getting that truth-out

:lmao

[boutons_deux]

In typical ST rightwingnut non-comment, Darrin has NOTHING TO SAY about FBI spying on political dissenters.

[DarrinS]

In typical ST rightwingnut non-comment, Darrin has NOTHING TO SAY about FBI spying on political dissenters.


Using the federal govt. to punish your political opponents is pretty f'ed up. IRS says hello.

[boutons_deux]

Using the federal govt. to punish your political opponents is pretty f'ed up. IRS says hello.

the FBI apparenlty BROKE THE LAW to spy on XL protesters.

Who used FBI to punish political opponents?

[The Reckoning]

https://scontent-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/11233491_10153287782355281_4985912876975514416_n.j pg?oh=aab582a3dad25be344f06b268b238718&oe=55C86094

[boutons_deux]

TransCanada asks the US to suspend its Keystone pipeline application (http://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9661636/keystone-pipeline-transcanada-suspend)

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UBdrJqOHYLvFqLCeQCaUSNnC5co=/0x0:3000x2000/755x504/filters:format(webp)/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47572141/466891766.0.jpg
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9661636/keystone-pipeline-transcanada-suspend

[DMX7]

We have overcome... for now.

[Th'Pusher]

TransCanada asks the US to suspend its Keystone pipeline application (http://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9661636/keystone-pipeline-transcanada-suspend)

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UBdrJqOHYLvFqLCeQCaUSNnC5co=/0x0:3000x2000/755x504/filters:format(webp)/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47572141/466891766.0.jpg
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9661636/keystone-pipeline-transcanada-suspend
Waiting for the price of oil to recover? Afraid Barry's got nothing to lose and is ready to appease the environmentalists?

[boutons_deux]

environmentalists want to appease the planet. You're welcome to tag alone.

Fuck BigOil, fuck Kock Bros

[Th'Pusher]

environmentalists want to appease the planet. You're welcome to tag alone.

Fuck BigOil, fuck Kock Bros

Sure. Was more of a question as to the motivation of TransCanada

[boutons_deux]

Sure. Was more of a question as to the motivation of TransCanada

the monstrous conservatives just lost the govt, so maybe the libruls will try to extract more royalties out of the tar sands.

[boutons_deux]

State Department Rejects TransCanada’s Request To Suspend Keystone XL’s Review

The State Department has turned down a request by Canadian oil company TransCanada to temporarily halt the review process for the Keystone XL pipeline, welcome news to environmental groups who are pushing for President Obama to reject the pipeline while he’s still in office.

“We’ve told TransCanada that the review process will continue,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/us-rejects-transcanada-request-to-suspend-keystone-review/article27107033/). “The secretary believes that it’s most appropriate to keep that process in place,” he continued (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/259159-obama-admin-rejects-plea-to-pause-keystone-review).

The decision comes a day after White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the request from TransCanada “unusual.”

“Given how long it’s taken, it seems unusual to me to suggest that somehow it should be paused yet again,” Earnest told reporters (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/258971-white-house-request-for-keystone-delay-unusual) Tuesday.

“The State Department recognized TransCanada’s request for what is: a brazen political attempt to pause a process that long ago should have reached the inevitable conclusion that Keystone XL is a climate disaster and cannot be approved,” 350.org communications director Jamie Henn said in a statement. “

Now that he’s called TransCanada for delay of game, it’s time for President Obama to blow the whistle and end this pipeline once and for all.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/04/3719449/state-department-rejects-transcanada-request/

[MultiTroll]

Bouts I'm loving all the solid articles you are providing, but as we both know the Demos suck the oil dong too.
Maybe not as often and as long but....
The BP *settlement* etc.

[CosmicCowboy]

LOL Obama playing chickenshit chess. He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck. TransCanada was trying to delay the decision to the next President knowing Obama was going to fuck them.

[boutons_deux]

LOL Obama playing chickenshit chess. He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck. TransCanada was trying to delay the decision to the next President knowing Obama was going to fuck them.

