Parts of the Keystone Pipeline System Have Been Working Well for Years

Whether President Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline is anybody’s guess. The bigger mystery is why it’s even an issue.
 
Given all the ruckus environmentalists have raised, you’d think the Keystone XL pipeline is some novel attempt to impose an oil pipeline in the U.S. for the first time.
 
In fact, the U.S. already has some 200,000 miles of pipeline, and we’ve been importing and refining tar sands from Alberta, Canada, for years.
 
The current brouhaha is over Phase 4 of the Keystone pipeline system that was first proposed in 2005 by the TransCanada Corp., which has been building North American pipelines for 50 years.
 
Phase 1 was finished three years ago. It transports the same oil that environmentalists seemed so concerned about from Alberta to Midwest refineries in Illinois, crossing six states in its journey.
 
Phase 2 extended the pipeline from Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma, a major U.S. refining hub. That line went operational in 2011.
 
Phase 3 is currently under construction. It extends the pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf refineries in Texas. The president signed off on that effort in March 2012, even giving a speech in Cushing.
 
So why all the hubbub about Phase 4, which would build another pipeline but only cross three states (Montana, Nebraska and Kansas), where it would connect into the Phase 3 segment? The initial answer was that the proposed path of Phase 4 would take it across some environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska. Even Governor Dave Heineman raised concerns.
 
So TransCanada rerouted the pipeline, to the satisfaction of the Nebraska legislature. Even the U.S. State Department thinks the risks are minimal.
 
But for environmentalists the real agenda is to kill the Keystone XL in the name of saving the planet, even though the Phase 1 pipeline does exactly the same thing and has been operating safely for three years.
 
Opponents raise concerns about pipeline spills, similar to the one that occurred in Arkansas last March. But that apparently came from a section of pipe that was about 60 years old. And shipping oil by rail also has its risks, as we just saw in Canada.
 
The fact is that the Keystone XL pipeline is simply an extension of an already existing program that is working well, creating jobs and expanding U.S. manufacturing (refining falls under manufacturing). It should be an easy, and quick, decision for President Obama.