TransCanada, bad for Texas

TransCanada steals Texans’ private property! That’s right. TransCanada, a foreign transnational corporation, is coming into Texas and expropriating private property from individual landowners. Under the guise of ‘eminent domain’ TransCanada has been successful at bullying landholders to for go their private property for TransCanada’s right-of-way of the Gulf Coast project, the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Photo: Max Anderson

            The Keystone pipeline system will span 1,702 miles, and will carry heavy crude from the oil sands mines of Alberta, Canada to refineries along the Gulf Coast. The southern leg will stretch 485 miles from Cushing, OK to Nederland, TX. It will carry 700,000 barrels of crude a day. The pipeline will cut across 17 Texas counties and cross several major waterways, including the Neches, Red, Angelina, and Sabine Rivers, as well as the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which provides drinking water to upwards of 10 million Texans. The Keystone XL pipeline will also run near the Big Thicket National Wildlife Preserve in southeast Texas.

            All pipelines leak. The Keystone 1 pipeline spilled 12 times in its first year. This could wreak havoc on the waterways in Texas, pollute precious ground water, and has likelihood of being the next Kalamazoo River spill. East Texas, which is already drought stricken, cannot afford to have its’ waterways polluted on a large scale. It is not only bad for Texas, but it’s dangerous to its citizens. The human race can survive without oil, we cannot, however, survive without water.

            The Keystone XL pipeline has been cited with bringing jobs to the area and supporting energy independence, but what is less known is that TransCanada has contracted jobs to Michels, a company based out of Wisconsin, and most of the product, once it is refined in Houston and Port Arthur, will be sold on a global market to places like China, India, and Brazil. How is this good for Texas?

            What is often neglected in mainstream news is what the pipes will be transporting. It is not conventional crudes or even natural gas, but an unconventional diluted bitumen that is extracted from tar sands. Tar sands are one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. It is literally tar that has the consistency of peanut butter. Before they can put this substance into any pipe they must first extract the oil out of the sands. The extraction process is very energy intensive with little return on oil. TransCanada must first large-scale surface mine the land to extract the ore. Once it is mined, they then use enormous amounts of water to get the oil out of the sands. It can take upwards of four barrels of water per one barrel of oil. The water used in the extraction process is eventually stored in vast tailing ponds. These tailing ponds, which can be seen by the naked from space, hold water mixed with toxic by-products of the extraction process and is acutely toxic to aquatic life. The environmental concerns associated with developing the tar sands are now of substantial concern. NASA’s leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, has called the Keystone XL pipeline “game over” for the planet.

Photo: Max Anderson

            There is a movement of resistance growing in East Texas. There has been a consensus among landowners, scientist and environmental activists in opposing the pipeline. The Tar Sands Blockade group has been actively trying to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Tar Sands Blockade group is dedicated to using non-violent civil disobedience to stop construction along the proposed pathway. Tar Sands Blockade members have locked onto heavy machinery used in the construction process, set up a tree village blockade along the proposed pipeline path, and held protests in front of construction sites. The most recent action on October 15^th was the largest yet. More than 50 people participated in shutting down construction near Winnsboro, TX. A total of nine people were arrested, including two men who locked onto a backhoe for nearly eight hours. This was Tar Sands Blockade’s ninth action in just a few months. The first action was on August 28^th when four people lock-boxed themselves to an 18-wheeler carrying pipes in Livingston, TX.  The Tar Sands Blockade has been growing in strength and shows no signs of slowing down.

            A resistance movement between concerned landowners, scientists and eco-activists is heating up in the backwoods of Texas with one message: TransCanada, GO AWAY!