The Keystone Pipeline Debate

The Keystone Pipeline is a planned pipeline system that will bring crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. While there has been much debate about the environmental effects of the pipeline and much discourse about its implementation, the facts show that the alternatives could be even more detrimental to the environment. 

Some people believe that we should not exploit the Alberta Tar Sands at all; that extracting the oil itself would be environmentally dangerous and would set us back in the development of new energy resources that could eventually replace fossil fuels. There are two problems with this argument; one is that we have yet to develop these new technologies and the infrastructure to deliver them to the people.  We still currently depend on fossil fuels for everything from driving our cars to fertilizing our fields, and we are much better off getting our fossil fuels from Canada than from the tumultuous Middle East. The other problem with that argument is that stopping the pipeline will not stop the exploitation of the Alberta Tar Sands, it will only change the way the crude oil is being shipped. 

Others believe that oil pipelines are too dangerous and that running them through the United States creates too large of an environmental risk. The problem with this argument is that we already have many oil pipelines crisscrossing the United States. Another problem with this view is that if we do not use an oil pipeline to ship the Crude from Alberta to the Gulf Coast then the rail system will be utilized. Shipping the crude by rail presents the same environmental concerns as shipping by pipeline, but since rail shipping of crude has only recently become so utilized, the contingencies for major disasters are far fewer than those set in place for pipelines. While it is true that there have been less oil spills due to trains than pipelines in the past, the increased use of rail to ship crude will also lead to increased number of disasters associated with it. According to an article by James West in Mother Jones Magazine, last year alone 1.2 million gallons of crude was spilled from trains—more than every year before it since 1971 combined.

The Keystone Pipeline will create jobs, tax revenue, and a reliable source of energy for years to come. Opposition to the construction has valid points, but when the alternatives are considered the Keystone Pipeline is the safest and most environmentally conscious way to move the crude oil from where it is to the place that it is destined to end up.