"The analyses of potential impacts associated with construction and normal operation of the proposed project suggest that significant impacts to most resources are not expected along the proposed project route," the huge report said about the Keystone pipeline.
The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline is unlikely to increase the pace of Canadian oil sands development, a US State Department study said, raising pressure on President Barack Obama to approve a project environmentalists see as a major climate change problem.
The massive 11-volume environmental impact study released on Friday did not recommend whether President Barack Obama should grant or deny an application by TransCanada Corp to build the $5.4 billion line, which would transport crude from Alberta's oil sands to US refineries.
But a State Department official who briefed reporters ahead of the report's release said that blocking Keystone - or any pipeline - would do little to slow the expansion of Canada's vast oil patch, maintaining the central finding of the State Department's preliminary study issued last year.
The report's publication opened a new and potentially final stage of an approval process that has dragged for more than five years, taking on enormous symbolic political significance, potentially helping define Obama's legacy.
With another three-month review process ahead and no firm deadline for a decision on the 1,179-mile line, the issue threatens to drag into the 2014 congressional elections in November. Obama is under pressure from several vulnerable Democratic senators who favor the pipeline and face re-election at a time when Democrats are scrambling to hang on to control of the US Senate.........................http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_01/Keystone-pipeline-will-not-affect-Canada-oil-sands-growth-US-State-Department-0800/
1/4/14
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Related:
- U.S. president needs to make up his mind on Keystone XL: John Baird...
Υπέρ του αγωγού Keystone οι περισσότεροι Αμερικανοί
Report: Keystone XL pipeline 'won't boost oil sands use'...
ReplyDeleteThe US state department has raised no major environmental objections to the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, according to a new report.
Crucially, it found the proposed pipeline was unlikely to accelerate the pace of Canadian oil sands development.
But environmentalists say the pipeline would lead to increased carbon emissions, contribute to global warming, and risk spills on its route.
President Barack Obama has yet to decide whether he will permit it.
On Friday, a spokesman said the White House would await further review from other US government agencies and the public.
"The president has clearly stated that the project will be in the national interest only if it does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution," Matt Lehrich said.
In an environmental impact statement released on Friday, the US state department said that approval of the project "is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States based on expected oil prices"...............http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25987747
1/2/14
USA: un rapport ouvre la voie à l'approbation de l'oléoduc Keystone XL...
ReplyDeleteL'administration américaine a estimé vendredi que la construction de l'oléoduc Keystone XL entre le Canada et les Etats-Unis n'aurait pas d'impact environnemental majeur, en particulier sur le climat, une conclusion qui ouvre la voie à l'éventuel feu vert de Barack Obama.
L'oléoduc - très controversé - doit servir à acheminer du pétrole depuis la province d'Alberta, dans l'ouest canadien, vers les raffineries américaines du golfe du Mexique, au Texas.
La portion sud, entre le Nebraska et le Texas, fonctionne déjà. L'oléoduc Keystone XL, d'une longueur proposée d'environ 1.900 km dont 1.400 km sur le territoire américain, relierait la portion sud au Canada, et permettrait de plus que doubler la capacité de transport par rapport au circuit existant, plus long.
Mais les écologistes sont fermement opposés à Keystone, proposé en 2008, pour plusieurs raisons. Ils craignent des risques de fuite le long du tracé. Et ils s'en prennent au type de pétrole qui serait transporté: issu de sables bitumineux, son extraction et son exploitation émettent au final plus de gaz à effet de serre.
Sur ces deux points, le département d'Etat (qui a autorité dans le dossier car le tracé traverse une frontière) estime que les risques sont minimes.............http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/international/1066118/usa-un-rapport-ouvre-la-voie-a-l-approbation-de-l-oleoduc-keystone-xl
1/2/14
Obama waits for more Keystone reviews with timing unclear - White House...
ReplyDeleteUS President Barack Obama still in wait of hearing from other federal agencies before deciding whether to accept the State Department's finding that the Keystone XL pipeline would have no crucial impact on climate change.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Obama would decide once the Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department and other federal experts offer their assessments of the State Department review, as well as their own analysis.
But McDonough offered no word how soon Obama may rule.
Pressure on Obama to approve the project mounted on Friday with the release of the State Department report, which concluded the pipeline's impact on climate change would not be significant.....................http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_02/Obama-waits-for-more-Keystone-reviews-with-timing-unclear-White-House-1850/
2/2/14
Some 300 rallies held in US after State Dept green lights Keystone XL...