Go Barry, Fuck BigOil and Kock Bros

[MultiTroll]

He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck.
How do you figure it will not be a campaign issue? Oil pigs are gonna run this on Faux News 24/7 as November approaches.

Barrys strategy is solid, given the opponent. Pugs don't wanna cooperate on anything.
Barry could say 2 + 2 = 4 and Pugs would go on and on in *outrage*.

[Fabbs]

LOL Obama playing chickenshit chess. He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck. TransCanada was trying to delay the decision to the next President knowing Obama was going to fuck them.
41 states now under 2 bucks a gallon.
Barry Barry Barry!
http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1phrjjXZqQ

[CosmicCowboy]

41 states now under 2 bucks a gallon.
Barry Barry Barry!
http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1phrjjXZqQ

:lmao @ giving Bo credit for low gas prices.

[Th'Pusher]

LOL Obama playing chickenshit chess. He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck. TransCanada was trying to delay the decision to the next President knowing Obama was going to fuck them.
Don't be a fucking lightweight. That's called effective politics. You just don't like it. And why would TransCanada think they'd have better luck with another president, Hilary's already come out against it. Oh I forgot, you're calling a Biden/Warren ticket :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

Don't be a fucking lightweight. That's called effective politics. You just don't like it. And why would TransCanada think they'd have better luck with another president, Hilary's already come out against it. Oh I forgot, you're calling a Biden/Warren ticket :lol

Yeah, Biden chickened out. Too bad. He could have beaten Hillary.

As for the pipeline, it's pretty much a dead issue anyway. With oil prices where they are there won't be any oil sands oil to put in it anyway. It's too expensive to produce.

[Nbadan]

Yeah, Biden chickened out. Too bad. He could have beaten Hillary

I don't know if he would have beaten Hillary...but he certainly would have split the Hillary vote....perhaps, wishful thinking, opening the door for a Bernie Sanders nomination...Biden is DNC...he's not gonna risk Sanders-Trump...or Sanders-? in 2016

[boutons_deux]

eROI of tar sands was always a fool's game, quite apart from the barrel price, and of course totally independent of the external costs of pollution and disease that BigOil never pays.

[Splits]

LOL Obama playing chickenshit chess. He will wait until after the 2016 elections so it's not a campaign issue for democrats in congress and then kill the application while he is a lame duck. TransCanada was trying to delay the decision to the next President knowing Obama was going to fuck them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/obama-expected-to-reject-construction-of-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline.html

:lol wrong about everything

[Nbadan]

eROI of tar sands was always a fool's game, quite apart from the barrel price, and of course totally independent of the external costs of pollution and disease that BigOil never pays.

True dat...they have almost daily small earthquakes in south SA now....and when your foundation shifts or your well dries up...who you gonna call?

[Splits]

:lmao @ giving Bo credit for low gas prices.

Yeah, because that never happens: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mitt-romney-obama-to-blame-for-high-gas-prices/


By LUCY MADISON CBS NEWS March 15, 2012, 12:37 PM
Mitt Romney: Obama to blame for high gas prices

[Nbadan]

The Obama open door policy on fracking helped with prices being low today....but long-term, with all these well sitting idol...who knows?

[boutons_deux]

The Obama open door policy on fracking helped with prices being low today....but long-term, with all these well sitting idol...who knows?

Barry/EPA/BLM must block mining and drilling on federal parks and lands

[rmt]

2nd train derails in 2 days - at least 18,000 gallons spilled into Mississippi River

http://www.startribune.com/more-than-18-000-gallons-of-ethanol-went-into-mississippi-after-train-derailment/343246062/

[Wild Cobra]

2nd train derails in 2 days - at least 18,000 gallons spilled into Mississippi River

http://www.startribune.com/more-than-18-000-gallons-of-ethanol-went-into-mississippi-after-train-derailment/343246062/
We're going to have some pretty drunk fish!

[boutons_deux]

After White House Rejects Keystone XL, Battle Against Larger Texas Pipeline Intensifies


http://www.truth-out.org/images/images_2015_11/2015_1104dahr1.jpg

If a couple of billionaires get their way, a 143-mile-long, 42-inch high pressure natural gas transmission pipeline will be built right through the heart of Texas' starkly beautiful and remote Chihuahuan desert. Plans are currently in the works for the pipeline, which would be larger in diameter than the infamous Keystone XL.

