TransCanada Digging Up Keystone Pipeline, Checking for "Anomalies"

That Sioux Falls paper reports that TransCanada is digging up six 120-foot stretches of the Keystone I pipeline here in South Dakota, three sites in Nebraska, and one in Missouri. TransCanada reports "anomalies" in the pipeline:

During a November inspection of the 1,087-mile pipeline, the company found some places where the pipe may have expanded. Exploratory digs are required whenever an inspection shows that a pipe may have expanded beyond allowable limits [Cody Winchester, "TransCanada Inspecting Portions of Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.12.09].

Expansion anomalies? Where have I heard that term before?

The documents provided show that PHMSA investigated a total of seven pipelines, four constructed by Boardwalk Partners, LP (Boardwalk), and three by Kinder Morgan, Inc. (Kinder Morgan). PHMSA confirmed that five of these pipelines contained significant amounts of defective pipe. Specifically, the documents show that the pipe stretched under pressure, creating “expansion anomalies” that indicate use of low-strength steel. To repair their pipelines, the affected companies removed and replaced hundreds of pipe joints.

A number of companies are implicated in producing defective pipe, but it appears that Welspun Corp. Ltd (Welspun), an Indian steel pipe manufacturer, produced most of it. For example, according to released documents, Welspun was responsible for 88% of pipe with expansion anomalies provided to Boardwalk ["Use of Substandard Steel by U.S. Pipeline Industry 2007 to 2009," Plains Justice, 2010.06.28].

Expansion anomalies. Defective pipe joints. Welspun. TransCanada. Remember this story? Plains Justice sounded the alarm about defective steel from Indian pipemaker Welspun back in June. Welspun supplied 47% of the steel for the Keystone I pipeline during the same period that it supplied defective steel other U.S. pipelines.

Correction! 2010.12.10 12:20 CST: The original documents Plains Justice analyzed to alert us to the Welspun defects did not indicate that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had taken any action on the issue with respect to TransCanada. However, PHMSA has indeed ordered these tests and digs in response to the discovery of the Welspun defects in other pipelines. However, as Phillip O'Connor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes, TransCanada would be digging up a lot more pipe if the Obama Administration hadn't eased pipeline regulations in October 2009.

How did the South Dakota media respond to these concerns? Mostly with silence.

How did TransCanada respond?

TransCanada officials said they had not reviewed the Plains Justice report but offered assurances the pipeline was safe. They noted that TransCanada's contracts with mills outline specifications above industry standards, and the company reviews manufacturing processes and quality control tests conducted by the suppliers. In addition, the company performs its own quality assurance checks after manufacturing.

"Our pipeline has been fully tested, and it is safe," spokesman Terry Cunha said [Phillip O'Connor, "Group Fears Leaks in New Oil Pipeline," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2010.07.03].

...fully tested and it is safe. Then what the heck are the backhoes doing at ten sites digging it up?

Do I get to say, "I told you so" yet?

TransCanada, find the problem, fix it, and tell us exactly what you find and what you do to make sure you've solved the problem. PHMSA, impose a litle oversight here. Secretary Clinton, look inot this and think long and hard before you approve that Keystone XL permit.

And South Dakota media: pay the heck attention! If you'd have hopped on the Welspun-TransCanada-Keystone story back when I told you about it, if you had done your watchdog job and turned up the heat on Big Foreign Oil, maybe the nice fellas on the backhoe crews could have done their work on a nice sunny day in July instead of having to freeze their cans busting frozen sod in December.

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Update 17:18 CST: TransCanada has found anomalies at 12 sites in South Dakota, 14 in Nebraska, 12 in Kansas, and 9 in Missouri. Someone get me a map! The evaluation of the tests from the ten dig sites may take several weeks, but TransCanada fearlessly continues to pump 250,000 barrels a day through the Keystone pipeline. TransCanada is also filling the pipeline's Cushing extension, which branches from Keystone I at Steele City, Neberaska, and runs to Cushing, Oklahoma.

The three sites being dug up in Nebraska are all in Cedar County, near the site of the fourth documented TransCanada Keystone pump station leak, which came to light Tuesday.

TransCanada Keystone Leak #4: Hartington Pump Station Spews

Check that: it's apparently not the pipeline we have to worry about; it's those darn leaky pump stations.

Carrie La Seur of Plains Justice gets the scoop on the fourth documented leak along TransCanada's Keystone I tar sands pipeline. According to incident report #951480 filed by the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center, Keystone Pump Station 24 near Hartington, Nebraska, sprang a leak. The report says, "caller stated a check valve on a pressure transmitter located on the suction side of a line pump stuck open releasing 5-10 gallons of crude oil onto the ground.

The leaks must be working their way south. Check out TransCanada's Keystone system map:

Map of Documented Keystone I Pipeline Pump Station Leaks
May–August 2010 (click image to enlarge)

The previous three Keystone leaks happened at the Carpenter Pump Station in Beadle County in May, then the Roswell Pump Station in Miner County in June, then the Freeman Pump Station on August 10. Was the pipeline passing a stone or something?

