Blog 12: The Keystone Pipeline


The Keystone pipeline would run from Alberta, Canada to Houston, Texas, where it would be turned into gasoline and material for other petroleum-based products. It is suppose to run through farmland in Nebraska. The pipeline would provide the United states with the chance to receive safe, reliable, and affordable energy from canada. It would reduce the need to import energy from other countries. It will run through Montana, south Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas Oklahoma and Texas. Many people support it because it will create jobs, improve the energy security, and there will be additional tax revenue. But also many people are against it because it can damage the air, there are oil spill threats, it will destroy habitats and create environmental destruction and in Nebraska many ranchers and farmers oppose its construction. Many environmentalists are also concerned about the situation.One of the largest aquifers in the world, the Ogallala is beneath the Sand Hills of Nebraska. It provides the water for about 30% of all the irrigated cropland in the United States. People who run those farms around here are concerned that a pipeline accident might damage that resource. The Pipeline would deliver Canadian crude oil to Oklahoma and Texas refineries increasing economic growth all along the way, creating tens of thousands of jobs, and much needed oil. The pipeline can serve as a climate threat. President Obama said the State Department will “be giving me a report over the next several months and, you know, my general attitude is: What is best for the American people? What’s best for our economy both short term and long term? But also: What’s best for the health of the American people?” I don’t really know what to say about this I agree but then I don’t agree on some affect that it will have on the environment and the people that it will affect!