Keystone-Pipeline

The Keystone pipeline transports the Athabasca oil sands from the western Canadian province of Alberta to oil refineries in the U.S. states of Illinois, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The route from Alberta to Steele City ( Nebraska) is 3456 km long; the extension to Cushing (Oklahoma) is 480 km; the pipeline has a diameter of 30 or 36 inches (76 or 91 cm).

The project is controversial because the extraction of crude oil means a large amount of energy from oil sands and brings with it serious environmental damage. In addition, the route of the so-called fourth phase is problematic because it crosses the area of the aquifer Ogallala Aquifer. This is essential for farming in the Great Plains. Damage would have unforeseeable consequences for food production in the United States.

History

TransCanada proposed the project in 2005. 2008, the U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips got in with a 50 % stake, but in 2009 bought TransCanada the share back to get back to his owner alone. It took two years to obtain all necessary permits; the pure construction took two more years. 2010 was the pipeline in operation.

Keystone XL

The planned addition and expansion of the Keystone XL Keystone pipeline was 2,700 km, eventually lead with a diameter of nearly a meter, and thus a transport volume of approximately 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the U.S. state of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. Because the pipeline crosses the Canadian-American border, it is according to U.S. law is a project of foreign policy, which is in the discretion of the U.S. president and his government without the Congress substantive participation. The decision on the construction of the northern part of the Canadian border to Oklahoma should fall in early 2013, first at the earliest, after the U.S. State Department announced in November 2011, to explore alternative routes. The end of 2011, the U.S. Congress, the government tried within a period of 60 days to put them under pressure. President Obama refused under these circumstances to go into an exam and had on 19 January 2012, the project, since he held in his short, specified period of time no meaningful content rating possible. To stop the project in favor of an alternative planning also contributed to massive protests from environmentalists, several Nobel laureates and prominent personalities such as Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

The southern portion of the Keystone XL project from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast was pursued and commenced operations in January 2014. It connects the oil - handling center in Cushing, Oklahoma to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Port Arthur, Texas.

In March 2013 introduced a new application, the operating company. Therein the routing was changed so that the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills in Nebraska will no longer be crossed.

President Obama made the summer of 2013 in a speech on measures against climate change agreement for the Keystone XL pipeline dependent on USA lids their CO2 emissions and make progress in climate policy and energy saving. The issue of pipeline construction is viewed in the U.S. as a symbol of the commitment of the Obama administration to make climate change a political project of the President.

In an environmental impact assessment commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from January 2014 this comes to the conclusion that oil from the Canadian oil sands about 17% more CO2 than is the average of all oil shipments to the United States. Otherwise, the environmental impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline are comparable with all other projects. The decision lies with Obama, a timetable for this is not foreseeable (February 2014).

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