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TransCanada Pipeline Explodes, How Safe Will Keystone XL Be?

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Vision of Keystone XL?
Vision of Keystone XL?

TransCanada Corporation runs a number of oil and natural gas pipelines in North America, and is pushing to install the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the United States. After yet another disaster, how safe could it possibly be?

TransCanada already has the Keystone I oil pipeline running in the United States, at a capacity of 590,000 barrels per day, whose safety record isn’t exactly untarnished. In the first year of operation, 2007-2008, the pipeline leaked fourteen times. The worst spill, in North Dakota, emptied 21,000 gallons of tar sands oil and toxic chemicals onto the ground, contaminating the soil and water for decades to come. TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, when completed, is expected to expand capacity by an additional 510,000 barrels per day.

Another of TransCanada’s projects, a natural gas pipeline in Canada, exploded Saturday morning. About 3am, 15 miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the natural gas line exploded, and fires could not be extinguished until sometime Saturday afternoon. About 4,000 residents, who rely on natural gas for heat, have been without heat for a few days now, while temperatures outside have been hovering between 0°F and -15°F.

We wonder, with all the supposed promise that the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which is supposed to run over 800 miles across a number of States when completed, how safe is it? January 22, 2014, 435 miles of Keystone XL became operational, between Cushing, Oklahoma, and Nederland, Texas. No problems have been reported, so far.

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