Although it has garnered far less media attention than the Keystone XL, this West Texas project has already sparked a massive grassroots resistance movement that has unified ranchers, Tea-Partiers, artists, environmentalists and the vast majority of the residents in this starkly populated corner of the country.

Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren, the head of the Dallas pipeline company Energy Transfer (http://www.energytransfer.com/default.aspx) Partners (ETP) which now boasts former Texas governor Rick Perry on its board of directors, and Carlos Slim of Mexico, who is reportedly the second-richest person on earth, are the core partners behind the Trans-Pecos pipeline project.

The aim of the pipeline is to deliver natural gas from Texas to Mexico, where it is in high demand.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33551-while-keystone-xl-is-stalled-battle-against-larger-texas-pipeline-intensifies

[boutons_deux]

TransCanada formally seeks NAFTA damages in Keystone XL rejection

TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday.

TransCanada submitted a notice for an arbitration claim in January and had then tried to negotiate with the U.S. government to "reach an amicable settlement," the company said in files posted on the pipeline's website.

"Unfortunately, ;lol the parties were unable to settle the dispute."

TransCanada said it then filed its formal arbitration request under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provisions, seeking to recover what it says are costs and damages.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-idUSKCN0ZB0R9?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29

That's US taxpayers' $15B that BigOil is demanding.

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL Pipeline May Never Be Completed Due To A Lack Of Customers

it still needs approval from the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which is scheduled to take up the matter later this year.

TransCanada is busy beating the bushes, trying to drum up business for its proposed pipeline.

Under the best of circumstances, the pipeline won’t be moving any oil before the year 2020.

The oil industry is in flux at this moment.

The demand for oil isn’t going to disappear any time soon, but the market is being roiled by the advent of electric cars and renewable energy.

Finding customers who are willing to sign up for oil shipments in 2020 may be harder than originally thought.

how ironic would it be that the thing that finally drives a stake through the heart of this abomination is simply that there are not enough customers to make it commercially viable.

That’s something not even the Tweeter In Chief can change in 142 characters or less.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/08/01/keystone-xl-pipeline-may-never-completed-due-lack-customers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

Would any of you BigOil koolaid drinkers here, reeking of aromatic hydrocarbons out of every orifice, like to comment?

[boutons_deux]

Keystone XL pipeline fate in balance as Nebraska opens hearings

Nebraska regulators will hear final arguments for and against TransCanada Corp’s (TRP.TO (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TRP.TO)) proposed Keystone XL pipeline this week before deciding whether to approve its route later this year, the last big hurdle for the long-delayed project after President Donald Trump gave it federal approval.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-keystone-idUSKBN1AN17P?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[Trill Clinton]

http://i67.tinypic.com/1z4iaki.jpg

931294865534500864

[boutons_deux]

http://i67.tinypic.com/1z4iaki.jpg

I can hear dickhead Cheney intoning "with modern oil technology, we have nothing to fear"



931294865534500864

[boutons_deux]

I can hear dickhead Cheney conning the world, intoning "With modern pipeline, drilling technology, there is nothing to fear"

btw and apropos, from the oligarchy's Repug whores, pro-police-state oppression, criminalizing dissent:

Congress Wants to Stop Pipeline Protests by Prosecuting Activists as Terrorists

“There is a national effort to stop protests like Standing Rock." :lol woo hoo we got conspiracy!

In case a military-style takeover (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/23/dakota-access-pipeline-camp-cleared-standing-rock) wasn’t enough to deter pipeline protesters at Standing Rock, some congressional lawmakers are pushing to treat environmental activists like terrorists.

A group of 80 congressional Republicans and four Texas Democrats in October submitted a letter (https://buck.house.gov/sites/buck.house.gov/files/wysiwyg_uploaded/Protecting%20Energy%20Infrastructure.pdf) to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking him to look into the possibility of prosecuting pipeline protesters under the domestic terrorism statute.

