Keystone XL - TransCanada's Unwelcome Intrusion

Ariel view of Thursday's 210,000 gallon TransCanada
pipeline spill in Amherst, South Dakota 

At this point, one could basically have a blindfolded monkey throw a dart at a large poster on the wall with the photos of all the major figures in the Trump administration on it and hit any number of examples of government gone wrong.   

But from my perspective, one of the most glaring examples of government absurdity in 21st century America can be found thousands of miles away from the nation's capital in the state of Nebraska.

Now you heard about that TransCanada pipeline spill last Thursday?

As Richard Gonzales of NPR reported on Thursday, TransCanada shut down a stretch of pipeline that runs from Hardesty in the Canadian province of Alberta, south to Cushing, Oklahoma and eventually to a massive oil storage and transport facility 75 miles east of St. Louis in Pakota, Illinois known as the Pakota Oil Tank Farm - which already receives oil from the Enbridge and Capline pipelines.

According to Gonzales' NPR report, a drop in pressure in the TransCanada pipeline early Thursday morning revealed that approximately 210,000 gallons of Canadian Tar Sands oil had leaked below the surface in the town of Amherst, South Dakota.

That's about 5,000 barrels of thick Canadian diluted bitumen sludge leaking underneath the ground in America - take a look at the ariel photograph above to see what that looks like.

Unlike crude oil which floats, the toxic diluted bitumen sinks - so try and picture the impact 210,000 gallons of that stuff slowly leaking down into the ground is going to have on the ecosystem.

While it is important to note that the Amherst spill last Thursday did not take place on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline which made headlines in 2015 and 2016, it is operated by the same owner, TransCanada - and a 17,000 gallon leak already took place in April 2016 along the Keystone XL pipeline.

So this morning I read Alexander Kaufman and Chris D'Angelo's Huffington Post article which reports that last Thursday's leak in South Dakota comes just as the Nebraska Public Service Commission is set to meet on Monday morning to make a final decision on approving the stretch of the 1,179 -mile Keystone XL pipeline that will pass through the state.

Nebraska landowners and citizens united in
opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline

According to the Website, the Nebraska PSC was initially established back in 1885 to regulate railroads, but its mandate has since expanded to a wide range of sectors including private water company rates, telecommunications carriers, major oil pipelines, natural gas jurisdictions, modular home construction and more.

The NPSC is composed of five commissioners who serve six-year terms, each of them represents one of five districts in the state - the elected position pays a tidy $75,000 a year.

The NPSC has been holding public hearings on the decision to allow the Keystone XL pipeline for years where the people of Nebraska have been expressing opposition to Keystone XL and for good cause.

According to an informative op-ed in the Scotts Bluff Star Herald back in August, if approved by the NPSC, the Keystone XL pipeline "will cross 250 intermittent streams and rivers and 350 roads...it will be within 500 feet of 270 water wells and 325 irrigation pivots."

As the op-ed notes, the diluted bitumen being pumped through the pipeline contains the carcinogen benzene and small amounts of xylene and polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons - "prolonged contact with these compounds has been associated with the induction of skin and lung tumors."  

Perhaps most disturbing, the Keystone XL pipeline would cross the Ogallala Aquifer - one of the largest fresh water supplies in the United States which provides freshwater to millions of Americans and untold numbers of animals and plants.

Despite baseless claims made by politicians who support the Keystone XL pipeline, it will only create 15 full-time jobs once it's completed.

Nebraska State Senator Annette Dubas

Given that it's owned by a foreign company and would be transporting hundreds of thousands of gallons a day of a highly dangerous toxic sludge to oil terminals in Port Arthur, Texas for transport to tankers where it will be sold overseas, one would think the decision to deny the project in the interest of public safety would be an easy one for the Nebraska PSC.

Especially given that approval of the pipeline would essentially be granting a foreign company rights and eminent domain over private land owned by Nebraska citizens.

But as the Huffington Post reported, remarkably, Nebraska's Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act of 2011 does not allow the NPSC to "evaluate safety considerations, including the risk or impact of spills or leaks from the major oil pipeline." 

It defies all logic that a state organization tasked with regulating oil pipelines is not allowed to consider "safety considerations" in deciding to approve a major oil pipeline project that could potentially have devastating consequences on Nebraska's environment.

But when you consider the fact that Nebraska State Senator Annette Dubas is the politician who introduced the Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act in 2011, it kind of makes sense.

As the Lincoln Journal Star reported back in 2011, Dubas took an undisclosed amount of money from TransCanada to allow them to park construction equipment on farm and ranch land owned by she and her husband.

It's a troubling example of government gone wrong when safety can't be considered in evaluating a project that could impact the lives of millions of people.

And if you're the politician who inserted that clause in the law, regardless of whether you're a Republican or Democrat, it's clear that the safety and well being of the people of Nebraska and the environment they live in mean less to you than the undisclosed money you got from TransCanada.


Anyway we'll see soon enough, the NPSC is scheduled to meet at 10am tomorrow morning.

And even if the law prevents them from considering the safety considerations when deciding to approve or deny the Keystone XL pipeline from passing through Nebraska, the five commission members can't be brain dead.

They know damn well 210,000 gallons of diluted bitumen Tar Sands sludge spilled in the neighboring state of South Dakota last Thursday.

And if they don't they've got no business making decisions that impact the health and safety of the people they're elected to serve.

Yesterday I was pulling for Penn State to beat Nebraska on the football field, but tomorrow I'll be rooting for the the people and environment of Nebraska not be reduced to a secondary consideration to the profit needs of TransCanada by a government agency tasked with regulating industries that impact their lives.

Not because I have anything personal against TransCanada's right to make money, but because people and the environment have rights too - and as I blogged about back in January days after the inauguration, the United States is already criss-crossed with a complex web of oil and natural pipelines.

We don't need Keystone XL to heat our homes, power our vehicles or boost our energy independence, and it's a project that puts American lives and our environment at risk simply to produce profit for a foreign company.

It's just not worth the risk - let's hope the Nebraska Public Service Commission feels the same way tomorrow.