I want to talk about why the losses that TransCanada have incurred over their failure to obtain the necessary approval is not caused by the American public, and our objections to their route. TransCanada is being deceitful when they claim that the president’s veto is the reason they have suffered billions of dollars in losses, since the sole responsibility for those losses lie at the feet of the CEO of the company who made a series of bad decisions that he now wants the American taxpayer to reimburse the company for. Let’s look at the issue state by state, because as you see, the pipeline traverses the entire United States, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
TransCanada has already gotten approval to go through Montana and their legislators are upset that the president vetoed the pipeline, since they are eagerly looking forward to it’s construction. There reactions can be found in this article Montana delegation disappointed. Let’s talk about the decision Russ Girling, TransCanada’s CEO made regarding the Montana leg. In a field in Montana sits a mountain of green pipe, waiting for the final approval for the Keystone XL, that never came. Who made the decision to purchase all that pipe before the final approval was given, was it the American public, or Russ Girling? Pipes in the field all paid for, trucked in and piled up in eager anticipation of the people ignoring all the previous incidents of pipeline failure, and allowing TransCanada to build another risky pipeline through 6 states full of American citizens who would bear the brunt of any cleanup when a spill occurs. The Montana delegation worked hard to take the power to approve the pipelines cross border path out of the hands of the president and give it to a Congress that is already controlled by big energy.
Next we look at the South Dakota leg. The permit was authorized, but construction had to begin within 4 years, so it expired. TransCanada has succeeded in renewing the permit, but it still has to be revisited after 4 years, Keystone in South Dakota. Once again the battle to stop the renewal of the permits was extremely antagonistic, especially after it was discovered some newly laid pipelines were showing signs of corrosion. In the end TransCanada succeeded in getting the renewal of its permit over all objections.
We are going to skip Nebraska, we will come back to it later, as it was the major battle and will require a bit more time to explain.
Kansas has already built the section of the Keystone pipeline through their state. It was one of the easiest for TransCanada to get through, being as that it is the home of Charles Koch, getting a pipeline approved in his state was a piece of cake. In fact, it was so easy that oil began flowing through the Keystone pipeline in Kansas in 2011, long before the EPA released its environmental impact study and 4 years before the president vetoed the pipeline. There was little controversy for the Kansas leg of the Keystone, Charles Koch is a well known figure in Kansas and has the conservatives firmly under control, so much so that the loss of $15 million a year in taxes was not even a consideration when approving it. The bottleneck created by the delay in building the northern leg of the pipeline has been a boon to refineries, most people already know which families in America benefit from that boon. Wasn’t this another decision by Girling to go ahead with construction even though he did not have the final approval for the entire route?
Next we come to the Oklahoma leg of the pipeline, which low and behold has also been built. The lower leg of the pipeline which connected Cushing to the Gulf Coast refineries was put into service in early 2014. Pipeline construction in Oklahoma is just part of life. While the governor of Oklahoma is calling for the president to approve the pipeline because of the jobs it will create, she neglected to inform the public that the jobs in the state had already come and gone.
Texas was pretty much the same story as Oklahoma, so it followed the same process and was completed and operational around the same time. More of Mr. Girlings choices.
Now we come to Nebraska. Why was Nebraska the major battleground for the Keystone. The pipeline travels over the Ogallala Aquifer, which was a huge sticking point for Nebraska residents who farm the land and use the aquifer to water their crops. Most of Nebraska straddles the aquifer, so to Nebraskans there was no safe route for a pipeline that would be carrying what is considered by many to be the dirtiest oil on the planet. So what does TransCanada do? They tried to use eminent domain to bully the farmers and take their land. A foreign company attempting to use eminent domain for their own private gain just did not sit well with Nebraskans, so they fought and they fought hard. One victory after another, they slowing gained traction and attention, and despite all the delaying tactics TransCanada threw out, Bold Nebraska defeated the Canadian giant.
Now we come to the latest news regarding the move by TransCanada to launch NAFTA claim for $15 million dollars in damages. How is the US responsible for their decision to bypass the permitting process and build a pipeline through the lower states on the route? TransCanada took a calculated risk, based on information they received from people who were more than likely paid well for their assistance in getting the pipeline through. So they took the assurances of their sycophants that they would get their pipeline, now they want their investment back. Why start something before you had the final approval? Just because they have always gotten their cross border permits in the past was no reason to invest $15 billion dollars before you even have approval for the complete project. America does not owe TransCanada a dime, but since the whole case will be going through the ISDS provisions of NAFTA, chances are strong that we will either have to give them approval for a dirty tar sands pipeline to cross the largest aquifer in the nation, or we will have to give them back the $15 billion they gambled on being able to grease the wheels of the approval process to overcome the people’s objection to having another pipeline shoved down our throats.
The oil and gas industry has a dirty history around the world. Their reputations for fair dealing and thorough clean ups of spills is not very good. The world is changing, people are waking up to the fact that pollution is destroying the planet and its inhabitants. Leave the fossil fuel in the ground, because profit is not everyone’s God, and oil is not the king anymore. The suit by TransCanada makes Obama into a liar, since he claimed the ISDS was not relevant, well it seems it is now, and the TPP will be even worse than what NAFTA is.