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• Explain The Economic Role Of Government And Environmental Issues Related To The Natural Environment

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Explain the economic, political (role of government) and environmental issues related to the extraction/production, transport and consumption of oil as a natural resource.

During the extraction/production of oil there are many environmental hazards that can take place. The biggest issue relating to this process is the effects of oil drilling. The dust particles from the drilling process coats the surrounding areas, and flamed from burning the natural gas found in oil fields cause air pollution. The piping used to extract and transport the oil is made up of metals which easily corrode over time. This corrosion causes pipes to rupture which then will contaminate the environment surrounding it. Entire ecosystems may possibly dissolve due to the …show more content…

91% of the operational spills are small but they do result in less than 67 metric tons of oil spillage. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are present in the oil spillage which are incredibly difficult to clean up during an oil spill and can cause many diseases to marine species. The result of an oil spill is horrific; oil penetrated the plumage of a bird which causes them to be more vulnerable to temperature fluctuation which leads to them becoming less buoyant in the water. The oil coats heavily furred marine mammals reducing its fluctuations in body temperature and can result in hypothermia. If the oil enters lungs or livers of animals, they can be poisoned and may die. Oil spills are also an immediate fire hazards to the environment and it will contaminate drinking water supplies. The use of pipelines is also an effective way of transporting oil but has many issues and impacts on the environment. Although direct environmental risks of pipelines are relatively low, there are many risks and issues that occur due to pipelines. The older the pipeline the more vulnerable to rupture as people have difficulty locating the older ones. The uses of pipelines are increasing by 6% per year and ruptures are slowly …show more content…

The demand is still rising despite the price but the supply of oil is a major issue in some countries. In December 27th 2011, the Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi threatened to cut off oil supply from the Strait of Hurmuz should economic sanctions limit or cut off Iranian oil experts. Oil markets did not react much to this threat despite of the 2% rise in oil prices. “They cannot stop the flow for a longer period due to the amount of U.S hardware in the area.” This was said by Thorbjeorn Bak Jensen who is a Global Risk Management. The U.S is the country with the highest rate of oil consumption of 18,840,000 barrels per day and rising. The Strait of Hurmuz is one of the main parts of transporting oil which is located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. About 35% of the world’s petroleum which is traded by sea will pass through the strait. This makes it a highly important and strategic location for international trade of oil. In 2011, 14 tankers per day went through the Strait of Hurmuz carrying 17 million barrels of crude

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Canadian company TransCanada hopes to build Keystone XL a pipeline that carries Canadian tar sand oil from Canadian border to the Golf Coast. According to Derber “the pipeline extracts some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, a process that sends many polluting chemicals into the ground waters and releases methane, the most potent greenhouse gas, into the air, creating one of the greatest climate threat” (p. 115). A leak from a pipeline carrying the tar sand oil could cause environmental damage and pollute our drinking water and agricultural irrigation. The builders of the Keystone XL Pipeline are wilders. According to Derber, “environmental wilding in the natural environment, such as reckless polluting that causes global warming” (p. 11).

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“The oil spills are most likely and could result from corrosion, defects in materials or construction, pressure, ground movements and flooding.” That would affect low-income family lives around the pipeline and they will have higher chances of environmental hazards. Wilder acknowledges that U.S. needs to find other ways to get clean and sustainable sources of energy because Keystone XL pipeline is not a solution. After reading Wilder’s essay, I consider the health and communities’ safety and the rising threats of climate change the first priority rather than building the XL

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These individuals are more than willing to risk oil spills, water pollution, reliance on fossil fuels, and higher unemployment rates. There are several environmental concerns that should be known. “If constructed, the pipeline, known as Keystone XL, will carry one of the world’s dirtiest fuels: tar sands oil. ”(1) It has been shown that the tar sand oil from this region of Canada is some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet; the extraction and refining process is just as dirty.

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With rising gas prices and an increasing reliance on nonrenewable resources, finding a reliable source for extracting and transporting oil has become an issue. In 2010, the Keystone Pipeline project was proposed and commissioned by TransCanada. Essentially, this is a pipeline that transports oil sands bitumen across the Canada-US border and into several different reserves in the States. An additional extension to the Keystone Pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline, has also been proposed. Several issues arise when considering the consequences of this new proposal, including the potential for oil spills and habitat damage.

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The toxic chemicals released from extraction were poisoning clean water sources. This lead to increasing cases of cancer, hyperthyroidism, lupus, and renal failure in people located in areas near the present pipeline. These effects clearly show the vast hazard this oil presents for the environment and society. In conclusion, as stated and proven throughout this essay, the Keystone pipeline creates many environmental issues.

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less damage in the pipeline can cause the environment to be clean and to allow the people not to be worried and to think that the pipe can transport the crude oil

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Turning the key placed into the car, the machine suddenly grumbles, gasoline pumping throughout the system. It is understandable that the power needed to move from point A to B is generally provided by oil, but have you ever considered the importance of this substance to our country? Oil, is used by almost, if not every American daily. In fact, it is something that we as a nation can not live without. How we get this oil is just as important, and brings up heated debates about the options of transportation, one of which being the Keystone XL pipeline.

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Pipelines are also proven to be the safest method of transferring crude oil,

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There are large amounts of environmental issues that can be caused because of this pipeline, which mostly affects

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Another issue among the Keystone pipeline is the health and safety issues that it provides through its existence. Thoreau mentions in his essay that, “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man,” (Thoreau, 956) which alludes to the fact that humans will die if they live with harmful effects over the years. The activists of the pipeline have mentioned multiple times to the government that the water supply will be contaminated. This is shown when an article writes, “The proposed pipeline route passes through the Ogallala Aquifer... A spill in this important body of water would contaminate drinking water and lead to serious health concerns and complications,” (All Risk, No Reward) which explains why so many activists are protesting this build.

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If this pipeline is built, it will carry 470,000 to 570,000 barrels of oil. Once the oil was processed, transmitted, and burned, it will release 101.4 million metric tons of CO2 each year. That is the same amount of the gas that 21.4 million cars burn per year. This is an exceedingly large amount of CO2 that is very bad for the earth. When CO2 is released into the atmosphere, it begins depleting the ozone layer.

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The environment is suffering days after days, there will a point where the green house won’t take it anymore and the earth will meltdown. The oil refineries are the main contributors to this issue, since they are the ones who produce the

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Because countries, especially the United States, rely immensely on a constant source of oil, maintaining that unceasing energy source is a form of national security (Slade 49). Instead of receiving oil from countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, who are the second and third leading suppliers of oil for the U.S., the country would receive its major crude oil imports from their neighboring country (“Keystone” 1). The State Department concluded that it was in the interest of the country because it provided additional supplies which would make up for the decline of imports from the United States’ other key suppliers (Kalen 12). The building of the pipeline is also argued as extremely beneficial to economy. TransCanada stated that this project would create twenty thousand new jobs and seven billion dollars in economic incentive (“Keystone” 1).

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Therefore, I will examine the consequences of the oil spill and the reactions of the parties involved, such as BP, the government, the states involved, the fisheries and tourism industry and other parties affected by the oil spill. These consequences include environmental damage, litigation, cleaning costs and stricter

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The political involvement in why oil companies make so much money off oil. Studies have shown that the reason that oil supply is questioned because of the "political instability in some oil-producing nations is also contributing to uncertainly about the future supply"(Cohen). The oil supply we have will eventually run out if we do not learn how to use it more efficiently. Most people like the companies that sell this product will over the possibility of running low on oil to get the bottom dollar from the world.

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