Once again, let us review TransCanada's June 2006 pipeline risk assessment:

...the estimated occurrence intervals for a spill of 50 barrels or less occurring anywhere along the entire pipeline system is once every 65 years, a spill between 50 and 1,000 barrels might occur once in 12 years; a spill of 1,000 and 10,000 barrels might occur once in 39 years; and a spill containing more than 10,000 barrels might occur once in 50 years. Applying these statistics to a 1-mile section, the chances of a larger spill (greater than 10,000 barrels) would be less than once every 67,000 years [ENSR Corporation for TransCanada, "Pipeline Risk Assessment and Environmental Consequence Analysis," Document No. 10623-004, June 2006].

Given four incidents in three months, we are now in the clear on small leaks for 260 years. Thanks for getting those out of the way, TransCanada!

Enbridge Oil Spill: Safety Measures Only Work If You Pay Attention

I'm reading the latest Plains Justice report on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline and its threat to the land and water of the Northern Plains. The report includes this alarming timeline of the big Enbridge pipeline spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan this summer:

Sunday, July 25, 2010

• 5:58 PM: Pipeline pump automatically shuts down when Enbridge control center in Edmonton, Canada, receives low pressure alarm; the control center attributes the alarm to a “column separation,” meaning that they thought a vapor bubble formed in the pipeline.
• 9:25 PM: First 911 calls from residents near the rupture due to odor
  

Monday, July 26, 2010

• 4:04 AM: Enbridge restarts pipeline
• 4:12 AM: Volume balance alarm (less oil in pipeline downstream than upstream)
• 4:17 AM: Second volume balance alarm
• 4:22 AM: Third volume balance alarm
• 4:36-4:57 AM: Several more volume balance alarms
• 5:03 AM: Enbridge control center turns off Pipeline pumps
• 6:30-8:00 AM: Residents notice strong odor on way to work
• 7:00 AM: Local resident collects oil sample from Talmadge Creek
• 7:10 AM: Enbridge restarts pipeline pumps
• 7:12-7:42 AM: Five additional volume balance alarms
• 7:55 AM: Pipeline pumps shutdown and downstream valve closed
• 9:49 AM: Technician called to check a pump station about three-quarters of a mile from the rupture
• 11:18 AM: A gas utility calls Enbridge to report on oil in Talmadge Creek
• 11:20 AM: Enbridge begins closing valves upstream and downstream of the rupture
• 11:41 AM: Enbridge personnel confirm leak and begin to respond to the spill
• 1:29 PM: Enbridge reports spill to the federal government

The Enbridge bosses in Alberta (that's where the TransCanada offices are, too) got warnings from their system Sunday afternoon. Neighbors smelled oil from the leak. The Enbridge bosses then turned the pipeline back on—twice. Before they had verified the cause of their own alarms, they pumped oil through a broken pipe for another 104 minutes. They didn't close valves in the area of the break until over 17 hours after the initial alarms.

TransCanada assures us they have the plans and equipment in place to address a major spill on the pipeline. TransCanada says they can shut down the pipeline and isolate trouble spots within minutes. As TransCanada pumps 435,000 barrels a day under eastern South Dakota in Keystone I and schemes to build an even bigger Keystone XL to pump 900,000 barrels per day under western South Dakota, I hope they pay attention to their alarms and safety plans better than Enbridge did last July.

Learn more about the Enbridge spill and TransCanada's inadequate pipeline safety plans: read the Plains Justice report!

Bear Butte Offers Easy Oil?

At the Mitchell McGovern Debate Tournament last weekend, I was chatting with some of my fellow McGovernites about the state of the state. We thought maybe we Dems aren't so bad off being way, way out of power. Governor-Elect Daugaard and the Republican supermajorities in the Legislature will fully own the next two budgets, and those two budgets won't be pretty. The GOP will have to make hard cuts or raise taxes. "What else are they gonna do," one of my interlocutors mused, "strike oil?"

Little did we realize...

Work is under way to develop an oil field near Bear Butte in western South Dakota that could eventually produce 4 million barrels of crude.

The state Board of Minerals and Environment on Thursday approved Nakota Energy LLC's application to establish a 960-acre field for the production of oil and gas, with spacing of no more than one well in each 40-acre tract.

...The oil field, located on private land, is slightly more than a mile from Bear Butte, an important religious site for American Indians that juts above the prairie on the northern edge of the Black Hills. Developers said the oil field should not bother anyone at Bear Butte [Chet Brokaw, "Companies Plan Oil Wells Near SD's Bear Butte," AP via ABC News, 2010.11.19].

Pastor Hickey, you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?

Some local oil exploited by local producers would be better than those darned foreign tar sands. West River oil will likely kill fewer ducks. Just remember, kids, to solve the state budget crunch, you still have to tax that oil.

Tar Sands Bad for South Dakota: Three Neighbors' Stories

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

The Sierra Club documents how the push for toxic Canadian tar sands oil threatens the health and welfare of South Dakotans. The environmental organization profiles three South Dakotans who have fought Big Oil: Kent Moeckley of Britton and Carolyn Harkness and Ed Cable of Union County.

