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Keystone Pipeline Project Research Paper

2089 Words9 Pages

Rachele Liba
Professor Whitehead
POSC 100
22 July 2016
Placing a Price on a Green Nation
Having lived a nomadic lifestyle across the United States, I have had the opportunity to witness the wonders of our flourishing society and the everyday turmoils that we face. Rigorous innovation has helped Americans fulfill countless dreams, however with every gift there is a usually a price-tag or opportunity cost. Now in the midst of the general presidential election, platforms that represent our beliefs can undergo much needed reform to address the opportunity costs that were surpassed in the process of success. Among the various problems found in our society, a key movement that has raised necessary controversy has to do with environmental policy. …show more content…

While Hillary Clinton’s proposal would be a huge step forward in modernizing America’s energy infrastructure, her refusal to acknowledge a carbon tax is unsettling if one references her background and affiliations as Secretary of State. One of the most controversial issues posed by Hillary Clinton is the Keystone XL scandal. Keystone XL pipeline project is the extension of TransCanada 's Keystone pipeline, that would have transported 830,000 barrels of dirty oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. The project sparked enormous environmental controversy due to various factors. Citizens who live in the path of the pipeline are experiencing eminent domain lawsuits being brought against them where TransCanada is forcefully confiscating land from homeowner and farmers. The environmental argument is coming from a clash over the fact they are basically stripping the canadian boreal forest, the path of the pipeline extends across major aquifers, and pipelines tend to leak and destroy surrounding environments. In addition ccording to The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions State, “epartment’s draft SEIS found that oil from the Canadian oil sands is 17 percent more carbon-intensive than the average oil consumed in the United States... It is estimated that the U.S. greenhouse gas footprint would increase by 3 million to 21 million metric tons per year, or around 0.04 percent to 0.3 percent of the 2010 levels, if Keystone is built. Fortunately on November 6, 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration rejected the Keystone Pipeline XL after 7 years of dispute. As mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Obama stated “the project would not have lowered gas prices, improved energy security or made a meaningful long-term contribution to the economy

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The Keystone XL Pipeline is a transmitter for Canadian oil to be sold across the world. Land and nearly all risks lie within the U.S. yet there is no significant benefit to the economy. There is too little to gain and too much to economically risk by allowing the construction of the XL

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Controversy Surrounding the Keystone XL Pipeline To build or not to build, this choice will impact the relationship between the US and Canada and determine the level of dependence the US will have on countries that are not so friendly. “TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would transport oil sands crude from Canada and shale oil produced in North Dakota and Montana to a market hub in Nebraska for delivery to Gulf Coast refineries. The pipeline would consist of 875 miles of 36-inch pipe with the capacity to transport 830,000 barrels per day” (Parfomak, Pirog, Luther and Vann 4). The construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline would strengthen the United States economy, provide energy security and have minimal environmental impact. “The Keystone XL project would create $1.1 trillion in private capital investment at no

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For my research paper this fall I will be talking about Senator Jon Tester's voting habits on the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline was a bill passed by the Senate by a vote of 62 to 36. This bill would allow the oil to be ship from Alberta to Illinois and then to Texas to be refined and sold. Jon Tester was one of the sixty-two members who supported the Keystone Pipeline because of its benefit on Montana's jobs and economy. However, Jon Tester has also spoken about how Montana and the United States needs to work towards cleaner energy alternatives.

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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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Bill McKibben is considered to be America’s first environmentalist activist. His project 350.org works to spread awareness of climate change around the world. Without his push to end projects such as the Keystone Pipeline, the planet would quickly reach the uninhabitable state he fears. While it’s too late to reverse the damages already done, he encourages everyone to do their part to keep the world from getting any worse. His efforts, along with activists around the world, have successfully divested $2.6 trillion in oil drilling funds, and while the few oil companies are still hanging on by a thread with support from large private businesses or people like the Koch family, clean sources of energy are becoming increasingly popular in the

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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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In recent years in can be noted that civil disobedience is prominent in American culture. This can be portrayed in the recent events of the Keystone Pipeline activists. Many activists have blamed the government for their problems just as Thoreau did in his essay “Civil Disobedience”. There can be a parallel drawn between these two topics even though they have decades between them. In these times it is still logical to believe that civil disobedience is the right course of action.

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Some individuals believe that using the wilderness for drilling of oil purposes will solve the US and its dependency on foreign oil. Through this article, Democratic congressman Edward J. Markey, alongside Representative Nancy Johnson, discuss the reasons for which they want to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or the ANWR, and other wilderness reserves from being developed on and industrialized. This wildlife reserve has been labeled as being one of the most magnificent reserves found in America. Unfortunately, people want to encroach on this territory and use it to increase the nation’s oil and gas development. This is not the first time that the reserve has been threatened but it is the most extreme.

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