Pipeline In, Carbon Out
Pipeline In, Carbon Out
Burning Our Current Oil Reserves
Could Lead to Catastrophe
by Tod Westlake
We consume an awful lot of energy
here in the US. As of 2008, this is one area in which we were still number one
in the world, though more recent estimates suggest that, in the past couple of
years, China has eclipsed us, with its industrial boom leading to huge growth
in energy consumption. Of course, the European Union, when taken as a whole, isn't
too far behind the US and its number-one trade partner. Japan, too, is a huge
consumer of energy. Now we can add Russia and India into the mix as two
countries with huge populations hungry for fuel. And every year more and more
humans fall in love with the latest electronic gadget, putting even more
pressure on our already-stretched-thin energy supply. The era of peak oil
production, if it's not already upon us, will certainly be here presently.
Thus we've begun to start looking
at new ways to produce energy, some of it good and some of it not so good. On
the good side, Germany created national subsidies that provided residents and
businesses with powerful incentives for renewable sources, so much so that the
country now gets more than 20 percent of electricity from renewables. On the
bad side, in the coal fields of the US, mining companies now level entire
mountains in order to get at the anthracite buried within; and, it turns out
that the "hydro-fracking bonanza" that has been touted as a savior of
our energy needs comes with a number of dangerous downsides, including and
especially long-term damage to water quality. To some folks, all of this might
seem a bit like throwing not just the baby out with the bathwater, but also the
tub, the house, the neighborhood, and the land on which it all sits.
And, believe it or not, there is
yet another controversial source of energy here in North America. If you follow
the news, it's likely that you've heard the term "Keystone Pipeline"
a few times. In a nutshell, Keystone is a 2,000-plus mile pipeline system that
brings synthetic crude oil—which is refined from "tar sands," also
known as bitumen—from northwestern Canada to refineries here in the US. As it
is now configured, the pipeline runs from Hardisty, Alberta, east across the
southern tier of Canada, until it turns southward into the US along the eastern
end of the Dakotas and into Steele City, Nebraska. There it splits, with one
section going eastward into Missouri and Illinois, and a second spur that heads
south to Cushing, Oklahoma. There are also several proposed additions to the
pipeline, one which will link up with the big refineries along the Gulf Coast
in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, and a second, much longer addition (known as
Keystone XL) that would cut diagonally from Alberta, through northeastern
Montana, across South Dakota and Nebraska, before linking up with the present
pipeline in Steele City. When completed, the pipeline would encompass
approximately 4,000 miles in total.
Local Problems
There are several major problems
with the pipeline, according to critics. And those individuals whose land is,
or will be, bisected by the pipeline are very concerned. Briefly, these folks
have every right to be agitated. Pipelines rupture, sometimes with catastrophic
results. Last month in July, for example, as cited by the Calgary Star newspaper, a pipeline owned by Ravenwood Energy (also
in Alberta, interestingly) began to leak oil on the property of a local
resident. While the company addressed and repaired the leak relatively quickly,
the fact that just "75 to 80 percent" of the spill has been cleaned
up thus far has made these residents very nervous. There were a total of four
oil spills in Alberta in July alone. But these folks were relatively fortunate.
Here in the US two years ago
there was a pipeline spill of epic proportion. On July 6, 2010, a pipeline
owned by Enbridge Energy ruptured, spilling in excess of one-million gallons of
bitumen crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. While initial fears that the oil
would eventually make its way into Lake Michigan were unwarranted, the oil
ended up contaminating a 40-acre stretch of river bottom, and the ongoing
cleanup is currently the most expensive, and the longest, pipeline cleanup in
US history.
Regional Concerns
Another aspect of the pipeline
project that has environmentalists concerned is its location, particularly the
section that will traverse Montana and Nebraska. As students of American
geography know, this is the very heart of our breadbasket, some of the best
agricultural land in the world. One of the big reasons for this is its easy
access to large quantities of fresh water.