Moeckly was a notable opponent of TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, which is now buried under his farmland in Marshall County. When TransCanada announced the pipeline route, Moeckly and his neighbors asked TransCanada to consider alternative routes. He says an oil leak in his neighborhood's sandy, permeable soil could threaten the aquifer that feeds the local rural water system, an objection much like that curently raised by Nebraskans worried that Keystone XL could damage the Sand Hills and the massive Ogallala aquifer. TransCanada paid no attention:

Moeckly says pipeline consultants didn't even survey his land before they reported it as "low consequence" status, which allowed TransCanada to build the Keystone I through the aquifer in 2009, using thinner pipe and higher pressure than any other pipeline before it. When farmers in the area requested thicker pipe to reduce the risk of water contamination, their concerns went unheeded.

"TransCanada absolutely ignored us. They plowed on through," Moeckly says ["Toxic Tar Sands: South Dakota," Sierra Club, Nov. 2010].

TransCanada finished the pipeline last year. They left debris and dirt piles on Moeckly's land that have trapped water and left 15 acres unusable. (Where are the conservative property rights hawks speaking up for Moeckly's rights under the takings clause?)

Harkness and Cable are trying to save Union County from even worse disruption at the hands of the still-pending Hyperion refinery. This tar sands refinery would tear up thousands of acres of prime farm land and threaten the aquifer, air quality, and even the simple view of the stars at night.

Carolyn Harkness would find her farm home 300 feet from the refinery. She doesn't want to give up land that is everything to her family, her home, business, and retirement. She also sees a higher obligation to keep the refinery from tearing up Union County:

"This land belongs to God and it is our responsibility to save it for future generations. It has treated us well," she says. "We need to return the favor" [Sierra Club, Nov 2010]

Ed Cable lives three miles from the proposed refinery site and share's his neighbors' concerns about pollution that owuld ruin one of the cleanest places in the country. Cable has led the legal fight to block construction of the refinery. His group, Save Union County, has played a key role in pushing South Dakota's regulators to do something like due diligence in, if not stopping the refinery, at least making sure the Texas dreamers behind it get their enviromental ducks in a row.

Oops—did I say ducks in a tar sands story?

Moeckly, Harkness, and Cable understand that increasing our dependence on dirty foreign oil is not good for our way of life. As we see from the Keystone I pipeline, the tar sands are already damaging our fair state. We should say no to any more development of this unsustainable resource.

TransCanada Notes: Nebraska Regulations, SD Pipe Yard... and Oily Wind?

At least some Nebraska counties are taking action to keep TransCanada in line if it builds the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline through their territory. In York County (down where US 81 meets I-80), corn producers are asking the county commission to regulate the construction timeframe, pipeline depth, and pipeline reclamation to protect local agriculture. Holt County in north central Nebraska has already passed some significant pipeline regulations in anticipation of Keystone XL.

Meanwhile, TransCanada keeps trying to force landowners into silence about the project, something one Ernie Fellows of Keya Paha County doesn't much care for:

Fellows, a Keya Paha county landowner who lives near Mills, said he believes the company’s tactics and closed meetings with Landowners for Fairness (LFF) violate his rights.

“I belong to LFF. I have the right to say no. I have the right to speak. Having to sign a nondisclosure statement violates my civil rights,” he said [LuAnn Schindler, "Proposed Pipeline Has Some Property Owners Asking Questions," Norfolk Daily News, 2010.10.26].

Meanwhile, TransCanada is still getting its Keystone XL ducks in a row here in South Dakota. TransCanada rep Michael Calhoun checked with Butte County commissioners last week to make sure his company had the right permits for a pipe yard that mostly out-of-state workers will use as a staging ground for construction of the pipeline. Butte County has no zoning regulations, so TransCanada is good to go...

...assuming, of course, that the State Department approves TransCanada's permit request. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made some pro-Keystone XL noise last month, which earned her guff from both of Nebraska's U.S. Senators and some other folks... but no word that I've heard from South Dakota's Congressional delegation.

On the bright side, even as TransCanada threatens to profit from prolonging our addiction to dirty foreign oil, the Canadian company is also boosting wind power here in the States. At the beginning of the month, TransCanada finished construction on the 132-megawatt Kibby Wind project in Eustis, Maine. When those windmills are at full tilt, they'll provide enough juice for 50,000 homes.

Dang it: even those land-grabbing Canadian fossil-fuel peddlers can do something right every now and then.

Stenholm Lobbies Locals to Stick Heads in (Oil) Sand

As discussed previously, lobbyist and former Texas Congressman Charlie Stenholm addressed the Madison Rotary Club Monday to preach the need to stay addicted to fossil fuels. As recorded by KJAM's Lauri Struve, Stenholm was refreshingly straightforward with his propaganda. He opened by saying he was in Madison and hitting the Rotary circuit nationwide "on behalf of Big Oil," the American Petroleum Institute. He made clear that he's a lobbyist, though he said rather tongue-in-cheek that in front of the press and his wife he prefers the term "educator." (Fellow educators, you should be offended by this co-opting of your professional title by a salesman for a special interest.)

