Keystone pipeline
The Keystone pipeline is a 1,179 mile (1,897km) suggested pipeline that would run from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would join an existing pipe. It would have the capacity to carry 830,000 barrels of oil every day. This pipeline would come after an original pipeline with the same name was permitted by President George W Bush. The difference is that this pipeline will have a more direct course. The financial resource for the pipeline will come from TransCanada, a Canadian energy company and other oil shippers.
This pipeline has been the subject of a political debate. On one hand, environmental advocates oppose the construction of the project of the nature of oil extraction mechanism that will be used. In their natural state, oil sands are combined with sand, clay and water. There are two ways to get the sands out of the ground to reach the oil. Extractors will have to use lots of water and natural gas to pump into the sand to get the oil out. This pollutes the environment around the field. However, these ways will be damaging to the environment. In the other way, the extractors will have to heat the sands to release the oil and this is bad for the environment because it has already burned acres of the forests around the construction site. Also, there is the concern that the pipeline itself could have leaks along the way which would immediately damage the its surrounding environment.
On the other hand, the proponents of the pipeline argue that the pipeline will be good for the economy because it would create new jobs. It is important to mention that many of those jobs will be temporary. It is projected that it would generate 35 permanent jobs. The State Department environmental review estimated that the project could support 42,000 temporary jobs over its 2 year construction period, about 3,900 of them in construction, and rest in other types of supporting jobs. On a bigger scale, the trade relations between United States and Canada will improve by this oil exchange project.
Finally, the Obama administration made a decision regarding the pipeline on November 5, 2015 and rejected the project. This decision came after 7 years of constant negotiations regarding the project. The President rejected the project because he believes that it would not lower oil prices, create long term jobs, or affect energy dependence. While he mentioned that the project would not have a significant impact on U.S. economy, he also stated that the project would have not had the catastrophic environmental consequences some feared.
