The links between energy supplies, the environment and identity
The Keystone XL pipeline, Canada/USA.
[I am delighted to see that in the recent Pearson Edexcel Update of their A Level Geography specification, within Topic 8A Health, Human Rights, and Intervention, it has been decided to add a case study from North America that I have written about in the recent past – the Keystone XL pipeline.
It comes under the section that reads ‘Some economic development, both by superpowers and TNCs, has very serious impacts on the environment in which minority groups live and disregards their human rights to their land and culture.’ Pearson then write ‘we’ve added a western example to prevent the idea that negative social and environmental impacts always happen in countries in the Global South.’
So here is the piece I wrote in February 2021, together with an update at the end.]
Introduction
One of the distinctive characteristics of ‘thinking like a geographer’ is the ability to see the connections between seemingly different areas of the subject – commonly described as synoptic links. These connections are often best illustrated in the context of real-world contemporary issues, usually involving the actions of different players or actors. This piece examines one such issue in North America involving energy security, protection of the environment and identity.
An oil spillage in South Dakota, USA
In November 2019 regulators acting on behalf of the US government ordered the closure of the 3,500km Keystone pipeline, which stretches from Hardisty (Alberta, Canada) to the Texas coast [Figure 1], after a 9,000-barrel spill of crude oil into the Edinburg wetlands in North Dakota. This was the fourth such spill since the pipeline opened in 2010. The spill was particularly bad for the environment as the heavy viscous liquid, originating from the Canadian Tar sands, sinks into the ground. Air quality was also affected by noxious fumes, water supply threatened and potential damage to the delicate wetlands in the area was enormous. This leak came at a time of increased scrutiny of a proposed expansion of the pipeline – the Keystone XL.
Figure 1. The Keystone pipelines
Keystone XL
This is an additional pipeline which is projected to stretch 1,900 km from the oil sands of Canada's Alberta province, through Montana and South Dakota, to rejoin the existing Keystone pipeline to Texas. However, it has been the subject of protests for more than a decade, both from environmentalists and Native American groups who say that it will cut through their sovereign lands.
The operator of the pipeline [TC Energy based in Calgary, Canada] has been seeking to expand its pipelines linking the Western Canadian tar sand oil fields to refineries in the USA. The $6 billion project has faced regulatory and environmental hurdles over a ten-year period despite the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump. The President has been a vocal supporter of the Keystone XL expansion project, saying it will create jobs and improve U.S. energy security. He had previously reversed a decision by President Obama to deny the project a federal permit on environmental grounds. In 2018, Trump described a temporary ruling to prevent its construction as ‘a disgrace’. However, in August 2019, a court in Nebraska affirmed the alternative route through the state, raising hopes the project might proceed and provide an alternative route for the crude oil from Alberta.
Environmental pollution
In 2017 a similar pipeline leak to that in North Dakota occurred in rural South Dakota spilling nearly 10,000 barrels. Such incidents underscore that the Keystone system can leak substantially more oil, and more often, than indicated in risk assessments the company provided to US regulators before it was built. These risk assessments estimated that a leak of more than 50 barrels would occur ‘not more than once every seven to 11 years over the entire length of the pipeline in the United States.’
TC Energy has been seeking to secure land through court action (by using a legal process called ‘eminent domain’ whereby land is forcibly taken for the ‘public good’) for the Keystone XL from over 80 landowners in Nebraska. However, many of these landowners are unwilling participants. One farmer, Jeanne Crumly, who owns a cattle ranch along Keystone XL’s proposed path and fears a spill could contaminate her land and harm her cows, stated: ‘The spill confirms what we have been warning people about over the last 10 years.’
Keystone XL and Native Americans
One significant issue of the proposed XL pipeline is that much of it will pass through the tribal lands of Native Americans, such as the Sioux. In September 2019 a court in Great Falls, Montana, heard arguments in the case of Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Donald Trump. At the hearings, the US government argued that the treaties that the United States had signed many years ago with tribal nations are not relevant to the Keystone pipeline. However, lawyers for the Native Americans stated the treaties were created specifically for this sort of violation.
Their attorney stated ‘When the Tribes negotiated their treaties, they gave millions of acres of land to the United States. In return, they asked that the United States protect their lands from trespass, and their resources from destruction.’ The tribes’ argument is that when they entered these treaties, the tribal nations were working to protect their natural resources (water, grasslands, sacred places, and the huge buffalo herds) and to prevent people from crossing their lands. The United States formally agreed to keep ‘outsiders’ off Tribal nation’s territories and protect tribal cultural and natural resources. The XL pipeline, the tribes state, violates both provisions and thereby impacts on their identity. Furthermore, the Native Americans argue that the XL pipeline will create a substantial risk of:
· desecration and destruction of cultural, historic, and sacred sites
· endangerment of tribal members and their social activities, especially for women and children
· damage to hunting and fishing resources, as well as the economies associated with these activities
· impairment of federally reserved tribal water rights and resources
· harm to tribal territory and natural resources in the inevitable event of pipeline ruptures and spills, and
· harm to the political integrity, economic stability, and health and welfare of the Tribes.
Conclusion.
The Keystone pipeline demonstrates the complexity of new economic developments in any part of the world. Not only can the dilemma of environmental versus economic factors be seen, but also the roles of different players at a variety of levels, from local to national, are important to consider. Each of these has a different set of impacts and priorities, all of which combine to illustrate the synoptic nature of the subject.
Update
After more than 10 years of protests, lengthy legal battles, and flip-flopping Presidential executive orders spanning three administrations, the Keystone XL pipeline has now been cancelled. The project’s main corporate backer - the Canadian energy company TC Energy – officially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Biden’s denial of a permit to build.
Extension
1. You can watch a ten-minute video on the Keystone XL pipeline produced by the Native Americans Right Fund (NARF), featuring Gil Birmingham from the Paramount drama series Yellowstone, at:
https://www.narf.org/take-action-protect-our-land-kxl/
2. You can read one account of the whole story here:
The Keystone XL Pipeline: Everything You Need To Know (nrdc.org)
Image of Sept 2019 spillage
From Reuters