Stenholm's main line of attack is that the oil industry supports developing all forms of energy but that resources like nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and biofuels are all not alternative but supplemental energy. "There is not going to be an alternative to fossil fuels in the next 30 years," says Stenholm. "No matter how much you hear people say we have to get away from oil and gas, gotta get away from dirty coal, for the good of the country, that would be the worst thing that could happen."

Worst thing that could happen to the Exxon-Mobil corporate execs and stockholders paying Stenholm to "educate" us, yes. But moving away from fossil fuels is the best thing that could happen for, well, pretty much everyone else.

Stenholm doesn't mention that our impression that we can't afford to dump fossil fuels is skewed by $312 billion in fossil fuel subsidies each year that keep oil, coal, and gas prices artificially low. Such subsidies, says the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2010, "encourage wasteful consumption and undermine the competitiveness of renewable and more energy-efficient technologies." Cutting those subsidies would cut fossil-fuel use, reduce pollution, extend the lifetime of those reserves, and make wind, solar, and biofuels more fiscally competitive alternatives.

Stenholm's "can't do without" argument also seems to ignore the long-term fact that oil will run out and that we will have to transition to alternatives. We can make that transition two ways: we can start changing now and transition smoothly, or we can stick our heads in the oil sands and transition hard when the wells run dry. Stenholm's paid cheerleader act only facilitates the ostrich mindset that wants to believe everything is fine and that we don't have to make hard choices and sacrifices now to ensure our grandkids have more energy options available.

Tar Sands Oil Kills Ducks; TransCanada Spoils Roads

If you still aren't mad at TransCanada for slurping up $10.5 million in tax refunds that South Dakota could have used to fund education and roads (see Rep. Mitch Fargen's duly indignant comments at the Madison Chamber forum last week), how about getting mad at them for poaching ducks?

Well, I suppose it's not poaching, and it's not TransCanada directly, but they are part of tar sands industry that is killing ducks without a hunting license, ducks that you and your law-abiding, South Dakota license-holding pals could joyfully and legally blast from the sky. Reports Plains Justice:

Just a week after paying a CAN$3 million fine for the deaths of 1600 ducks that landed on its tailing ponds in 2008, Canada tar sands extractor Syncrude had to euthanize 230 ducks that landed on its tar sands tailing ponds this week (there was good coverage of the story out of Calgary). To look at their website, you’d think Syncrude was an environmental organization, but they’ve been unable to resolve the lethal combination of highly toxic tailings ponds and a huge migratory waterfowl corridor. In spite of reassurances from industry and the Canadian government that the 2008 event was a mistake that would never happen again, here we are [Carrie La Seur, "230 More Ducks Dead in Tar Sands Tailing Ponds," Plains Justice Today, 2010.10.28].

TransCanada is more directly responsible for some road wreckage here on the Great Plains. Just as has been the case in South Dakota, Kansas officials and residents are struggling with road damage caused by construction last year of TransCanada's Keystone pipeline.

So thanks to our addiction to foreign oil, you'll have fewer ducks to shoot and you'll burn more gas trying to get to those ducks as you detour around wrecked roads on TransCanada's pipeline route.

Fossil Fuel Lobbyist Stenholm Propagandizing in Madison Nov. 8

Charlie Stenholm represented Texas's 17th District (home of President Bush's Crawford ranch!) in Congress from 1979 to 2005. Then he became a lobbyist for Olsson, Frank, & Weeda, a DC firm that makes millions working for folks like the American Petroleum Institute and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

Coming up on Mr. Stenholm's lobbying agenda: Madison, South Dakota. The Madison Rotary Club is hosting Mr. Stenholm on Monday, November 8, high noon, to discuss the importance of remaining addicted to fossil fuels and not burdening the oil and gas industry with frivolous obligations like taxes.

Mr. Stenholm appears to be hitting the Rotary circuit nationwide to keep people toeing the Big Oil line. This year he's been in Raleigh, NC; Charleston, SC; and Farmington, NM, this year. He'll be in Muncie, IN, Nov. 2 and Joliet, IL, Nov. 30.

Boy, how do I get a job like that? Oh yeah, by saying things billionaires want people to hear. Oops: guess I'm out of that running.

And now for Mr. Stenholm's version of what the public can hear at his talk on November 8:

Congressman Charlie Stenholm, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (17th District, Texas), Senior Policy Advisor at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz, P.C.

Event: Stenholm delivers the speech, “Progress, Technology and the American Energy Future,” discussing:

• The oil and natural gas industry’s response to the Deepwater Horizon accident, regulatory and legislative proposals resulting from the spill that would impede the country’s ability to develop resource, and the need to learn from the incident to ensure offshore energy development safety moving forward;
• The importance of expanding domestic oil and natural gas development to help fuel our nation’s economic recovery, create new jobs and strengthen our energy security;
• The potential consequences of at least $80 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry proposed in the fiscal 2011 budget; and
• Innovative technologies, including hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, that allow America’s oil and natural gas companies to produce energy more efficiently and with minimal environmental impact;
• The need for a comprehensive energy policy that supports the development of all resources.
  

