Due to the evident climate change that is affecting the world and the ones who live in it negatively and the enormous contribution of human impact. The Keystone XL pipeline is not in the national interests of the United States. Cushman’s book strives to weigh what the U.S. stands to gain verses what it likely to lose by investing in the Keystone XL Pipeline. Constructing the pipeline is for instance likely to create thousands of jobs besides contributing billions of dollars to the exchequer. The project is in addition seen as way of satisfying the U.S. energy needs in a way that offers economic and social stability in a number of ways. Since the project also involves the Canadian government, it’s definitely seen as a major boost to the U.S.
Thesis Statement: In the U.S, the Keystone XL Pipeline is doing more harm than good.
The Keystone XL is a controversial oil pipeline extension that would travel from Alberta, Canada, to the United States Gulf Coast. The Keystone XL should not be built because of the damage it would cause to the environment. The oil would be found within tar sands that contain bitumen. The process of extracting the crude oil uses a lot of energy and causes a large amount of greenhouse gases. Many citizens, in Canada and the United States, are outraged because it can be detrimental to the surrounding land and wildlife. TransCanada, the company building the oil pipeline, has to receive permission from the United States government to begin construction. If the United States does not have the pipeline built and chooses to not use Canada’s oil, then TransCanada will have the pipeline built elsewhere and exported to other countries. There has been a divide between those in favor of the Keystone XL and those who are not. The Keystone XL would be able to provide the United States with a reliable source of oil, but it would also take the risk of faults in the oil pipeline and ruining parts of America’s resourceful soil. The Keystone XL will cause a negative effect on the environment and damage resourceful land; therefore, the oil pipeline should not be constructed.
The history of oil pipelines in the U.S. supports both sides of the argument, but in the end one must not rely on history to decide whether or not to implement such a controversial pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline could be beneficial to the US economy but the dangers to the environment must be weighed in order to decide if the new oil pipeline is necessary. We live in a world that is trying to switch over to renewable energy and help reduce global warming. The increased production of oil in the United States might not be needed even though it might be beneficial to economic
With an increasing global population and ever industrializing society 's, environmental concern is rarely given priority over economic incentive. But what people fail to realize is that our environmental failures, and relative apathy about it set up a plethora of problems for future generations to deal with. One of the most important decisions president Obama will face in the next year will be whether or not to approve the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, a massively sized, and massively controversial oil pipeline that would stretch all the way from Alberta Canada, to American oil refineries along the Gulf Of Mexico. Despite the economic incentive present, the building of the Keystone XL pipeline should not happen because of the
Will the Keystone XL Pipeline undercut the United States efforts to be a leader in climate change and environmental initiatives?
The construction of the Keystone XL pipeline encourages the controversy over boosting the American economy or the safety of the environment. The process of building this major pipeline has millions of people in a heated debate. The issue of this pipeline has several environmental researchers and economists in an altercation that when climate change is already a major issue for the nation is trying to sway the construction of the pipeline to be approved or denied. Based on research about the Keystone XL Pipeline, it can be shown that America will face a net negative impact because of the lack of prominent economic gains, presence of environmental effects, and disadvantages of the oil extraction process.
In 2015, the world will face a vast amount of dilemmas; these dilemmas range from how someone is going to get their food to how they are going to cook. But the biggest dilemma of them all, is how they are going to continue to get energy to do everyday tasks. The most efficient resources are those of the nonrenewable variety. These nonrenewable resources include fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum. Someday these resources will run out and will not be replenished for thousands of years. As of now, an overwhelming majority of the energy used in the world today is non-renewable. We, as civilized people, are so dependent on fossil fuels that we go through extraneous efforts to retrieve these properties. The world needs energy to function and sites that once contained vital resources are on the verge of depletion. It is inevitable that the world looks elsewhere for another resource to absorb the depleting reservoirs. One reservoir capable of withstanding the demand for oil are the tar sands located near Alberta, Canada. These tar sands are the third largest reservoir of crude oil in the world and are conveniently located just north of the United States border (About the Project). There is a wide spread debate on whether or not the crude oil produced from these tar sands should be transported via pipeline. With critical analysis of all point of views, it is without a doubt that the United States should cease their delay on
The Keystone XL Pipeline has been a major controversial issue in the news lately regarding the expansion of a pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This pipeline will cross six states including Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. This pipeline will transport 830,000 barrels of crude tar sands oil to the United States. Despite the immediately benefits for the economy with the installation, the decision is to decline the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. This decision is based mainly on two factors: the environment and the economy in the long run.
