David White
One of the main controversies of the start of President Trump’s presidency is the executive order that will allow construction to continue two major oil pipelines. For eight years, the Obama administration has made battling climate change one of its main rallying cries, costing thousands of jobs in the process. Whether it was the Keystone XL pipeline in 2015 or the Dakota access pipeline more recently, these projects will not only create jobs but also make America less reliant on foreign oil. As the New York Times reports “Keystone would carry 800,000 barrels a day from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast.” Therefore, we should ask our representatives to protect these new projects because doing so will boost our economy and give us time to create a cleaner alternative.
Much like the relationship between coal and oil, the relationship between oil and more environmentally friendly sources can be seen and learned from. While environmentally friendly sources of power might be too expensive right now, they will be available in the future, we just need a stepping stone to help us reach that technology. Oil pipelines have now become what the railroads were in the nineteenth century. They create thousands of jobs, which pushes more money into the economy and funds more advanced research.
The first oil pipe line was created in 1879 by the Tide-Water pipe company. It was the first major move to counter Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, which had almost complete control over the railroads shipping opportunities. Mr. Jones makes an important note when he writes that “The development of pipelines, in conjunction with the discovery of new oil fields, facilitated the creation of new oil markets for heat and power. Although oil had once been too valuable for these applications, the low cost of shipping it along pipelines encouraged Americans to reconsider how they would use it.” Even in the late eighteen hundred, Americans were looking for more efficient ways to power their lives.
The Keystone XL will move around 800,000 gallons of oil a day from Canada to the Gulf and create around 28,000 jobs. (cite) President Obama scrapped it in 2015 because of its conflicted with the global warming summit being held in France. Also, many Native American Nations have protested the project because of carbon dioxide emissions, water contamination, and many other dangers they say face their ancestral lands. TransCanada, the builders of Keystone XL, have already gone out of their way to try and put these fears to rest, investing over $1.5 billion in safety technology, and $45 million in research and development. As stated on their website, TransCanada monitors the pipelines 24/7 through satellites that send images every five seconds and if the pressure falls they can cut off specific parts of the pipe with any of the hundreds of valves. The pipeline will also have to be inspected by a third-party group named the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which will test for puncture resistance, corrosion-resistance coating, horizontal directional drilling, automatic shut-off valves, 100% weld inspections, and full time maintenance.(cite) One aspect, the horizontal directional drilling, is a test to make sure the pipeline can be put around twenty five feet under any stream, river or area where flooding is common or likely to reduce the risk of contamination.
In addition to the Keystone project, this executive order also restarts the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Over 90 percent of the pipeline is already finished, with the only part remaining being through the disputed area near Lake Oahe. What many of the protests fail to address is that there are already eight other oil pipelines underneath the lake, and that the DAPL will be placed lower then these older pipelines. It is also important to note that safety “federal statistics show that underground pipelines transport crude oil more safely than rail (3.4-4.5x safer), or trucks (34x safer)” (cite DAPL). If completed the DAPL will carry approximately 500,000 barrels per day strengthening the area’s economy and lowering the countries dependency on foreign oil, with President Trump writing in his memorandum “I believe that construction and operation of lawfully permitted pipeline infrastructure serve the national interest” (cite). While the DAPL surpasses all federal regulations, the number of pipelines in the area should still cause some concern. That is why the Dakota Access LLC is helping move the Standing Rock Sioux water inlet location more than 70 miles away from the pipelines (cite DAPL). As Peter Baker states in his New York Times article “The pipelines were more about symbol than substance (cite ny times)”. Both sides of the argument have lost sight of their goals, just focusing on winning, not on the facts presented by their opponents. If they did take the time, the improvements that would be made to the local and national economies, plus the safety steps already in place would make them pause. These reasons are why I believe we should challenge our representatives to stand behind these projects which will strengthen our communities.
One way these pipelines will help our communities can be found in the next memorandum President Trump signed. In it, Trump charges all relevant departments to create a plan for United States products be used to repair, retro-fit, and create pipelines within the United States. Our economy grows with future jobs in not only construction and the creation of te pipelines, but also in the materials made in our own communities.
With the stage set for more job creation within this market, another memorandum cuts through the red tape that makes these projects take so long. In it, the president tasks departments to expedite permits and proposals for manufacturing. This cuts down on the cost of the projects, allowing for greater safety features and research into improvements in other areas of manufacturing.
· https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/keystone-dakota-pipeline-trump.html?_r=0
· http://www.keystone-xl.com/safety/safe-operations/
· https://daplpipelinefacts.com/
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· Cobb, Daniel M., editor. “‘We Will Be There to Meet You’ (2013): Armando Iron Elk and Faith Spotted Eagle.” Say We Are Nations: Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America since 1887, University of North Carolina Press, 2015, pp. 242–244, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469624815_cobb.63.
· Jones, Christopher F. “Pipelines and Power.” Routes of Power, Harvard University Press, 2014, pp. 123–160, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpr7c.7.