Keystone XL Pipeline

What Is the Keystone XL Pipeline?

The Keystone XL pipeline was to ship oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the United States. The last phase of the Keystone XL pipeline was to be developed by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada Corporation), which has built several different pipelines among Canada and the United States starting around 2010.

In March 2019, then, at that point President Donald Trump granted a Presidential permit permitting construction of the oil pipeline that was to run through the international border of the United States and Canada. Be that as it may, on Jan. 20, 2021, President Biden marked an executive order disavowing the permit of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Figuring out the Keystone XL Pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline was proposed by TransCanada Corp. on Feb. 9, 2005, in a press release, which said, "TransCanada is in the business of associating energy supplies to markets and we view this opportunity as one more approach to offering a valuable support to our customers. Changing over one of our natural gas pipeline assets for oil transportation is a creative, cost-serious method for addressing the requirement for pipeline extensions to oblige anticipated growth in Canadian crude oil production during the next decade."

The principal phase of the pipeline goes from Hardisty, Alberta, to the intersection at Steele City, Nebraska, and on to the Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Illinois, and the Patoka Oil Terminal Hub north of Patoka, Illinois. Section two runs from Steele City, Nebraska, south through Kansas to the oil hub and tank farm in Cushing, Oklahoma, then, at that point, further south to Nederland, Texas, to serve treatment facilities in the Port Arthur, Texas, area. The third phase is the Houston Lateral pipeline, which will move crude oil from the pipeline in Liberty County, Texas, to treatment facilities and terminals in the Houston area.

In Nov. 2015, President Barack Obama announced his administration wouldn't grant permits for the construction of this pipeline to additional their commitment to fighting climate change. In his most memorable week at the Oval Office, President Trump marked an executive order making room for the pipeline project. The Republican party had accepted that the construction of the pipeline will make more positions and give a lift to the economy. On Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden revoked the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. TC Energy said it was stopping construction before that very day.

How the Keystone Pipeline Works

The Keystone system transports diluted bitumen and synthetic crude oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma to treatment facilities situated in Texas, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Canada has large reserves of oil locked in oil sands. This oil is viewed as heavy oil, which requires an alternate refining process from different types of oil. The production of heavy oil releases particulate matter, like ash, as well as synthetic compounds like sulfides, hydrogen cyanide, and sulfur. The completed Keystone XL pipeline is estimated to have the option to carry north of 800,000 barrels of oil a day.

The Keystone pipeline has been condemned by environmental groups, legislators, and inhabitants of states through which the pipeline passes. These groups have raised worries about the proposed course's nearness to the Sandhill region of Nebraska and the Ogallala spring, the last option of which gives a critical portion of the water used to water crops in the United States. The bitumen carried by the pipeline to the United States will probably bring about higher ozone depleting substance emissions.

For instance, the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) has documented lawsuits in 2017, 2019, and in July of 2020 to stop the construction of the pipeline. As per the NRDC, tar sands oil is a lot thicker and more destructive than regular crude oil and is more inclined to releases and spills through the pipeline. The group stated that the latest spill in Oct. 2019 brought about 378,000 gallons of oil spilling in North Dakota.

Defenders of the pipeline say that it will increase the supply of oil to the United States and that oil coming from a friendly adjoining country increases security.

Features

• Keystone has been disputable for a long time due to worries about its nearby and global environmental effects.
• On Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden repealed the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
• The Keystone Pipeline was proposed by TC Energy (formerly TransCanadian Corp.) in 2005 to ship new finds of hard-to-separate heavy oil from oil sands in Canada to U.S. purifiers.
• The pipeline system is 2,687 miles (4,324 km) long.