Keystone Pipeline free essay sample

Entrepreneurs believe that such a pipeline will stimulate the nations economy  and  lead to an increase in the amount of jobs. On the other side,  environmentalists believe that the pipeline will be  detrimental  for the environment as the pipeline can be prone to leakage at any given time. That being said, it is crucial to decide  whether  or not the Keystone is in the nations best interest. Can this pipeline  catapult  us out of a recession or will it only hurt us in the long run? Personally, I believe that there is a  possibility  for both situations to occur. The Keystone Pipeline will be able to spur the nations economy to a certain extent by providing a limited amount of jobs and slightly decreasing our dependency on foreign oil, but it will  also  aid in the  destruction  of our environment through carbon emissions and the risk of tar sand spillage. We will write a custom essay sample on Keystone Pipeline or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Due to the extension of the Keystone Pipeline, TransCanada predicts that thousands of jobs will arise in order to construct the pipeline. The Keystone XL stretches for approximately 1,700 miles through Canada and the United States. The $7-billion project will have the capacity to transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day. 25% of the oil being transported will come from American soil while the rest will be found in Canada. As a result, TransCanada predicts that 20,000 direct and 180,000 spin-off jobs will arise from construction of the pipeline. According to the Labor Network for Sustainability, over two million American construction workers are currently unemployed. In actuality, that is roughly every 1 in 5 construction workers. If the TransCanada will truly be able to guarantee as many jobs as they said they would, unemployment rates will go down. Granted, not all two million workers will be able to get a job, but a good portion of them will. Recently, TransCanada has been allowed to extend their pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas. TransCanada predicted that another 4,000 jobs should arise from the extension. Workers are in desperate need of jobs. The unemployment rate has been steadily increasing. The Keystone Pipeline offers working opportunities for Americans. It is a definite fact that the pipeline will create jobs. The underlying questions, however, are how long the jobs will last and how many jobs will be available. Once construction of the pipeline has concluded, so will the jobs. There would be no need to work on something that has already been finished. The amount of jobs TransCanada predicts to surface seems exaggerated. In fact, the U. S. State Department predicted that the pipeline would only create 6,500 temporary jobs, at most. The number of jobs that will be available is definitely a less significant number than the 20,000 that TransCanada predicted. According to TransCanada’s own data, only 11% of the construction jobs on the production of Phase I of the pipeline in South Dakota were filled by workers in the area. The majority of the jobs were only temporary and low paying. A study done at Cornell University stated that the pipeline would even lead to a drop in the number of available jobs as there would be a reduced investment in the clean energy economy. Construction of the XL pipeline will lead to available jobs for Americans, but these jobs will only be temporary. In such an economic crisis, a temporary job is not sufficient anymore. The pipeline will not be able to produce the full time jobs that Americans are seeking. There will be a need for workers once construction for the pipeline has commenced. But, once the pipeline has been completed, those workers will face going back to unemployment and having to start their quest for a job all over again. Another concern for the construction of the pipeline is America’s dependency on foreign oil. At the current time the U. S. is a nation that is very dependent on foreign oil. According to Representative Allen West, nearly 50% of the oil consumed in the U. S. s imported from foreign countries. Our nation is heavily involved in overseas trade of oil. The hope of the pipeline is that it will reduce the dependency on the need for foreign oil since Canada will now be able to provide us with crude oil. As an incentive to construct the pipeline, West also stated that Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is an oil passageway that is used on a global scale for the movement of oil. Without the passageway, our foreign oil imports would come to a halt and we would be left only with the oil that is found in our own soil. In this scenario, our oil supplies would be halved. With gas prices already steadily increasing, the lack of oil will lead to a tremendous spike in gas prices. The Keystone XL pipeline would be able to move us away from overseas trade of oil. 830,000 barrels of crude oil will be transported a day from Canada to U. S. refineries. If we do not receive this oil, then another nation will. The pipeline could very well be the key to stabilizing gas prices. Not only can the pipeline stabilize gas prices, but the Keystone will also allow the U. S. to become more dependent on oil found in our own soil and in Canada. The Keystone Pipeline will decrease American dependency on foreign oil, but it would not necessarily decrease our foreign