Date: Monday, November 8, 2010
Time: Noon Rotary Meeting*
Place: Nicky’s Restaurant, 1407 NW 2nd Street, Madison, SD 57042-3804

About Congressman Stenholm

Born in Stamford, Texas, Stenholm went on to serve the 32-county, 17th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives for 13 terms, from 1979 to 2005. Stenholm was a member of the House Committee on Agriculture throughout his 26-year House career, serving as the committee’s ranking Democrat for his last eight years until 2004. He earned a reputation for building bipartisan alliances in areas as diverse as energy, resource conservation, agriculture, food safety, Social Security, health care and the budget.

In Congress, Stenholm was co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats who often bridge liberal and conservative positions. In this capacity, he worked across party lines to pass important energy legislation that replenished the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and encouraged domestic energy exploration.

*This event is open to the public. An RSVP is requested but not required so that Nicky’s can better prepare to serve the meal. RSVP or send questions about the event to Ken Meyer, Madison Rotary Club President, at kennethhenrymeyer@gmail.com. The cost of the meal is $6.00.

$6 for lunch—that's not bad! Just be careful that your salad doesn't get too much oil on it.

Center for Rural Affairs: Keystone XL Wrong Solution for U.S. Energy, Prairie Economy

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

Remember that corporate claptrap our state senator Russell Olson (R-8/Madison) was spewing about why he voted to give TransCanada millions of dollars in tax refunds for the Keystone I pipeline so South Dakota could enjoy all sorts of economic and energy security benefits, even though North Dakota and Nebraska got the same benefits without giving away any such refunds?

Well, the Center for Rural Affairs weighs in on the pending Keystone XL pipeline to say those benefits don't outweigh the risks to our environment and our economic future. Last week, the Center for Rural Affairs declared its opposition to Keystone XL:

"America must focus on better approaches to securing the energy it needs by developing renewable energy, especially renewable approaches to fueling cars," said John Crabtree, Media Director at the Center for Rural Affairs. "We support developing clean energy resources that we have right here in Nebraska, like wind energy, not increasing our reliance on dirty, foreign energy that we have to pipe in from afar."

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that securing oil from tar sands and delivering it to U.S. refineries results in nearly double the greenhouse gas emissions as other oil delivered to U.S. refineries.

According to Crabtree, in the long-run, hybrid electric cars powered by renewable sources such as wind and low carbon biofuels will create more jobs and far greater economic opportunity in rural America while confronting the very real threat of climate change [Center for Rural Affairs, press release, 2010.10.12].

Crabtree cites TransCanada's willingness to cut corners with thinner steel and its strong-arm tactics against Nebraska landowners as further reason that Big Oil boosters like Senator Olson are putting the interests of foreign oil corporations ahead of the interests of rural America.

Senator Johanns: Move Keystone XL Away from Ogallala Aquifer and Sand Hills

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

Here's what I've been waiting for: A Republican to stand up to TransCanada and try to protect his constituents from the Keystone XL pipeline. Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week to declare that he cannot support the Keystone XL pipeline based on the information thus far presented by TransCanada and the State Department in its inadequate draft environmental impact statement (DEIS).

Routes of TransCanada Keystone pipeline system, with initial/projected maximum oil capacities. Image from Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines.

Senator Johanns shares the concern of many Nebraskans and other folks who drink water that Keystone XL poses an unacceptable risk to the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies (Johanns quotes from the DEIS) "78% of the public water supply and 83% of irrigation water in Nebraska." Johanns also objects to the absence of substantial discussion of the unique Sandhills ecosystem, whose sandy soils might allow oil spills to penetrate the soil faster than they would elsewhere.

Senator Johanns hammers on the point that the DEIS assumes Keystone XL must cross the border at Morgan, Montana. He acknowledges that the nearly straight line from Morgan to Steele City, Nebraska, crosses the least land and thus poses what on paper looks like less environmental impact than routes that detour here and there from that straight line.

So the Senator from Nebraska proposes a whole 'nother route:

Understanding the primary role that distance plays in the consideration of pipeline alternative routes, I was disturbed by the fact that the DEIS contains no substantial discussion of a route that would run parallel to the existing Keystone route from Steele City, Nebraska, north to the U.S. border in Cavalier County, North Dakota. This route would be far shorter than the proposed route, and shorter than every alternative considered in the DEIS. And if—as the DEIS has argued—shorter distance generally coincides with a less severe environmental impact, then one could conclude that such a route would be better for the environment [Senator Mike Johanns, letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2010.10.14].

Uff da. Check that map: The purple dashed line is the hypotenuse Johanns doesn't like. The red line is the Keystone I route that runs through eastern South Dakota.

Now there's a tricky question: do we cause less environmental damage by digging a new, shorter route or by laying Keystone XL along the longer existing route? Do we double the leak risk for eastern South Dakota, or do we split the risk with our West River neighbors? Do we subject a whole new crop of landowners to TransCanada's intrusions, or do we subject landowners on the Keystone I route to another year of the same distress they went through in 2009?

