Clean Energy

Crossing over 1000 bodies of water, including the main water supply for the Great Plains, Keystone XL puts these bodies of water at risk for contamination. All pipelines spill.

According to TransCanada the Keystone 1 pipeline was predicted to spill once every seven years. It spilled 12 times in its first year and it has spilled more than 30 times over its lifetime.

Data from Cornell University showed the Keystone XL pipeline was built to spill, and when it does it has a devastating effect upon employment and the economy.

The oil firm Enbridge ignored warning signs for more than five years along its 6B Line, and when it spilled in July of 2010 in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River it caused the most damaging onshore oil spill in US history. ​

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Underneath the Boreal Forests of Canada, in an area the size of Florida, lies a substance known as “Tar Sands” which can be converted to oil. Unfortunately, it is the dirtiest type of fuel in the world and the process of converting tar sands to oil is extremely carbon-laden. ​

The TransCanada Corporation has built pipelines to ship the tar sands to port towns so that it can be processed into fuel and then shipped to foreign countries. However, TransCanada is not content with the existing pipeline system and has applied to build a giant pipeline, known as Keystone XL Pipeline. This pipeline will ship tar sands directly from Canada, through 6 states, to Texas to be refined. ​

The new “Keystone XL” pipeline would ship over 830,000 barrels of tar sands every day. Top NASA Climatologist James Hansen has famously said that if the carbon stored in the Canadian Tar Sands is released it will be “Game Over” for the climate, calling Tar Sands the “largest carbon bomb on the planet!”

Up to 4 barrels of water are used for each barrel of tar sands extracted. The “produced” water is placed in “tailing ponds” which are so big they can be seen from space and these “toxic lakes” are death traps for migratory birds and other species. There is evidence that they are now leaking into rivers and other bodies of water, contaminating them.

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TransCanada has intimidated landowners along the pipeline route into signing contractual agreements for their land. TransCanada fraudulently steals land from private citizens through Eminent Domain.

KEYSTONE XL WILL DESTROY MORE JOBS THAN IT CREATES – According to the Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute, the pipeline project will actually destroy more jobs than it creates. According to the State Department, the Keystone XL Pipeline would only create 35 FULL-TIME jobs and the 3,900 direct construction jobs would only last 1-2 years.

Far more jobs could be created by the development of a clean energy economy and infrastructure.

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