Seite - 70 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

a train carrying crude oil from Canada to the US. Both are discussedbelow. Quoting fromWikipedia: ‘The Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline system to transport oil sands bitumen from Canada and the northern United States primarily to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The products to be shipped include synthetic crude oil (syncrude) and dilbit (diluted bitumen) from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada, and Bakken synthetic crude oil and light crude oil produced from the Williston Basin (Bakken) region in Montana and North Dakota. Two phases of the project are in operation; a third, from Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf coast, is under construction, and the fourth is awaiting US government approval as of mid-March 2013. Upon completion, the Keystone Pipeline System would consist of the completed 2151-mile (3462km) Keystone Pipeline (Phases I and II) and the proposed 1661-mile (2673km) Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project (Phases III and IV). The controversial fourth phase, theKeystoneXLPipeline Project, would begin at the oil distribution hub in Hardisty, Alberta and extend 1179 miles (1897km), toSteeleCity,Nebraska.’ Those opposed to the pipeline cite the contribution to CO2 emissions from the mining of tar sands in Canada, the possibility and consequences of pipeline leaks associated with heated and highly pressurized bitumen, the initial (now modified) proposedpath of the pipeline through areas above the Ogallala Aquifer (a major source of freshwater), and the potential delay in investments in renewable energy technologies due to the continued availability of oil resources. Theproponentsof thepipelinearguethatCanadawillmine the tar sands and produce the bitumen and its associated CO2 emissions regardless of what the US decides (an alternative pipeline path would be to Canada’s west coast for sales to Asia),Canadian tar sands oil is already reaching theUSby train and new quantities could be shipped by rail as well, that Water,Energy, andEnvironment–APrimer70