You know, we could avoid difficult questions like this altogether by simply denying TransCanada the permit for its harmful, unnecessary, and potentially defective pipeline. Senator Johanns isn't quite to that point: he says "it is in our national interest to obtain oil from allies" and that "appropriate use and construction of oil pipelines can directly meet this national interest." But if the State Department doesn't consider the Keystone I parallel route for Keystone XL, the Nebraska Republican may be ready to join the chorus saying a flat No to Keystone XL.
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Update 19:14 CDT: The State Department has given no indication of when it might approve the Keystone XL permit [James MacPherson and Josh Funk, "Canada-US pipeline on hold amid oil's recent woes," AP via Rapid City Journal, 2010.10.17].

SD Iran Divestment Bill Gets Branstad's Attention

Nice to see South Dakota showing some leadership (dare I say Leder-ship?). Republican candidate for Iowa governor Terry Branstad gives South Dakota and state legislator Dan Lederman a shout-out for the Iran divestment bill our legislature passed this year and says he'd like to see Iowa pass similar legislation:



District 8 House candidate Patricia Stricherz did some useful Facebook campaigning for this bill last winter. Now if I can just get her on board with energy security legislation....

No word yet from Ahmadinejad on how he will retaliate against us perfidious prairie infidels.
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Somewhat related: Stricherz is back on record opposing domestic oil barons as well. Yahoo!

Blog Poll: Bartling Outpolls Barnett... and a Dems' Quandary

The latest Madville Times poll asked, "Who gets your vote for South Dakota auditor?" You, dear readers, gave Democrat Julie Bartling the nod:

Julie Bartling	74 (56%)
Steve Barnett	57 (44%)

Votes: 131

Not bad, although given the standard Madville Times bias and barn-sized margin of error, Bartling should keep shaking hands and kissing babies...

...which brings me to my quandary. Julie Bartling is notorious among South Dakota Dems for her work on the 2005 abortion task force and her primary sponsorship of the 2006 abortion ban. Bartling has since disavowed her 2006 legislation (which failed to pass muster with voters on referral that year). But some Dems don't like Bartling's politics on reproductive rights and may thus withhold their vote from her for state auditor.

When I first heard this Dem complaint, I thought, What's the fuss? She'll have a lot less opportunity to advance the Hunt/Unruh Handmaid's Tale agenda from the auditor's office than from the Senate chamber. Bartling will be a good state auditor. Her quals—18 years as Gregory County auditor—beat the pants off the other guy. Besides, we need every Dem we can get in state office so we can build a stronger bench of candidates for future races.

Yet I'm still considering my own protest vote against a down-ticket Dem over a similar hot-button political disagreement. Doyle Karpen wants to replace Dusty Johnson on the Public Utilities Commission. Doyle Karpen is a good Democrat with lots of good public service experience. But Doyle Karpen also thinks the Hyperion refinery would be "fantastic" for South Dakota and was instrumental as Union County Commissioner in opening the door for those Texas oil men to tear up a lot of good farmland and keep us addicted to fossil fuels. And a Public Utilities Commissioner has a little more say over other big dirty oil projects than an auditor does over abortion legislation.

But if I tell Dems to drop their political grudges and vote for Bartling, can they not bounce the same argument back to tell me to vote for Karpen?

I have some thinking to do over the next four weeks. Your thoughts, dear readers, are welcome in that process.

More Landowners Organize to Stop TransCanada, Eminent Domain, and Tar Sands

Our friends at Plains Justice put up some useful information on the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline:

1. First, Plains Justice lists the chemical cocktail TransCanada wants to run under our farmland and across our aquifers. And TransCanada has the gall to say the risk is theirs, not the landowners'.
2. Plains Justice also links to a new online documentary from the Center for Energy Matters. The video shows Oklahomans and Texans who are disgusted by tar sands, eminent domain, shady business, and TransCanada's threat to clean water.
3. If you're on the Keystone XL route and TransCanada's land agents are trying to push you around, Plains Justice points to a website that may help. TransCanadaAbuse.com has set up a hotline to take reports on TransCanada's heavy-handed land-grab tactics and other abuses of landowner rights. Don't let TransCanada give you the shaft: call TransCanadaAbuse.com at 1-866-363-4648 and stand up to foreign oil!

Here's the Clean Energy Matters video:

TransCanada Pipeline a Big Bad Deal for South Dakota

...and for America, Canada, Ducks, First Nations....

Mike McDowell, general manager of Heartland Consumer Power District and my state senator's boss, parrots the corporate line that the TransCanada Keystone pipelines are "good for South Dakota and good for America." McDowell waves dollars and the Hugo Chavez boogeyman in our faces while failing to acknowledge that...

