Keystone XL Pipeline
A company called TransCanada has proposed a tar sands pipeline – called "Keystone XL" – that would cut through America’s heartland and put people and wildlife at risk from toxic oil spills, polluted water and more. Perhaps most dangerously, Keystone XL would drive development in Canada’s tar sands region, one of the biggest threats to our global climate. The Obama Administration showed bold by rejecting the first permit for the risky project, but TransCanada resubmitted their application and a final decision is expected in 2013.
What is the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline?
The U.S. already imports 800,000 barrels per day of tar sands oil, and the stage is being set for a drastic increase. Several pipelines already transport tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. and two new ones have been built in the last few years.
But the next pipeline could be a game-changer.
TransCanada’s Keystone XL would carry
up to 830,000 barrels per day of tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada more than two thousand miles to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The pipeline would cross
six American states including Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Keystone XL (and similar planned projects like Enbridge, Inc.’s Midwest expansion) would lock the U.S. into a dependence on dirty fuels and drive a massive expansion of oil mining operations in Canada. Currently, those oil companies do not have access to coastal ports, which limits their ability to sell their product. Because Keystone XL would deliver tar sands to the Gulf Coast – America's largest oil refining and transport hub – it would effectively open the entire U.S. market and international markets to tar sands crude and spell disaster for our climate.
The added capacity of Keystone XL and the other two pipelines that have been built recently could more than triple U.S. consumption of tar sands oil – one of the most polluting and carbon-intensive fuels in the world. If expansion of tar sands goes unchecked, it will be impossible to reach our goals to reduce global warming pollution, seriously harming both people and wildlife.
Learn more about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (PDF) >>
How Could the Keystone XL Impact People and Wildlife?
If approved, the Keystone XL pipeline will slice through America's agricultural heartland, the Missouri, Platte, and Niobrara Rivers, the Ogallala aquifer, habitat for sage grouse and sandhill cranes, walleye fisheries and much more. Our public water supplies, croplands, and recreational opportunities will all be at risk of dangerous tar sands oil spills like the million-gallon Enbridge oil spill in Michigan.
Learn more about the threat the Keystone XL pipeline poses >>
Speak Up to Stop the Keystone XL
Thousands of people around the country are taking a stand against the import of dirty tar sands oil – from farmers and ranchers in Nebraska who don't want a tar sands pipeline plowed through their property, to families in Texas concerned about their drinking water, to Americans everywhere who want to move towards a clean energy future. National Wildlife Federation is working to stop this dangerous project, and your voice is urgently needed.
Join us in taking a stand against the Keystone XL pipeline >>