NPRA Says Claims of Keystone XL Opponents Flawed and Alarmist

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "The Keystone XL pipeline proposal has been reviewed intensively by federal agencies and has been shown to be safe, environmentally sound and in America's national interest," National Petrochemical & Refiners Association President Charles T. Drevna said today.

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"Opponents of this enormously beneficial project want to prevent the American people from utilizing vast supplies of petroleum from our friend and neighbor Canada," Drevna said. "They have made many inaccurate and alarmist claims in a desperate effort to block this project, despite the fact that it would create jobs, benefit consumers, and strengthen America's economic and national security."

"Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have inaccurately claimed that the approval process is flawed and that relationships involved in the process represent a conflict of interest," Drevna said. "Their claims are based on fiction and fears rather than a fair and objective analysis of the facts."

Drevna pointed out that the Keystone XL pipeline project has been closely examined not only by the State Department but by several other federal agencies.

Here is a new NPRA analysis of the lengthy and extensive approval process for the pipeline:

Claims of Flawed Keystone Approval Process are Baseless

Canada is the largest source of oil imports to the United States, providing nearly 2 million barrels of oil a day. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion would allow the U.S. to increase those imports from its North American ally by more than 500,000 barrels per day – decreasing our nation's reliance on imported oil from unstable regions of the world.

As President Obama said in March, Canada is "a stable and steady and reliable source." Canada's oil sands are important to ensure secure North American energy supplies today, and will be even more important in the future as the economy begins to recover and our energy demands increase.

Claim

As the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project continues to move through the approval process, some environmental organizations and their allies in Congress are attempting to portray the process as "tainted." Several members of Congress signed a letter to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claiming that the relationship between TransCanada, builder and operator of the proposed pipeline, and Cardno ENTRIX, the third-party organization selected to complete the environmental impact study, represents a conflict of interest. The letter states: "These relationships alarmingly suggest that the process may not have been objective, and this decision is too important to be clouded by even the appearance of impropriety." This is an inaccurate claim.

Keystone XL Proposal Follows Normal Approval Process

The approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline project is no different than previous permitting processes for international border crossings. Like all infrastructure that crosses U.S. borders, the project must receive a presidential permit and follow a strict approval process conducted by the secretary of state as established by an executive order. The Keystone XL pipeline's approval process falls under the State Department's jurisdiction and has been vigorously reviewed.

As part of the presidential permit review process and as the lead federal coordinating agency, the State Department conducted an Environmental Impact Study following the National Environmental Policy Act to gather information from other federal agencies with jurisdictional interest. The State Department retained Cardno ENTRIX to help prepare the study and to consult with cooperating agencies, scientists and engineers with expertise in areas of concern related to the project.

Hiring a third-party contractor for an environmental impact study is a critical part of the approval process. Cardno ENTRIX, like many other environmental consulting firms that conduct such studies, should not be accused of having a conflict of interest with previous clients for conducting more than one environmental study. The firm has worked with federal and state governments over the last 25 years, preparing more than 500 National Environmental Policy Act and state-level environmental policy documents for a variety of projects and companies.

Process Is Transparent and Well Scrutinized

• TransCanada's presidential permit application was submitted in September 2008 and has been subject to an unusually high level of scrutiny and delay. It is still pending approval more than three years later.
• In 2009, the State Department considered a similar pipeline, the Alberta Clipper, which is currently being constructed to transport Canadian oil sands crude from Alberta to Wisconsin. The approval process for Alberta Clipper lasted little more than two years compared to three so far for the Keystone XL pipeline.
• TransCanada completed construction and began operation of the first phase of the Keystone Pipeline System in June 2010 after just 23 months of review. The pipeline system extends from Hardisty, Alberta to the refineries at Wood River and Patoka, Illinois.
• The State Department says it is committed to maintaining the integrity of a transparent, impartial and rigorous process. Since the application was filed in 2008, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal has been studied at length – three drafts of Environmental Impact Studies have been conducted and released for public comment. The State Department has received hundreds of thousands of written comments and convened 50 public meetings.
• In concert with TransCanada and the State Department, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration – the federal agency in charge of establishing regulatory requirements for pipelines, developed 57 rigorous Special Conditions for the pipeline that exceed current regulations. TransCanada met all of these new conditions.
• The State Department determined that incorporation of the 57 additional special conditions would result in a project with a degree of safety greater than any typically constructed domestic oil pipeline system under current regulations. In addition, the State Department concluded that the degree of safety along the entire length of the pipeline system would be similar to that required in "high consequence areas" as defined in the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulations.
• After an exhaustive review, the State Department, Department of Energy and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have identified no significant safety or environmental impacts that would result from the project.
• A report prepared for the Department of Energy as part of the permitting process showed that increasing Canadian crude imports will replace U.S. imports of heavy crude oil from unstable regions of the world.
• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has notably stated that Canadian oil sands producers are "making great strides in improving the environmental impact" of development.

Keystone XL Pipeline Will Create Jobs, Benefit U.S. Energy Production, and Strengthen Energy Security

• The United States will benefit with greater economic security, as Keystone XL is projected to create 20,000 jobs within the first year of commencement of construction. A recent study has also shown that, without pipeline restrictions, development of Canada's oil sands could create about 600,000 jobs by 2035.
• The Keystone XL project will also provide pipeline capacity to bring as much as 100,000 barrels of oil per day from the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana to American consumers. The pipeline will reduce our dependence on energy sources overseas, and provide certainty in the markets with stable, steady and reliable sources of energy.

– NPRA –
NPRA is a trade association representing high-tech American manufacturers of virtually the entire U.S. supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, other fuels and home heating oil, as well as the petrochemicals used as building blocks for thousands of vital products in daily life. NPRA members make modern life possible and keep America moving and growing as they meet the needs of our nation and local communities, strengthen economic and national security, and provide jobs directly and indirectly for more than 2 million Americans.

SOURCE National Petrochemical & Refiners Association