What is the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Tar Sands?

from Jerry Buechler

Explaining the Keystone XL Pipeline:

• The Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed 36” diameter pipeline that would transport Canadian tar sands to Gulf coast refineries for export to foreign markets.  The pipeline will cross over thousands of farms and ranches, over 1400 waterways, over the Ogallala aquifer providing 30% of all agricultural water used in the U.S., and within 100 feet of 35 municipal water supplies.
• The tar sands are petroleum deposits consisting of a mixture of 85% sand and clay, 5% water and 10% bitumen.  Bitumen is a thick, tar-like form of hydrocarbon which when spilled has been impossible to extract from the environment  because it does not float on water like other forms of gas and oil. The largest known bitumen reserve exists in northern Alberta, Canada underneath 54,000 square miles of pristine boreal forest, an area the size of Florida.  Boreal forests store almost twice as much carbon as tropical forests.
• Extracting and processing tar sands into usable fuel is an energy-intensive process extremely devastating to the environment.  First, forests are clear cut, wetlands are drained and all of the subsoil (mostly peat) is bulldozed away to create gigantic pit-mines often encompassing 50 square miles or more.  The tar sands are then excavated with heavy machinery to the depth of about 100 yards and then washed  with steam and solvents to separate out the bitumen.   Processing of the tar sands  each day utilizes more freshwater than Calgary, Canada uses yearly, and enough natural gas to heat 3 million homes.  Over 90% of the water ends up as toxic wastewater pumped to unlined “tailings ponds” where it seeps into and contaminates the groundwater.  The Canadian organization, Environmental Defense, has called the Alberta tar sands “the most destructive project on earth.’
• The thick bitumen itself must be diluted with toxic chemicals in order to be able to flow through pipelines to specialized refineries capable of handling the tar sands oil.  The diluted bitumen is highly corrosive to pipelines and even more hazardous to the environment and public health.  A 2010 pipeline rupture in Marshall, Michigan spilled over 840,000 gallons into the Kalamazoo river, poisoning the groundwater, sickening hundreds and resulting in 150 families being permanently relocated.  
• Producing a barrel of synthetic tar sands oil releases three times more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than conventional oil, not counting the destruction of forests and peat bogs, two of the planet's largest terrestrial carbon sinks. NASA scientist James Hansen says tar sands development is “game over” for the climate.

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can’t eat money.”

A  Few will profit while We will lose if the Keystone XL is built

• Keystone XL will not improve America’s energy security.  The pipeline is designed  to send oil directly to the Texas Gulf coast, and from there to overseas markets.  Canada isn’t producing enough oil to fill existing pipelines to Midwest refineries, which are running half-empty. Recently discovered TransCanada documents predict the pipeline to increase gas prices in the Midwest up to 15 cents a gallon when they skip over refineries in the Midwest, costing U.S. consumers over $2 billion yearly.
• After the pipeline is finished, the number of full time jobs according to the State Department's’ own study is about 35 yearly.  The 7 billion construction spending could create many more permanent jobs if the money was invested in clean energy technologies such as wind and solar energy.  Over 100,000 workers in the agricultural and tourism sectors contribute several billion to the economies in the Keystone XL pipelines states.  A large tar sand spill puts these workers jobs at risk.
• The first Keystone pipeline operated by TransCanada spilled 35 times in the U.S and Canada in 2010.  A spill frequency 100 times higher than predicted.  Additives added to the tar sands oil allowing it to flow are very corrosive to the pipelines.  The  2010 spill in the Kalamazoo River has ongoing clean up costs surpassing $1 billion already while residents still complain of headaches, dizziness and nausea.  
• Canadian government scientists have found that levels of mercury around the region’s tar sands operations are up to 16 times higher than regular levels for the region.  The 7500 square miles impacted are contaminated by airborne mercury emissions originating from oil sands developments according to scientists.
• Climate Change:  The Keystone XL is the fuse to North America’s biggest carbon bomb.-  In a study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a group of retired four-star generals and admirals concluded that climate change, if not addressed, will be the greatest threat to national security as people are uprooted globally by rising seas, destructive fires, erratic weather, windstorms, desertification, and failing crops.
• TD Bank (Toronto Dominion Bank) has more than 15 billion dollars invested in the expansion of the Alberta tar sands project.  This Canadian bank has a well documented involvement with tar sands corporations Enbridge and TransCanada.  We encourage TD Bank account holders to talk to your TD Bank manager and encourage him to write a letter to the TD CEO, urging him and the Board of Directors to divest their holdings and loans to TransCanada the Canadian energy giant that is developing the Alberta Tar Sands Oil fields.
• Call on President Obama (202)456-1111 and the State Department (202)261-8081 to reject the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas.  10 Nobel Peace Prize recipients are asking the President  to do the same

Contact Jerry Buechler at thetruthbyjerryb@gmail.com      305-510-4927