President Donald Trump Seeks to Restart the Controversial Keystone XL Pipeline After Numerous Spills
Despite experiencing three significant spills over the last eight years, President Donald Trump is pushing for the reactivation of the Keystone XL pipeline, an extension of the contentious tar sands pipeline network.
This story is still unfolding… Stay tuned for further updates…
The Keystone pipeline system, which daily transports hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil across nearly 2,700 miles from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, was shut down abruptly on Tuesday morning following a break in North Dakota. This incident is the latest in a series of mishaps for what its advocates have dubbed the “world’s safest pipeline.”
The pipeline, managed by South Bow, a Canadian enterprise, was closed after detection tools alerted to a pressure drop, indicating a spill. The company reported that approximately 624,000 barrels of crude oil are moved daily through this pipeline. The spill occurred in a farming area about 60 miles southwest of Fargo.
“We have isolated the affected section and dispatched operational and containment teams to the location,” the company stated, as per The Associated Press. “Our primary concern at this moment is ensuring the safety of our personnel on site and reducing environmental risk.”
According to the AP:
The cause of the underground pipeline’s rupture and the volume of crude oil spilled are currently unknown. A nearby employee heard a “mechanical bang” and managed to halt the pipeline’s operation within roughly two minutes, explained Bill Suess, who oversees spill investigations for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Oil appeared on the surface approximately 300 yards from the pumping station in a field, prompting immediate response from emergency teams, added Suess.
A planned expansion, the Keystone XL, would have transported additional tar sands oil—considered the most polluting type of fuel globally—to Gulf of Mexico refineries. Critics have long highlighted the potential for spills, with a 2021 report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office documenting 22 incidents along the pipeline from 2010 to 2020. Notably, there were spills exceeding 100,000 gallons in 2017, 2019, and 2022.
“The history of incidents with Keystone underscores the inherent problems with this pipeline,” remarked Bill Caram, the executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, on Tuesday. “It seems the Keystone pipeline is on track to average about one major failure per year. It’s time to address these issues.”
After over a decade of advocacy from climate, environmental, indigenous groups, and others, then-President Joe Biden canceled the permit for Keystone XL on his first day in office in January 2021. President Donald Trump, however, who has promoted a “drill, baby, drill” agenda, is now looking to bring back Keystone XL.
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