Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumKeystone Pipeline leaks 383,000 gallons of oil in second big spill in two years
Approximately 383,000 gallons of crude oil have spilled into a North Dakota wetland this week in the latest leak from the Keystone Pipeline, further fueling long-standing opposition to plans for the pipeline networks extension.
With about half an Olympic swimming pools worth of oil covering roughly half an acre, the leak is among the largest in the state, said Karl Rockeman, who directs the North Dakota Department of Environmental Qualitys division of water quality. But the spill does not appear to pose an immediate threat to public health, he added, as people do not live nearby and that the wetland is not a source of drinking water.
For environmental groups, though, the leak was further evidence that Canada-based pipeline owner TC Energy should not be allowed to build the controversial Keystone XL addition, which would stretch more than 1,000 miles from Alberta into the United States. The Trump administration approved the plan in 2017 after years of protests, but the project was blocked by a federal judge who called for further study on environmental impacts.
With each one of these major spills that happens on the Keystone pipeline system, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is not safe, said Doug Hayes, an attorney leading the Sierra Clubs work on Keystone XL. Critics worry about a similar mishap contaminating one of the hundreds of waterways along Keystone XLs expected path, he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/10/31/keystone-pipeline-leaks-gallons-oil-second-big-spill-two-years/
Python boot
(74 posts)The SC ruled that eminent domain could be used for a public benefit rather than a public purpose in the Kelo decision and that paved the way for pipeline construction on private land. Question is, how does the public derive a benefit from a pipeline that transports Canadian oil to a US port for export overseas? The constitution says eminent domain is only for a public purpose. We need a law to restore the proper use of this goverment power.
TomSlick
(11,120 posts)In case it's needed: