|
No need for Keystone's pipeline |
|
|
Have you heard of the Keystone environmental expert who reported that the Keystone pipeline would not have a leak in 900 years when in truth there were 576 leaks in six years in the TransCanada pipeline? It appears that oil journalism must be taken with a grain of salt. The Keystone-owned pipeline does not exist, according to the South Dakota landowners who forced Keystone to admit that this was a "trial" pipeline that would be added to the unused natural gas line from Hardesty to near Winnipeg. It was designed to fix a problem in the gas industry. The most efficient line would be from Hardesty direct to Patoka, Ill., saving the contractor company building the line and Keystone millions of dollars. The most efficient route through North Dakota would be in the 400-foot-wide right-of-way, an alternate mentioned by Keystone. To use this idle land would save thousands of acres of valuable farm land from being idled by Keystone's 50-foot-wide easement demand. Thirty or even 20 feet would be plenty of room for the 30-inch line.
The United States possesses the largest deposits of oil shale in the entire world. The Rand report said that between 800 billion and 1.3 trillion barrels, three times as large as Saudi Arabia's reserves, could be extracted and, if used to supplement the US domestic supply, there would be enough to last 400 years. In addition, the emerging ethanol industry has 129 plants with a 6.313 trillion gallon per year capacity and 68 plants under construction will add 4.794 trillion for a total of 11.287 trillion gallons per year, making the U.S. an exporter of gasoline!
And last but not least, the hydrogen burning car which exhausts water and zero carbon and the gasoline/lithium battery hybrid that will use household current mostly at an equivalent cost of less than one dollar per gallon, mostly for electricity. The Energy Act of 2005 mandates these advances which are well within our the reach in several years.
Global warming is HERE, making it imperative that the production of carbon dioxide emissions through burning of fossil fuels be eliminated as soon as possible. The rise of the oceans will cause the shrinking of an already crowded world with a surge of new citizens to feed. Certainly the energy industry is in an enviable position and the importance of importation into the United States of heavy petroleum from foreign countries is no longer necessary. The mandate for cleaner, more efficient cars is already here.
With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies are growing uncertain about future gasoline demand and have little need to expand refineries or build new ones.
North Dakota's Public Service Commission has the responsibility to deny the expansion of the pipeline into market areas that will not exist in the near future.
Richard Starke
Burlington, N.D.
Editor’s note: Starke is a member of the Dakota Resource Council, an
environmental advocacy organization.
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 December 2007 )
|