They cited attempts to shut off valves and damage pipelines but seem to include the larger nonviolent resistance in their push to use the terrorism statute against activists. The bipartisan group claims that “maintaining safe and reliable energy infrastructure is a

matter of national security.” :lol

https://rewire.news/article/2017/11/13/congress-wants-stop-pipeline-protests-prosecuting-activists-terrorists/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

[monosylab1k]

Least shocking news of the day, which, unfortunately, can be taken sarcastically or literally.

[Winehole23]

eROI of tar sands was always a fool's game, quite apart from the barrel price, and of course totally independent of the external costs of pollution and disease that BigOil never pays.Justin Trudeau and the Liberals to the rescue:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-trans-mountain-pipeline-kinder-morgan-1.4681911?cmp=rss

[Winehole23]

Judge vacates presidential permit, blocks construction, says the USG needs to correct its homework:


A federal judge issued an order Thursday blocking construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline until further environmental analysis is conducted.

The decision comes as TransCanada is preparing to build the oil pipeline beginning in northern Montana, with pipe being shipped to the state by train and trucked to locations along the line.

Environmental groups that sued TransCanada and the U.S. Department of State in federal court in Great Falls called the decision to overturn the Trump administration-issued permit a landmark ruling.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said the government's analysis fell short on:



The effects of the current oil prices on the viability of the pipeline.
The cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
A survey of potential Native American resources.
And updated modeling of potential oil spills and recommended mitigation measures.


"The Department must supplement new and relevant information regarding the risk of spills," Morris wrote.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/11/09/judge-blocks-construction-keystone-xl-pipeline-montana-fort-peck-climate-chagne/1939371002/

[boutons_deux]

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline was flailing. Trump just revived it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, it looked like TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline was in hot water.

Decades of activism, protests, and court cases were paying off, big league, as delays harmed the financial viability of the project.

On Friday, the president revived the project (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/436509-trump-signs-permit-to-jumpstart-delayed-construction-of-keystone-xl) with a stroke of his executive pen.

Trump just signed a presidential permit that

allows it to sidestep the courts and “construct, connect, operate, and maintain” the line between the U.S. and Canada,

in addition to maintaining a facility in Montana that will ship tar-sands crude oil into the United States.
Like many Trump administration decisions (https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3003922/donald-trump-threatens-close-border-mexico-next), the move is considered highly unusual.

If Trump’s decision holds up, it revokes a previous permit granted by Trump — the one that had been found insufficient by Morris — and reissues it.

https://grist.org/article/transcanadas-keystone-xl-pipeline-was-flailing-trump-just-revived-it/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=newsletters-grist (https://grist.org/article/transcanadas-keystone-xl-pipeline-was-flailing-trump-just-revived-it/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=newsletters-grist)

[Winehole23]

Keystone XL is dead


“With falling oil prices, both because of the pandemic and generally down since 2014, the industry is under a real squeeze, and we’ve seen a lot of players exit the market,” Sven Biggs (https://www.stand.earth/person/sven-biggs), Canadian oil and gas programs director at Stand.earth (https://www.stand.earth/), an environmental grassroots organization, told me.


“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.


TC Energy had a difficult time attracting private investors to Keystone XL — it was only capable of putting shovels to the ground (https://theenergymix.com/2020/04/01/keystone-xl-to-start-construction-after-massive-investment-by-alberta-government/) in the project with the help of a subsidy from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who approved more than $1 billion in public funds in the spring of 2020 to help the project.





So when Biden pulled the plug for good on Keystone XL, climate concerns and falling investment in Alberta’s oil sands have led experts to believe that, this time, Keystone XL is truly dead.
https://www.vox.com/22306919/biden-keystone-xl-trudeau-oil-pipeline-climate-change

[Winehole23]

wait, not dead yet?

1430269994328330241

[Thread]

wait, not dead yet?

1430269994328330241

I'll just bet they are.

This "reporting" makes that extra dollar+ a gallon since mother fucker Biden took over easier to pump.