Trespassing Across America: The Keystone XL Pipeline

Ken Ilgunas is a journalist from New York who is now located in Scotland.  He has published several book some of which include How We Lost The Right To Roam and How to Take it Back, Trespassing Across America, and A Walk Across Suburbia.  He has a blog where he keeps his readers up on his life and achievements along with educating them on several topics.  

I am mostly going to be focusing on his book Trespassing Across America because this is the journey he came to our school to discuss.  Much of the information that I will be writing about either directly comes from Algunas's blog or from his conversations with us at the meeting.  

In September 2012, Algunas "hitchhiked 1,500 miles north to the Alberta tar sands," and continued a "1,700-mile hike south following the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast."  It was a 4.5 month journey for him to be able to travel this whole pipeline as he got to see the effects along the way.  While walking this journey, he got to meet people all over with different viewpoints about the pipeline.  Ilgunas was able to learn about new perspectives and helped him shape his own views about it.  Although I have not read Ilgunas's book, I was able to learn a lot more about the pipeline and it encouraged me to do a little extra research about the topic.  

What is the Keystone XL Pipeline?  The Keystone XL Pipeline is a vessel to transport "the planet's dirtiest fossil fuel to market" and was proposed by TC Energy in 2008 with an estimated cost of 8 billion dollars.  It has been operating since 2010 where it sends Canadian tar sands crude form Alberta, Canada to various parts of the United States. 

What does the Keystone XL Pipeline Transport?  The Keystone XL Pipeline begins in Alberta, Canada forests where these companies have access to a large amount of something called tar sand.  These sands are valuable because it is now hard to find pure, refined oil so the energy companies have turned to tar sands.  Tar Sands "contain bitumen, a gooey type of petroleum that can be converted into fuel."  Just extracting the oil from the tar sands alone has detrimental environmental costs.  

Where does the Keystone XL Pipeline Go?  The Keystone XL Pipeline is made up of two segments; a southern leg ("runs between Cushing, Oklahoma, and Port Arthur, Texas") and the northern leg (that would run through "Hardisty, Alberta, through Montana and South Dakota to Steele City, Nebraska").  After much public input, "the U.S. State Department, under President Barack Obama, declined to grant the northern leg of the Keystone XL project the permit required to construct maintain, and operate the pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border."  Later, President Trump granted this permit when TC Energy applied again and they were able to resume construction, but there was still a lot to be done before this portion of the pipeline would be able to become operational.  On the first day President Biden was in office, "he issued an executive order canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline".  As this is a controversial topic, every time a decision was made there was always backlash from one side or another.  The great thing about Ilgunas's book is that he gets to meet and interview people who have opposing views on the Pipeline that he is able to share in his book.  

What's the Problem Here?  The problems that the Keystone XL Pipeline presents are mostly environmental risks.  Although any type of oil spill is bad, tar sand oil is worse than the conventional crude oil spills.  It is "thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and this ups the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak."  A study found that between 2007 and 2010 tar sand oil had "spilled three times more per mile than the U.S. national average for pipelines carrying conventional crude."  One incident on October 31st, 2019 had the pipeline temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota that reported having lost over 378,000 gallons.  These spills are not looking good for the future either as the sand is acidic and corrosive and will eat away at the pipes.  The pipes are covered in an anti-corrosion coating, but this was found defective in early 2020 by TC Energy's own scientists.  On top of this, leaks can be very difficult to detect and tar sand oil is much more difficult to clean up because it immediately sinks to the bottom of waterways and can cost billions of dollars to clean up.  The environment that comes into contact with tar sand oil is exposed to toxic chemicals.  On top of that, the process of getting the oil out of tar sands creates three to four times the carbon pollution compared to the conventional crude oil. An important area that the Keystone XL Pipeline crosses is the Nebraska Ogallala Aquifer "which provides drinking water for millions as well as 30 percent of America's irrigation water."  A spill into this aquifer would be devastating to millions of people and communities that rely on it.  Overall, the Keystone XL Pipeline "operations dig up and flattens forests to access the oil below, [destroy] wildlife habitat and one of the world's largest carbon sinks.  They deplete and pollute freshwater resources, create massive ponds of toxic waste, and threaten the health and livelihood of the First Nations people who live near them." 

I did not know much about this pipeline at all before going to Ilgunas's talk and hearing about his incredible and inspiring journey.  I feel like I have learned a lot going into researching this and getting to hear about people's stories from Ilgunas as he traveling and discussed their viewpoints on the pipeline.  He was able to really hear about both opinions surrounding the pipeline.  I find it empowering to hear people's stories like that and look at things through a different set of eyes.