1. South Dakotans don't get many jobs from TransCanada;
2. Any jobs we get will be offset by jobs Canadians lose: refining jobs move south of the border, and the Canadian oil boom inflates the loonie, hurts Canadian exports, and kills Canadian manufacturing jobs (400,000 lost over the last decade);
   
3. China is buying most of TransCanada's tar sands oil;
   
4. TransCanada acts just as dictatorially and socialistically as Chavez in running roughshod over American landowners with eminent domain;
5. Decent American businesses like Walgreens are boycotting the tar sands oil TransCanada wants to sell us;
6. TransCanada still wants to build Keystone XL with thinner pipe with steel from Welspun, a company that supplied lots of defective steel to other pipelines;
   
7. Refiners say the tar sands pipeline system is unnecessary;
8. We could fully replace the capacity of both Keystone pipelines by fully recycling our motor oil (something I learned from McDowell himself);
   
9. Tar sands oil production and transportation threatens our prairie aquifers through industrial consumption and pollution (see also the Enbridge spill in Michigan);
10. Tar sands oil kills ducks (many more than industry data suggest).. and maybe First Nations people.

Ah, yes, our First Nations neighbors, the nice people who have to live with and get cancer from the immediate effects of tar sands oil production. I reported last April that TransCanada is party to genocide against some native peoples in Canada. Last week, some representatives of Canada's and America's First Nations traveled to Washington to press the case that the Keystone XL pipeline will only do more damage to the tribes' way of of life. They complained that while the Alberta government wines and dines American senators who live nowhere near the pipeline routes, First Nations concerns are ignored.

As McDowell says, the TransCanada pipeline is a big deal... a big bad deal for South Dakotans, for Americans, for Canadians, and for the First Nations people who have to live with the environmental destruction wrought by the tar sands oil a few corporate mouthpieces pretend is so wonderful.
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Bonus economic query: McDowell contends that the electricity demands of the Keystone pipelines and pumping stations will strengthen our rural electric cooperatives. But co-ops have to build more infrastructure and generation capacity to handle TransCanada's power demands. Ratepayers and taxpayers are subsidizing some of that construction. Once all that new capacity is installed, TransCanada's electric bills should pay back the investment but if the volatile oil market dips, local ratepayers may end up paying for it. And if TransCanada uses all that power, doesn't that mean the rural electric co-ops will be pushed to peak demand more often, have to use more expensive peak generation, and thus send us all higher electric bills?
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But don't worry. As Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines notes, TransCanada will respond quickly to any spill... if it's not stormy out. And we have keen government oversight from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration... which is run by a former oil company lawyer.

Stimulus Won't Bring Back Old Growth: Two Perspectives

The federal stimulus is doing some good. However, it will not bring us back to the happier economic days of the 1990s and a few of the G.W. Bush years. Two economists offer differing explanations with the same grim conclusion: the economy just ain't what it used to be.

First, Robert Reich says consumers are simply out of gas:

After three decades of flat wages during which almost all the gains of growth have gone to the very top, the middle class no longer has the buying power to keep the economy going. It can’t send more spouses into paid work, can’t work more hours, can’t borrow any more. All the coping mechanisms are exhausted [Robert Reich, "Why No Amount of Fiscal or Monetary Stimulus Will Be Enough, Given How Small A Share of Total Income the Middle Now Receives," Robert Reich's blog, 2010.09.21].

Then Jeffrey Rubin notes that we're out of cheap gas:

What's being overlooked is that last cycle's rate of growth was fueled for the most part with cheap oil--oil was below $30 a barrel for the first half of the period. Even today's oil prices weren't encountered until the last year of growth. That's not incidental to the performance of the world's largest oil-consuming economy, which relies on imports for over half of its 19-million-barrel-a-day requirement.

Feed the US economy cheap oil, and you'll see robust growth rates and a drop in the jobless rate to four-decade lows--no matter who's in the White House. But throw in $147-per-barrel oil, and the US economy stops dead in its tracks [Jeffrey Rubin, "Obama's Fiscal Stimulus No Substitute for Cheap Oil," Huffington Post, 2010.09.21].

Now before you think TransCanada's Keystone pipelines will solve that problem by swelling our supply with Alberta tar sands oil, heed Rubin's reminder that tar sands oil doesn't flow for much less than $100 a barrel.

By this thinking, fiscal stimulus doesn't do much but help us tread water instead of drowning in Depression. Under the concentration of wealth and high oil prices, the economy just can't rebound to the levels of growth necessary to generate the future revenues that would pay down the deficit spending we're using in the current stimulus.

But the answer is not simply to abandon the stimulus and hope everything works itself out. The "work itself out" crowd brought us to a shrinking middle class and continued dependence on oil. To get out of the economic doldrums and beat the deficit, we need to (says Reich) reorganize the economy to expand the middle class again and (says Rubin) kick our addiction to oil in favor of cheaper, cleaner energy sources.

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Springs Third South Dakota Leak

Three down, one to go: according to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Events Database, Pump Station #23 on the TransCanada Keystone pipeline sprung a leak on August 10. This one was just a little squirt, five gallons of tar sands oil hitting the ground two miles west and two miles south of Freeman. The database lists the cause as "equipment failure."

