2013 SkS News Bulletin #2: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline

Draft assessment of Tar Sands pipeline “devastatingly cynical”
I’m with the Tree Huggers
Keystone XL won't boost oilsands growth, U.S. State Dept. says
Keystone XL pipeline would have little impact on climate change, State Department analysis says
The key to big oil's sky-high pricep play: Keystone Export XL
Redford will be Washington-bound again
State Dept: Build the Keystone pipeline or not, the oil sands crude will flow
State Dept's Keystone XL analysis upsets environmentalists
State Dept Keystone XL Pipeline Analysis Disspirits Climate Change Opponents
U.S. Senator: Link Keystone pipeline to efficiency boost

Draft assessment of Tar Sands pipeline “devastatingly cynical”

The U.S. State Department late Friday released a draft environmental impact assessment of a contentious pipeline project that simultaneously acknowledged the dangers posed by climate change while also noting the project would “not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects”.

Scientists and advocates have reacted with significant alarm, warning that the new report, officially a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), is merely recycling deeply flawed conclusions offered in previous such assessments. Since the project was first proposed by a Canadian company, TransCanada, in 2008, it has been beset by local and national opposition in both countries, including drawing some 40,000 protesters to Washington last month.

I’m with the Tree Huggers

Well, I’m with the tree huggers. The pipeline isn’t the worst threat to the climate, but it’s a threat. Keystone isn’t the best fight to have over fossil fuels, but it’s the fight we’re having. Now is the time to choose sides. It’s always easy to quibble with the politics of radical protest: Did ACT UP need to be so obnoxious? Didn’t the tax evasion optics of the Boston Tea Party muddle the anti-imperial message? But if we’re in a war to stop global warming — a war TIME declared on a green-bordered cover five years ago — then we need to fight it on the beaches, the landing zones and the carbon-spewing tar sands of Alberta. If we’re serious about reducing atmospheric carbon below 350 parts per million, we need to start leaving some carbon in the ground.

Keystone XL won't boost oilsands growth, U.S. State Dept. says

Building the northern leg of TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline won't have a major impact on Alberta's oilsands development, the U.S. State Department says — a finding that might make it easier for the White House to approve the controversial project.

A State Department official said the pipeline "remains unlikely to significantly impact the rate of development of the oilsands or the demand for heavy crude oil in the United States."

Kerri-Ann Jones, an assistant secretary with the department, said the pipeline doesn't pose any greater risks to the environment than any other modes of transportation.

Keystone XL pipeline would have little impact on climate change, State Department analysis says

The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipelineFriday, suggesting the project would have little impact on climate change.

Canada’s oil sands will be developed even if President Obama denies a permit to the pipeline connecting the region to Gulf Coast refineries, the analysis said. Such a move would also not alter U.S. oil consumption, the report added.

The Key to Big Oil's Sky-high Price Play: Keystone Export XL

The Keystone XL Export Pipeline is the next move in a complicated chess game by the oil and gas industry to assure sky-high future prices for its products -- and unaffordable fuel for the rest of us. (In their minds the devastating environmental legacy is collateral damage -- but the economic hit is a key ingredient in their model. They want us to pay too much.)

Redford will be Washington-bound again

Fresh off a visit to Washington, Alberta Premier Alison Redford is pledging a swift return to the American capital to woo “decision makers” to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

Ms. Redford spent the weekend at a gathering of American state governors, meeting with 22 of them. Along with Environment Minister Diana McQueen, Ms. Redford said she spent the meetings reiterating the pipeline’s economic benefits while laying out the province’s environmental track record. The Alberta Premier called it a “very good weekend,” saying she found a willing audience among her counterparts.

State Dept: Build the Keystone pipeline or not, the oil sands crude will flow

The State Department issued its long-awaited supplementary environmental impact assessment (SEIS) this afternoon on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship up to 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. The full report is some 2,000 pages long—and was released at the very end of the week, thanks very much, State Department—but you can boil it down to one sentence:

State Dept's Keystone XL analysis upsets environmentalists

The State Department released their Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal on Friday, concluding in large part that the proposal is environmentally acceptable.

State Dept Keystone XL pipeline analysis disspirits climate change opponents

Environmentalists are fuming over the conclusion from the State Department that the Keystone XL pipeline -- a fiercely-debated proposal to transport heavy crude from Alberta's oil sands deposits 1,700 miles to the U.S. Gulf Coast -- would be "environmentally sound."

U.S. Senator: Link Keystone pipeline to efficiency boost

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wants President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, but hopes the project’s construction can somehow be tethered to more aggressive energy efficiency policies.

“I still think it would be better if it could be dealt with in a compromise fashion,” Warner told The Hill in the Capitol on Tuesday, later noting, “How we get that linkage is what I am working on.”