It's the source of this water
that is so concerning. Beneath this fertility sits one of the world's great
water sources, the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast underground lake that provides the
region's farmers with an easy-to-reach, clean water source. Approximately 25
percent of the region depends upon water from this aquifer, and nearly a third
of the nation's water for irrigation comes from this source.
Columnist Charles Pierce in Esquire magazine summed up its
importance succinctly: "Make
no mistake," he writes. "You screw with the Ogallala Aquifer and you
screw with this nation's heartbeat.... Pumping the water from it is all that
has kept the Dust Bowl from coming back, year after year. Any damage to it
fundamentally changes the lives of the people who depend on it, their personal
economies, the overall national economy, and what we can grow to feed
ourselves."
And not just the lives of the farmers, mind you, but also
those who rely upon its bounty, a population that extends to the coastal cities
whose bakeries produce the daily bread for millions of people. It even goes
well beyond that, as American grains are transported to far-flung regions
around the world, helping to provide sustenance for millions more. Any
significant disruption to this production would resonate globally, forcing
grain prices to spike upward, with the poorest folks paying the heaviest price.
This concern is perhaps most acutely felt in a region of
Nebraska known as the Sand Hills. The Keystone XL's route would bisect this
environmentally sensitive area, a region with a soil that is highly permeable.
A significant spill in this area, many fear, could have a dramatic impact on
the quality of the water from the aquifer.
Thinking
Globally
If the concerns listed aren't enough for you, which is
understandable given that the region in question is far from our own, there are
disturbing global implications when it comes to the source of the oil the
pipeline carries. This source, the Athabasca Tar Sands, is one of the most
carbon-intensive fuel sources currently being developed. And carbon, you are
likely aware, is the main catalyst in the potential climate catastrophe
unfolding.
Journalist and environmental activist Bill McKibben, one of
the most diligent critics of the Keystone pipeline, has stated that to fully
tap this resource could make reversing climate change all but impossible (short
of some unknown miracle technology that would allow us to scrub excess carbon
from our atmosphere).
As of right now, scientists have estimated that our
atmosphere can handle about 565 million more tons of carbon before the effects
of climate change would push the average global temperature up beyond the
threshold of two-degrees Celsius, a sort of climate point-of-no-return.
"The 565-gigaton figure was derived from one of
the most sophisticated computer-simulation models that have been built by
climate scientists around the world over the past few decades," wrote
McKibben in a recent (and highly recommended) article in Rolling Stone magazine. "And the number is being further
confirmed by the latest climate-simulation models currently being finalized in
advance of the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change." In other words, this number is currently just about the best
scientific estimate we have going.
Now the bad news: The Athabasca
Tar Sands will only add to the nearly five times this amount (or nearly 2,800
million tons of carbon) that currently sits in oil company reserves. "This
number is the scariest of all," McKibben writes. "[One] that, for the
first time, meshes the political and scientific dimensions of our dilemma."
And quite a dilemma it is, with the world's oil companies already counting on
these assets. Needless to say, they won't be quick to back down from this
fight.
"If you told Exxon or Lukoil
that in order to avoid wrecking the climate, they couldn't pump out their
reserves, the value of their companies would plummet," McKibben writes.
"[Those] 2,795 gigatons of carbon emissions are worth about $27 trillion.
Which is to say, if you paid attention to the scientists and kept 80 percent of
it underground, you'd be writing off $20 trillion in assets. The numbers aren't
exact, of course, but that carbon bubble makes the housing bubble look small by
comparison."
For now, however, through the
intensive efforts of McKibben and other environmental activists, the Keystone
XL portion of the pipeline has been put on hold. But money is like water. It
always manages to find the cracks in any bulwark. And the short-term drive for
profits often has a tendency to miss significant long-term implications. But,
if these scientists are right, coming up with renewable, clean energy sources
could become to be the most important global imperative humanity has ever
faced.
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 1:24 PM.
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