TransCanada's map shows four Keystone pump stations in South Dakota. Three have leaked. Only the northernmost South Dakota station, near Ferney in Brown County, has a clean record... after two months of full operation. The Keystone XL pipeline would add seven more pump stations to our state.

As I noted when reporting the pump stations leaks at Carpenter and Roswell, TransCanada's June 2006 pipeline risk assessment told the State Department we could expect "a spill of 50 barrels or less occurring anywhere along the entire pipeline system is once every 65 years...."

I welcome any environmental engineer to come scold my ignorance and the "50 barrels or less" assessment doesn't include trivial amounts like the five gallons spilled at Freeman and Carpenter. But until I hear that explanation, I'm thinking TransCanada needs to tighten its slide rules... and its pump station nuts.
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Bonus Spillage: TransCanada is still a piker compared to past oil spillers in our fair state. I search the DENR spill databae for crude oil events and find 100 over the last four decades. Koch Exploration was responsible for 21 spills in Buffalo County from 1978 to 1995 totaling about 28,000 gallons, or just under 670 barrels. Add in the amount of crude spilled since then in 54 spills by Continental Resources (which appears to have acquired Koch's Buffalo County operations, or maybe just became Koch's new name—I'm not sure yet!), and you get 116,000 gallons, or a little under 2800 gallons. That's an average of 3600 gallons a year... and since May, TransCanada is on pace to spill only 330 gallons a year.

Update 08:33 CDT: Meanwhile, an oil well near Killdeer, North Dakota, is leaking 100 barrels an hour.

Market at Work: Walgreens, Other Big Biz Shun Tar Sands Oil

With TransCanada piping Alberta tar sands oil across our fair prairie (and pushing to pump more), you might be inclined to take some economic action to help save Canada from its very dirty export. But the average citizen can't boycott TransCanada or Enbridge or any other shipper of tar sands oil. Our main point of contact with the oil industry is the gas station. TransCanada and Enbridge don't have gas stations (at least none I've seen). The One Stop here in Madison may get a truckload of gasoline refined from tar sands oil one week, from BP's recovered Gulf spillage the next, and some nice clean oil from Chavez or the Saudi sheiks the week after that. Boycott the local gas station to oppose duckocide in Alberta, and you're likely missing your target completely.

But if you're a company dealing directly with oil shippers, you've got some real leverage to use against the dirtiest oil in the world. Enviro-group ForestEthics gets this. They're urging corporations to boycott shippers who carry tar sands oil. And they're getting some takers. Walgreens, which burns a lot of gas hauling toothpaste and such to its 7500 stores, has signed on to this boycott. The Gap, Timberland, and Levi Strauss also are giving preference to non-tar-sands shippers. The City of Bellingham, Washington, has also joined the movement.

Oil is a finite, non-renewable resource. It will run out. The Keystone pipeline will go dry. Wouldn't it be great if we could hasten that dry-up with some good old-fashioned market forces?

Good call, Walgreens! Let's hope more American companies wise up and tell TransCanada we neither want nor need their tar sands oil.

CNN on Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota: TransCanada Sells More Snake Oil

CNN comes to South Dakota to learn about the joys of having a tar sands pipeline running throuh your family farm. Thom Patterson speaks to Mike and Sue Sibson, the Miner County farmers whose experience with TransCanada's Keystone pipeline I featured last September.

The Sibsons are the nearest landowners to Pump Station #22, site of TransCanada's June oil leak. Patterson learns that the Sibsons received no notification from TransCanada about the leak. Why didn't the Sibsons receive any warning?

"No sense in alarming them," said TransCanada Vice President Robert Jones. "There was no concern with regard to the environment or public safety with these very, very small, isolated incidents" [Thom Patterson, "Could Gulf-like Disaster Scar the Heartland?" CNN.com, 2010.08.19].

Standard TransCanada corporate-speak: oil leaks are normal, nothing to be afraid of, just move along and keep your noses out of our business... even though our business is on your land.

Thune Leads South Dakota Delegation in Dirty Energy Money

Since we're talking about tainted campaign contributions, let's look at polluted political money from Big Oil and Coal. An eager reader points me toward DirtyEnergyMoney.com, a fun website with lots of buttons to push. You can look up how much money your Congresspeople get from the fossil fuel lobby and others who want to keep America in the energy Dark Ages.

So how much money do our Congresspeople take from energy lobbyists in smoke-filled rooms fighting for a smoke-filled country?

1. Senator John Thune: $521,046 (22% from coal interests, 78% from Big Oil)
2. Senator Tim Johnson: $218,260 (61% coal, 39% oil)
3. Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: $72,450 (52% coal, 48% oil)

Alas, DirtyEnergyMoney.com only tracks current members of Congress, not candidates. You'll have to dig through Federal Election Commission records yourself to find the scuzzy money in Kristi Noem's war chest (though I've started a list here).
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Bonus BP-Boehner bash: DirtyEnergyMoney.com's numbers show that House Minority Leader John Boehner has taken $8000 in contributions from BP. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken $1000 in dirty BP money. The logical conclusion: John Boehner is eight times worse than Nancy Pelosi! ;-)