Probably the most antagonistic debate of President Obama’s secondary term, the Keystone pipeline system controversy has caused a major disturbance in the political regime due to its heavily disputed factual evidence. Ever since construction began in 2008 and it was commissioned in 2010, the Phase I portion of the pipeline has been haunted by talk of the possible expansion causing disorder among environmentalists and preservationists. While Phase II and Phase III have been completed since the current date, Phase IV, commonly referred to as the Keystone XL pipeline, has been put to startling halt due to the President’s veto on February 11, 2015, to a bill passed by the Senate advocating the pipeline. The President’s veto was placed forth due
“The world is looking at us, you’ve gotta be lowering your greenhouse gas emissions, not increasing.” said Senator Ed Markey about the keystone pipelines. Keystone pipelines is an oil sand pipeline system, started in June 2010, that runs from Western Canadian Sedimentary Base in Alberta through refineries in Illinois and Texas and also to oil farms and pipelines in Cushing, Oklahoma. TransCanada Corporation first proposed the this project on February 9, 2005. However, this existing pipeline is expected to have 1,700 new miles of pipeline added to it, Keystone XL Pipeline, two new sections of expansion. This is called the Keystone XL Pipeline Extension and it was proposed on January 22, 2008. The first new section would connect Cushing,
Thesis: Building the proposed extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline would be disastrous for the future of our country and planet since it would place vital natural resources in its path at risk of an oil spill, continue and increase mining processes that damage the environment, and increase global warming by furthering our nation’s use and dependency on fossil fuels.
On March 23, almost 27 years to the day following the historic Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Donald Trump issued a presidential permit to the Canadian company, TransCanada for its controversial Keystone XL pipeline, formally restarting a fight over the pipeline that first kicked off when it was first proposed in 2008. Those opposing the pipeline had scored a major victory in November 2015 when President Obama rejected the project saying it wouldn’t help the economy or increase the United States’ energy security. A change in leadership, however, has fueled a move away from clean energy and fighting climate change and embracing the fossil fuel-driven economic
It is no secret that our country has a need for oil and that need increases everyday. We will do anything to feed this habit, including allowing big oil companies to ruin land by running oil pipelines. According to a report done by the United States Department of Transportation, there are currently more than 2.4 million miles of pipeline already in operation within the United States. Of that, 72,563 miles carries crude oil to a various number of refineries across the land ("PHMSA"). According to Jeff Brady, a NPR correspondent, and Scott Horsley, a White House Correspondent, if the Keystone XL pipeline were fully completed, “The Keystone XL pipeline would be able to move up to 830,000 barrels a day of crude oil” (par. 6). TransCanada commissioned the Keystone pipeline in 2010, and since then their record on oil spill is less than perfect. According to Janna Palliser, Assistant Editor of Science Scope, during the first year of the Keystone pipeline being commissioned; it “Has had 14 spills since operations began. Of these spills, seven were 10 gallons or less, four were 100 gallons or less, two were between 400 and 500 gallons, and one was 21,000
energy needs in a way that proposes economic and social stability in many ways. This project also involves the Canadian government, it’s surely seen as a major boost to the U.S. foreign policy and economic corporation by the country’s peers. This will cost the United States economically in the long run. It will also put the United States further behind in the game to get ahead of innovation and technology for future energy systems. I believe that the Keystone XL will only further irreversibly damage the environment along with hurting the United states hegemony, and contribute nothing to US interests in the long term, and should be rejected. A history of oil spillage and leakage including the BP oil spill of 2010, which sent tons upon tons of oil into the ocean for months, shows that the extraction of oil is far from foolproof. This coupled with the fact it is undeniable that our carbon emissions are their current rate being emitted into the air will raise the temperature of the earth maybe four, six, or more degrees in the next decades or two, is proof enough that we do not need to take any more oil from the ground and need to focus on more earth-friendly renewable
As the United States tries to keep its promises to stay committed towards developing cleaner and greener energy, a new proposal arises for a pipeline that would originate from Alberta in northern Canada to oil refineries in close proximity to the Gulf region of the U.S. Specifically, the refineries in Texas and Oklahoma. The proposal for the new pipeline would come to be called the Keystone XL. Since its introduction in Congress in 2008, the pipeline has been a source of controversy and public opposition for Congress, due to fears over the environmental impacts from such a pipeline and critics who question the need for a pipeline to transport vast amounts of oil across the U.S. The oil that would be produced from Canada would come from tar