Has Obama already approved Keystone XL?
This comes from Peace Team--not sure if they are right or not, but I fear the worst.
Last week President Obama made a speech that tried to suggest that a decision about whether or not to build the climate and aquifer killing Keystone XL pipeline had not been made yet.
That is categorically not true. And the proof of that is that construction on the ALREADY Obama approved southern leg of Keystone XL continues without even a slowdown. There is no reason to have a southern leg if they were not determined to approve the rest of it, on whatever pretext we may hear later.
Stop Keystone XL South Now Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1122.php
We demanding an immediate moratorium on construction of the Keystone XL southern leg.
Any other action is conclusive proof that the President of the United States has absolutely no intention of rejecting the full implementation of Keystone XL, regardless of the mounting and dire evidence against its approval. Any other action would just represent throwing good money after the worst of the worst.
And after you submit the action page above, go ahead and request one of our beautiful Stop Global Warming bumper stickers. There is no charge, not even shipping, unless you choose to make a contribution, which is what makes it possible for us to send free stickers to anyone who cannot make a donation right now.
Stop Global Warming bumper stickers:
http://www.peaceteam.net/all_bumper_stickers.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
After last week's horrific disaster in Quebec, who's to say what's worse, oil transport by pipeline or train? Oil transport by train has seen a 40 fold increase over the past couple of years in tanker cars that are unsafe on infrastructure that is unsafe near hundreds of towns and cities throughout Canada and the Northeast and Southern U.S. Lac Megantic was predicted by many. There were 50 deaths and a town destroyed. There is no good solution here. I don't envy the President having to make this decision. That oil is going to be transported either by pipeline or rail.
<snip>
The growth in train transport of oil has been staggering. Shipments of Bakken shale oil were expected to exceed 800,000 barrels per day by the end of this year, up tenfold just since August 2011, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. State Department. Across the United States, rail carloads of crude, which totaled just 9,500 in 2008, were up to 97,000 in just the first quarter of this year—on track for a 40-fold increase in just five years. Canada's railroads, which carried just 500 carloads of crude in 2009, will carry 130,000 to 140,000 carloads this year, the Railway Association of Canada says. (See related story: "U.S. to Overtake Saudi Arabia, Russia as World's Top Energy Producer."
<snip>
Rail transport of oil has been slower to develop out of Canada's oil sands. But State Department analysts foresee it growing—one of the key reasons they concluded that the Keystone XL, if built, would have minimal impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon-intensive oil of Canada's tar sands will get to market, with or without the pipeline, they argued; it will move by rail. (See related: "Keystone XL Pipeline Path Marks New Battle Line in Oklahoma." Others dispute that conclusion, noting that the heavy tar sands oil, which needs extensive processing, does not fetch as high a price as the light, sweet crude from North Dakota, making the costs of rail travel more difficult for producers.
<snip>
But critics of new pipelines have not been sanguine about oil trains. Pipelines can be built to avoid population centers and fragile ecosystems, while trains travel over routes where such concerns were not weighed, Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota-based spokesman for the Sierra Club, said in an interview last year. "The trains travel through sensitive areas, and right through the middle of many towns," he said—including two blocks from his office in downtown Bismarck. (Related Photos: "Animals That Blocked The Path of the Keystone Pipeline"
In May, a study by the Paris-based International Energy Agency concluded that pipelines in North America spilled three times as much crude oil as trains for comparative distances over an eight-year period. But the study, based on U.S. Department of Transportation data, also said that the risk of a train spill proved to be six times greater than a pipeline incident over the period between 2004 and 2012. (See related "Pictures: Arkansas Oil Spill Darkens Backyards, Driveways."
<snip>
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/07/130708-oil-train-tragedy-in-canada/
Is rail-bound crude oil a disaster waiting to happen?
The U.S. shale oil and gas boom has brought business to railroads still reeling from declining coal shipments. But as freight operators such as Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC (BNSF) breathe a sigh of relief, some are feeling uneasy about oil companies' rush to the train tracks.
"The Northeast has old, dilapidated infrastructure. We have neglected it for decades, and now, all of a sudden, there's this renaissance of railroads coming back with oil," said Fadel Gheit, managing director and senior analyst covering the oil and gas sector at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. "When you increase the traffic, you increase the chances of accidents."
A slew of train derailments is raising questions about how safe and reliable oil trains are until aging tracks along the East Coast are upgraded. The latest train wreck happened shortly after 2 p.m. on Tuesday outside of Baltimore, when a CSX Corp. freight train hauling chemicals hit a truck and derailed, caught fire and sent a ball of flame into the air. The explosion blew a hole in a nearby industrial building. Last year, a coal train jumped the tracks in Ellicott City, Md., and killed two women.
<snip>
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059982047
Lac Megantic: Oil shipments by rail have increased 28,000 per cent since 2009
Diesel spilled from rail cars near the Quebec town just last month, officials say
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/08/lac_megantic_oil_shipments_by_rail_have_increased_28000_per_cent_since_2009.html