Halted by the Obama Administration, this pipeline has been put back on track by the Trump Administration. Stay tuned for updates as things develop.
KXL DESCRIPTION
The Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline (1,179-mile (1,897-km) ) would bring more than 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Canada’s oil sands in Alberta into Nebraska, linking to an existing pipeline network feeding U.S. refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico.
Major hubs:
Hardisty, Alberta, Canada
A trading hub since the early 1900s, when Canadian Pacific Railway built a depot here near Battle River, Hardisty is a key storage and transfer station for oil sent by pipelines from the tar sands 300 miles (483 kilometers) to the north, like these at an Enbridge facility. TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, starting in Hardisty, would be the first major conduit connecting Alberta to the refining centers of the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Baker, Montana
To gain Montana’s support for the project, TransCanada agreed to include an “on-ramp” here for U.S. oil from the booming Bakken Shale. Neighboring North Dakota now surpasses every state but Texas in oil production but struggles to get its crude to market from the remote prairie.
Steele City, Nebraska
The existing Keystone pipeline, carrying 590,000 barrels per day from Canada, splits at Steele City, near the Kansas border. From the pumping stations, one leg, completed in 2010, extends east to refineries in the Midwest. The other leg, finished in 2011, runs south to a huge oil storage and trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Cushing, Oklahoma
When crude oil is bought and sold on the New York commodities exchange, the contracts specify the oil will be delivered at Cushing, self-proclaimed “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.” But more pipelines like these flow into Cushing than out, and huge storage tank farms now brim with oil from Canada, North Dakota, and Texas, depressing the price.
Port Arthur, Texas
Keystone XL could carry 830,000 barrels per day into the United States in addition to the crude already flowing through the original Keystone line. Texas refineries are well-equipped to upgrade “heavy” Canadian oil, which is similar to the Mexican and Venezuelan oil these units were outfitted to handle. In hopes of relieving the Cushing glut, construction began in 2012 on the Oklahoma-to-Texas section of the pipeline.
INFO AND ACTION LINKS:
• KXL petition on Care2 : Stop Keystone XL Once and For All
Targeting: Nebraska Public Service Commission; Jeffrey Pursley, Executive Director; Commissioners Rod Johnson, Frank Landis, Crystal Rhoades, Mary RIdder, Tim Schram, Nichole Mulcahy – Deputy Director and Legal Counsel, Natural Gas & Pipeline Division
Just over 34,000 signatures as of 3/27/17