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Oil spill fuels opposition to Canada-US pipeline
News Articles | AFP | July 06, 2010
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The plan to build a vast oil pipeline from Canada to the southern shores of the United States faced congressional opposition Tuesday amid fierce anger over the Gulf of Mexico spill.
Top US lawmaker Henry Waxman called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the proposed 2,151 mile (3,461 kilometer) Keystone pipeline, which would transport crude from Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas.
In a letter released on Tuesday Waxman — who chairs the House of Representatives Energy Committee — said the project was “a multi-billion dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available.
“The State Department’s decision on whether to permit this pipeline represents a critical choice about America’s energy future,” he wrote.
The letter was dated July 2, two days before oil spewing from a BP rig was discovered washed up on the Texas coast, after already soiling beaches in four other Gulf coast states.
TransCanada, the firm leading project, argues it would add around 20 billion dollars to the US economy and would “supply roughly half the amount of oil that the US currently imports from the Middle East or Venezuela.”
The pipeline would cost an estimated seven billion dollars to build and, if planing permission is granted, would be completed around 2013.
Waxman said the influx of crude gleaned from tar sands would be dirty and would force refineries to ramp up operations.
“The Keystone XL pipeline would be a step in the wrong direction,” he wrote.
The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22 unleashing the worst ever environmental disaster to afflict US shores.
Up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day is believed to be leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, far outpacing the collection efforts of a containment system that is capturing around 25,000 barrels a day.
It will likely be mid-August at the earliest before the ruptured well is permanently capped by injecting mud and cement with the aid of relief wells.
Tagged with: keystone xl, pipeline, secretary of state, gulf spill, waxman
