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keystone xl pipeline
A Dangerous Pipeline and Why Pete Buttigieg Would Be a Bad Choice for VP
Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems: our climate crisis and the dominance of the fossil fuel industry in our politics and policies.
Jul 29, 2024
President Joe Biden lost a lot of support, especially among young voters and climate voters, when he approved the foolish Willow Project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was equally unpopular with those groups but they rightfully placed most of the blame for that project on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V).
What a lot of people, including reporters, don’t realize is that Pete Buttigieg, as Secretary of Transportation, had (and still has) the power to stop MVP. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reports to Buttigieg and PHMSA, as its name implies, has the authority and responsibility to ensure the pipelines are built and operated safely. But the MVP was not built—nor is it operating—safely. That is not an opinion pulled out of thin air by a climate activist. Rather it is the conclusion of a study done by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), the company that wanted to build the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL). That study was the subject of an article (pg 16) in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Corrosion Management, a journal of the Institute of Corrosion.
This topic has been written about extensively for over a year. If reporters and other readers want to understand the particulars they can find them here. The long and short of it is that the TC Energy/KXL study proved that MVP’s corrosion-proof coating is “no longer fit for purpose.” That’s a pretty damning indictment, especially given the enormous diameter (42 inches) of MVP and the extremely high pressure it will be operating under. It’s particularly scary for all those who live within MVP’s blast zone.
MVP is made of thick steel. It isn’t going to corrode extensively tomorrow or anytime right away. But pipelines like MVP are built with the intention that they will operate for many, many decades, which is why legally they MUST have an adequate corrosion-proof coating. Otherwise they will corrode prematurely which could lead to a massive explosion. Delaney Tercero was 3 when a 10 inch gas pipeline exploded near her home because defective coating allowed the pipe to corrode. She died 2 days later in a hospital burn unit. Again, MVP is 42 inches.
The National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators (NAPCA) recommends that the pipe coating that was applied to MVP pipe should not be exposed to the harmful rays of the sun for more than 6 months. MVP pipe sat out in the sun for 6-7 years. A KXL pipeline manager, speaking at an oil and gas forum in Canada, said that, when the coating has deteriorated to such a degree, the pipe either needs to be replaced or sent back to the factory for stripping, cleaning, and recoating. He said this is a problem that can’t be remedied in the field. MVP pipe was neither replaced nor properly recoated. It was just quickly buried and covered up, as if that would make the problem go away.
Pete Buttigieg is obviously a very smart guy. He’s articulate, does his homework and has a knack for making members of Congress look ridiculous when they try to question him. If anyone can explain why the KXL coating study doesn’t apply to MVP, it would be Secretary Buttigieg. But neither he nor PHMSA nor MVP nor anyone else has ever offered that explanation. Buttigieg seems to pop up everywhere these days but he hasn’t met with the people who live next to MVP and been willing to address their fears about the defective pipe coating. And the reason he hasn’t is because he can’t explain away the KXL study’s obvious relevance to MVP which leaves him unable to defend PHMSA’s decision to allow MVP to operate.
And this problem isn’t limited to MVP. Pipeline giant, Williams, has just built pipelines in Louisiana and Pennsylvania using old pipe intended for the now-dead Constitution Pipeline in NY. That pipe has been sitting out in the sun for over a decade. Williams has now buried it right next to houses, schools, playgrounds, ball parks, through golf courses and under interstate highways.
Essentially, despite all their posturing, Pete Buttigieg and PHMSA are just part of the Good Ol’ Boy network that oversees much of our country’s energy regulatory system which remains heavily controlled by the fossil fuel industry. Up and down the chain of command people go along to get along, as pointed out in this article that Bill McKibben called landmark by Mike Soraghan of Politico’s E&E News. That system has resulted in America being the largest oil and gas producer ever, which is deplorable given the scientific consensus regarding climate change. It is why we are so far behind in achieving our climate goals.
Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems. She needs to separate herself from the Good Ol’ Boy network. She should start by picking someone other than Pete Buttigieg to be her VP.
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Midwest Battlecry Goes Up Against Tar Sands as Thousands March in St. Paul
'Increasing the amount of toxic tar sands crude flowing into this region is not in keeping with a much needed transition to clean energy. Rejecting tar sands means fighting for clean water, clean energy, and a safer climate. There is simply no place for dirty oil in America's future.'
