David Daniel, who is fighting TransCanada’s proposed oil pipeline from Alberta through Texas. Photograph: Rex Curry
Texas Activists Fighting Proposed $7bn Oil Pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf
Growing opposition to a Canadian project to pump crude from tar sands in Alberta across six American states to the Gulf coast could force the Obama administration to reconsider – and possibly delay – the project. The grassroots rebellion will come to Washington on 9 March, just as the state department is due to decide whether to grant final approval to the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. If it orders additional environmental or safety reviews it would force a delay in the construction start date, now set for the end of the year.
Activists are worried about the dangers of pumping gritty, thick crude at high temperature and pressure through a pipeline with walls less than half an inch thick across vital sources of groundwater.
A report by a coalition of environmental organisations said piping oil from the tar sands was inherently more risky than other pipelines. The pipeline crosses one of the world’s largest aquifers in Nebraska, which provides drinking water to eight states and irrigates about a third of the farmland in the midwest. But environmental concerns alone did not turn people against the pipeline. They claim that bullying did.
Locals in east Texas accuse TransCanada’s agents of threatening them with compulsory purchase and of dismissing their concerns about safety in case of a leak. ”They just laid some papers down on the table and said: ‘Read these papers. We have eminent domain.’ That scared me nearly to death,” said Susan Scott.
TransCanada says it has reached agreements for nearly 90% of the route. “Whenever you build a project, especially a project of this size, you know not everybody will agree with you,” said a spokesman, Shawn Howard. He said the pipeline would be the safest ever built, with 16,000 sensors to detect the first sign of a leak.
About 750 landowners have refused to allow the company, TransCanada Corp, on their land, setting the stage for court battles over compulsory purchase.
The Environmental Protection Agency rejected TransCanada’s draft environmental study of the project last July.
(via jmek)
