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Keystone XL Pipeline Protest, Washington DC- Creative Commons: Emma Cassidy, 2011
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TransCanada’s multi-billion
dollar Keystone XL oil pipeline has been shrouded in controversy since its
proposal in 2008. The XL Pipeline, formed as an extension to the existing
Keystone Pipeline system, is set to deliver tar sands oil—a variety of crude described
as the “world’s dirtiest, most toxic, and most difficult-to-clean-up-when-it-spills”—from
British Columbia to the Gulf Coast of Texas. In the process, it will traverse
the Sand Hills of Nebraska and the regionally crucial Ogallala Aquifer that
lies beneath. However, the Department of State has yet to grant TransCanada a
permit to begin construction in the United States.
When pressured by Congress last
January to decide on the pending permit request, President Obama rejected the
application, citing insufficient time to assess the full impact of the project.
With environmental concerns abundant, the Department of State is primarily
focused on protecting the quality of the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides
approximately 82 percent of drinking water for the region’s 2.3 million
population.
In March, President Obama authorized
the construction of the southern half of the XL, which stretches from Cushing,
Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast. While this portion of the XL pipeline may not cross
an environmentally fragile and integral U.S. water source, it does traverse
fragile and culturally important indigenous lands. These interests
should be given equal consideration with environmental concerns given in
particular a growing body of international legal norms recognizing indigenous
peoples’ rights to consent to development on their sovereign lands.