Jun 06, 2015
With the marching crowd stretching "as far as the eye can see" in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday, thousands of people from across the Midwest came together to protest the construction of new pipelines and other infrastructure projects which they say will deliver only harmful climate impacts for the planet and irreparable destruction to the region, not the jobs and energy security promised by big oil companies and their political backers.
Under the social media tag of #StopTarSands, Saturday's Tar Sands Resistance March was sponsored by dozens of groups, including national and local environmental organizations, Indigenous communities, and various social justice groups who all agree it will take a unified front to fight back against the pipeline companies and fossil fuel interests pushing for expanded development of tar sands, shale oil, and gas deposits, and other forms of extreme energy in the region.
In a statement, the coalition behind the march explained that the climate justice movement in the U.S. and Canada has far more targets to fight than just the Keystone XL pipeline.
"It's not just Keystone XL. Big Oil is trying to build and expand an enormous network of tar sands pipelines -- some even bigger than Keystone XL -- from Canada into the Great Lakes region. These tar sands pipelines, including the Alberta Clipper, along with crude oil trains and tankers, pose a growing risk to the Great Lakes, our rivers, our communities, and our climate," the statement said.
"The movement promoting clean energy prosperity in place of polluting fossil fuels is growing and being heard in every corner of the country," said Terry Houle, co-chair of the Sierra Club's Northstar Chapter, which helped organize the event. The march, said Houle, "picks up where last year's Peoples' Climate March in New York left off -- people from all walks of life are calling on the Administration to keep dirty fuels in the ground for the sake of clean air, clean water, and a stable climate."
According to NRDC's Anthony Swift, "Increasing the amount of toxic tar sands crude flowing into this region is not in keeping with a much-needed transition to clean energy. Rejecting tar sands means fighting for clean water, clean energy, and a safer climate. There is simply no place for dirty oil in America's future."
Billed as the biggest anti-tar sands march and rally the Midwest has ever seen, Aaron Mair, board president of Sierra Club, trumpeted the coalition's diversity and unwavering commitment as essential to its ultimate success against the pending Sandpiper pipeline and similar projects.
"With climate disruption, we face the greatest environmental challenge of all time," Mair wrote in a blog post ahead of the march. "To meet it, we'll need to change almost everything about how our country works. And to do that, we're going to need everyone. It's a big job, but it's not impossible. We're already gaining steam. We're building a strong, authentic movement to confront climate disruption and to galvanize humanity's response -- and in so doing, we can shift the world."
And Tom Goldtooth, head of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said this week, "The frontline communities are strengthening the resistance. They're concerned, and we are linking up the pipeline resisters in Canada, northern Minnesota, out east and more."
To help explain why the Mideast region has become such an important battleground for the climate fight both in the U.S. and Canada, the organizers behind the Tar Sands Resistance March offered these reasons:
- The Midwest is a primary import zone for dirty oil from Canada. Refineries in the Midwest get virtually all of their imported oil via pipeline from Canada. The diluted bitumen transported from Canada that arrives in U.S. refineries is more corrosive than conventional crude oils and may lead to increased risk of accidents. These refineries also pose a significant risk to the climate. Refining tar sands oil emits higher levels of greenhouse gases, as such more Imports of tar sands will add to U.S. emissions.
- Various efforts are being made to expand tar sand pipelines in the Midwest to process more tar sand from Canada. Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline company responsible, is using illegal schemes to double the capacity of its Alberta Clipper tar sands (aka line 67), with no public notice and also by bypassing Presidential permit process. This illegal expansion would put Alberta Clipper on par with the Keystone XL pipeline and significantly increase the amount of toxic, highly polluting tar sands crude being moved into the U.S. We must stop this from happening.
- Tar sands spills are also of major concern. In 2010, more than 800,000 gallons of tar sands was spilled into the Kalamazoo River, causing hundreds of residents to be hospitalized from adverse health effects, including cardiovascular, dermal, gastrointestinal, neurological, ocular, renal, and respiratory. Cleanup efforts are still ongoing.
