The Obama administration on Feb. 27 welcomed TransCanada’s plan to
build an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas after deferring the
larger Keystone XL project from Canada following massive protests.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We
look forward to working with TransCanada to ensure that it is built
in a safe, responsible and timely manner, and we commit to take every
step possible to expedite the necessary federal permits.”
TransCanada said it still hopes to build the
full 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry oil derived from tar
sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The proposed $7 billion pipeline would run through Montana, South
Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas before reaching Oklahoma.
The company said it is working with Nebraska
officials to find a route that avoids the environmentally sensitive
Sandhills region.
TransCanada, it appears, has decided to use a divide-and-conquer
method to push through their tar sands pipeline. As stated in a
Friends of the Earth press release, the company has come up with a
scheme to accomplish this “by splitting the project into two
segments to be reviewed through separate regulatory processes.”
However, allowing any part of the pipeline to be built is not safe
or responsible. The pipeline has not yet undergone a full independent
environmental review to determine the safety of transporting tar
sands through a pipeline. A cleanup project
following an explosion of a tar sands pipeline in the Kalamazoo River
in Michigan, that was scheduled to be completed by this summer, had
to be extended because of the difficulty of cleaning up the spill.
Environmental groups from across the country vow to continue
fighting the pipeline. “Any attempt to move
forward with any segment of the pipeline will be met with the same
fierce grassroots opposition that stopped the pipeline the first
time,” Friends of the Earth dirty fuel
campaigner Kim Hunyh said in response to the TransCanada plan.
Native Americans block pipeline trucks
Five Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in
South Dakota were arrested March 5 after attempting to block two tar
sands pipeline trucks from entering their land. Debra White Plume,
one of the activists arrested, told Censored News: “We formed a
blockade to stop tar sands oil mine equipment from passing our lands.
The truckers told us the corporation office from Calgary, Alberta,
Canada and the State of South Dakota made a deal to save the truckers
$50,000 per truck.”
According to Plume, some 75 Native Americans
took part in the blockade. One of the most outspoken of the
blockaders was 92-year-old grandmother Marie Randall. Another elder
was Ione Bad Cob, who came in her wheelchair to participate.
“The tribal police had to let the trucks
get off the rez,” Plume told Censored News. “They escorted them
to the reservation line. We oppose the tar sands oil mine in
solidarity with Mother Earth and our First Nation allies.”
Thousands have fought against the oil
pipeline in the past year including the over 2,000 people who were
arrested in front of the White House in September 2011. As long as
the capitalist system is still in place, the safety of people and the
environment will be put behind profit.