involvement. Firstly, Canada itself is a foreign nation. In the attempt to close our doors to foreign dependency on oil, we are actually becoming even more dependent on solely one foreign nation. The amount of oil we will receive from Canada is a substantial amount since it will replace overseas imports on foreign oil. Instead of being more reliant on our own oil, we are only shifting focus to rely on another nation that is not in economic or political turmoil. Secondly, the Keystone Pipeline itself is an export pipeline. Canada will be using the pipeline in order to transport crude oil to refineries in the Gulf Coast. Once the crude oil reaches the Gulf Coast, refineries will refine the crude oil into diesel and export it to Europe and Latin America. We will not be dependent on these countries anymore for their oil, but we will be involved in the importing and exporting of oil. In fact, this will actually pull the U. S. into a greater involvement with these nations. According to Oil Change International, the only way that we can actually reduce our dependency on foreign oil is to reduce our dependency on all oil as a whole. Throughout history, our energy sources have been constantly changing, from steam, to coal, and now to oil. We are in need of a new energy source and one that is actually reliable. Once we attain it, we will no longer be dependent on oil. The construction of the Keystone XL is a double-edged sword. Not only does it wield the possibility to help the nation, but it also wields the power to devastate the entire globe. One of the main environmental concerns on the construction of the pipeline is that the Keystone will raise the levels of carbon dioxide emissions. These emissions are a huge component of what is causing global warming. According to the Labor Network for Sustainability, the safe level for carbon in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million. Even without the Keystone XL, we have already exceeded that level. The pipeline would only supplement the environmental devastation already caused. The type of oil that is being imported into the U. S. is tar sands oil. Pollution emitted from tar sands oil is actually greater than the pollution emitted from conventional oil. During the refining process of the tar sands, levels of carbon dioxide emissions will be up to three times higher than those of conventional oil. It is more energy consuming to process tar sands compared to processing conventional oil. These tar sands contain enough carbon to raise the carbon emissions in the atmosphere by 200 parts per million. This means that we would be nearly doubling the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Since the Keystone XL will bring in almost one million barrels daily of this oil, the resulting emissions will be equal to adding over six million cars to American roads. A continuation of this will only lead to environmental catastrophe. Sea levels will rise, species will become extinct, floods, droughts, and forest fires will occur. The future impacts of the Keystone need to be taken into account before a clear decision can be made. Lastly, if the pipeline should ever rupture, millions of Americans will be harmed by the toxic spills. As stated before, tar sand oil is the most polluted oil that is available. Tar sand oil contains some of the deadliest chemicals which include nickel, lead, mercury, arsenic, and selenium. Spillage from the pipeline is a direct threat for Midwestern agriculture and drinking water. The Keystone XL will cut through Nebraska, which happens to provide the U. S. with 30% of its groundwater for irrigation. If this water were to become contaminated by the spillage from the pipeline, there would be massive crop failure throughout the Midwest. If the spill should happen near refineries in Texas, approximately 60 counties will have contaminated water due to tar sand oils. The question is, can TransCanada be trusted to construct secure and sound pipelines? In a recent statement, TransCanada announced and has guaranteed that the Keystone pipeline is not prone to spillage. However, pipelines that are manufactured in Alberta, Canada fail from corrosion 16 times more frequently than U. S. pipelines, according to National Wildlife Foundation. Back in Canada, the same company has allowed for 3 million gallons of toxic waste to leak into the Athabasca River in Alberta. Those people who live around the vicinity are experiencing the full blown consequences. Studies have shown that there has been a dramatic spike in the rates of people with cancer in that area. Nearly a million barrels of the same substance will be pumped daily into American soil. Such a risk should not be taken lightly. Millions of lives are at risk with the construction of the Keystone XL. The Keystone XL pipeline system is of national concern. The U. S. has been presented with a double edge sword. On one end, the pipeline has the potential to give Americans more working opportunities and will allow us to move away from overseas dependency on oil. On the other end, however, future generations will suffer the environmental damages that we will bring on ourselves through the pipeline. In the case of the pipeline, the negatives outweigh the positives. There are too many environmental risks that are at stake with the Keystone. Additionally, the positives alone are not convincing enough. It is not in our nation’s interest to construct this pipeline.