- Petroleum coke, a byproduct of tar sands that has resemblances of coal and shares many of coal's physical qualities, including similar chemical composition, has been linked to a number of other health problems, including developmental and cardiovascular impacts. This is threatening communities like Chicago and Detroit. In Chicago's southeast side, massive piles of petroleum coke are found near homes, leading to black dust clouds entering the surrounding air and exposing vulnerable residents to an array of health impacts.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
The rally takes place one day after Minnesota regulators endorsed the $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline that would carry North Dakota crude oil from the Bakken to Superior, Wis., where pipeline owner Enbridge Energy operates an oil terminal tied to other pipelines supplying refineries in the East and Midwest.
Enbridge, a Calgary-based energy company that operates the world's longest petroleum pipeline network, owns six pipelines that cross Minnesota, where its operations date back to the 1950s.
Despite the drop in oil prices, Enbridge has said it is moving ahead with $44 billion in investments, including two other crude oil pipeline projects in Minnesota. Those projects -- a line expansion and a line replacement -- carry Canadian oil across Minnesota to Superior, including the heavy crude extracted from Alberta's tar sands.
On Twitter:
\u201cTar sands fighters fill the streets of St. Paul as far as the eye can see! #StopTarSands\u201d— Sierra Club (@Sierra Club) 1433613813
\u201cWe're here in the heartland today to send a clear message: it's time to #StopTarSands!\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1433609326
\u201cDanza Azteca providing song and dance to start this march! #StopTarSands #KeepItInTheGround\u201d— Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network) 1433611150
\u201cWe are 5000 strong! #stoptarsands\u201d— 350 Wisconsin (@350 Wisconsin) 1433615829
\u201cStop the @Enbridge pipeline invasion. #StopTarSands #BeyondOil\u201d— Sierra Club (@Sierra Club) 1433608120
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Climate Youth Lead #XLDISSENT Civil Resistance to Ensure Our Civil Existence
Mar 04, 2014
More than a thousand climate youth leaders and allies converged on Washington, DC this weekend for the largest student-led civil resistance action at the White House in a generation. They came to register their dissent against extreme fossil fuel exploitation and to demand that President Obama reject the northern leg of TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The scene outside the White House on Sunday was remarkable. After marching through the streets, the students rallied at Lafayette Square, chanting: "Obama, come out! We've got some shit to talk about!" and "The people are rising! No more compromising!" A short while later, in a sudden burst of energy, a sea of bodies surged toward the White House to occupy the fence, while others fell to the ground, victims of a mock tar sands oil spill. All did it knowing they would be arrested.
Student leaders from nearly 50 universities and colleges from across the country signed the #XLDISSENT call to action, which calls "into question" President Obama's "willingness to govern in an environmentally responsible manner." Their statement goes on to say:
President Obama has indeed made several responsible choices, such as increasing the mileage standards for cars. But he has also made some disastrous ones. He opened vast swaths of Western lands for coal mining, repeatedly endorsed an "all-of-the-above" energy approach, and even supported the Southern leg of the Keystone pipeline.
I suspect many students who participated in this action share my sense of betrayal over President Obama's 2012 fast-track approval of Keystone XL's southern leg (which has 70% of the capacity to transport tar sands as Keystone XL's northern leg). By calling out the president on this gross injustice, they are reminding everyone that with Obama's ownership of Keystone South comes responsibility for any tar sands spills that occur in Texas and Oklahoma, and for toxic emissions breathed by families living in fenceline communities near tar sands refineries in Houston and Port Arthur.
Time is slipping away for President Obama to salvage his tattered environmental legacy. He can start by denouncing Keystone North, jettisoning his "all-of-the-above" energy policy, and producing a new climate action plan that has a real chance of averting climate chaos.
In solidarity, I share this video of an emergency direct action several of us organized at the White House on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 85th birthday in January. Inspired by what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now," it was a last-ditch effort to try to prevent Keystone South from starting up:
Civil Resistance to Ensure our Civil Existence: Going to Jail to Stop Keystone XL SouthWARNING: Watching long, drawn out arrests can be kind of like watching paint dry... While some sing, chant, pray and drum, ...
Action by action, we are building what Dr. King called "the beloved community." Future generations will honor these young climate justice leaders who sacrificed their freedom to demand an end to these immoral assaults on our collective future. Call it civil resistance to ensure our civil existence.
(All photos by the author. Used with permission)
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