ReplyDeleteAs many as 300 candlelight vigils in cities across the US were scheduled for Monday night, as those in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline urged President Obama to ultimately reject the project that will ship tar sands oil from western Canada to Texas.
In parks, city halls, churches and other venues, thousands of peaceful demonstrators showed their opposition to the 1,179-mile pipeline that would move high-carbon tar sands oil through the heart of the United States, from western Canada to a hub in Nebraska, where it would then connect with other existing pipelines to deliver 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries in Texas.
Opponents of Keystone XL say that, in addition to the carbon-intensive impact that results from the extraction of tar sands that will only worsen the effects of climate change, the pipeline will also put communities nearby at risk of oil spills and their subsequent fallout.
Critics have also pointed out that most of the oil that will travel through Keystone XL will go to growing economies overseas, like China, that have an increasing demand for more fossil fuels. The pipeline, detractors say, is unlikely to lower the price of gasoline in the US.................http://rt.com/usa/keystone-pipeline-vigils-protest-606/
4/2/14
Native American groups vow resistance to Keystone XL pipeline...
ReplyDeleteAn alliance of Native American communities has promised to block construction of the northern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, if approved by President Barack Obama, would carry crude tar sands oil from western Canada through the US to Texas.
In a joint statement entitled ‘No Keystone XL pipeline will cross Lakota lands,’ Honor the Earth, the Oglala Sioux Nation, Owe Aku, and Protect the Sacred declared their support for resistance action against energy corporation TransCanada’s building of the parts of the pipeline planned to cut through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska before meeting with a constructed line in Kansas. The existing line would then move the crude tar sands through Oklahoma and into Texas for refineries on the Gulf Coast.
"We stand with the Lakota Nation, we stand on the side of protecting sacred water, we stand for Indigenous land-based lifeways which will NOT be corrupted by a hazardous, toxic pipeline,” the groups said in the statement.
The groups said the Lakota Nation – a sovereign governmental body – is ready to step up.
“KXL will NOT cross their treaty territory, which extends past the reservation boundaries. Their horses are ready. So are ours.”
Members of seven Lakota Nation tribes - as well as indigenous communities in Idaho, Oklahoma, Montana, Nebraska, and Oregon - have been preparing nonviolent direct actions for the last two years in hopes of stopping the pipeline’s construction...............http://rt.com/usa/native-americans-keystone-block-792/
6/2/14
Native Americans to stop Keystone pipeline....
ReplyDeleteIt is an issue that has galvanized Native Americans, environmentalists, activists and even the Green Party and is not one that is going to go away as conveniently as the Obama Administration hopes it will. The Trans Canada Keystone XL (Export Limited) Pipeline, which will destroy and poison huge swathes of Indian lands and irreversibly pollute large parts of Alberta, Canada and the United States all the way to the Gulf of Mexico should also be galvanizing Canadians but they are for the large part silent. Will Obama and Washington politicians beholden to corporate and big oil interests do the right thing and say no to the pipeline? Not likely.
The Reality
The effects of oil exploitation from the tars sands is already being felt and things are only getting worse for the Native Americans. People are dying women are having miscarriages and the people cannot farm or even find clean drinking water. What is left of the once great and proud nations and tribes of North America are again fighting for their very survival as the Earth around them is being destroyed.
According to Robert Free, an Indian rights activist and a member of Tewa and Naua Nations in an interview with the Voice of Russia ”They can’t drink that water that was from the lake of Athabasca or Peace River because upstream is the tar sands of Alberta that is polluting all that beautiful area. So, they can’t even eat the fish, they are having miscarriages and nothing is being done for that.”
So oil company sponsored environmental reports saying the Keystone Pipeline is safe are a laughable farce when the reality is that they are already killing thousands and destroying water supplies and lands that the Indians, and all of us, depend on for existence.
Native Americans Rise Up
The Indians of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation and tribes from Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oregon, as well as dozens of other organizations and Indian Nations are preparing to stop the construction of the pipeline.
In a statement released by the organizations Honor the Earth, Owe Aku, Protect the Sacred and the Oglala Sioux Nation the Native Americans make their position clear and it is one that concerns their very survival as the project will for the most part destroy Indian Lands and violates existing treaties....................http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_07/Native-Americans-to-stop-Keystone-pipeline-1298/
7/2/14