{"id":4755,"date":"2013-09-09T01:07:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=4755"},"modified":"2013-09-09T01:07:57","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:07:57","slug":"mintpressnews-com-the-flip-side-of-obamas-keystone-xl-delay-even-as-president-obama-cast-a-veneer-of-caution-over-the-keystone-pipelines-northern-half-he-quietly-expedited-dozens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2013\/09\/09\/mintpressnews-com-the-flip-side-of-obamas-keystone-xl-delay-even-as-president-obama-cast-a-veneer-of-caution-over-the-keystone-pipelines-northern-half-he-quietly-expedited-dozens\/","title":{"rendered":"Mintpressnews.com: The Flip Side Of Obama\u2019s Keystone XL Delay:  Even as President Obama cast a veneer of caution over the Keystone pipeline\u2019s northern half, he quietly expedited dozens of similar projects."},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"SQ4zHRgeM7\"><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/obamas-keystone-xl-tradeoff-expedite-all-other-pipelines\/168569\/\">INVESTIGATION: The Flip Side Of Obama\u2019s Keystone XL Delay<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;INVESTIGATION: The Flip Side Of Obama\u2019s Keystone XL Delay&#8221; &#8212; MintPress News\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/obamas-keystone-xl-tradeoff-expedite-all-other-pipelines\/168569\/embed\/#?secret=BzggqO53Oy#?secret=SQ4zHRgeM7\" data-secret=\"SQ4zHRgeM7\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By Steve Horn | September 7, 2013<\/p>\n<p>The Republican-controlled House is voting today on a measure that would strip the president\u2019s authority on Keystone XL pipeline approval, allowing Congress to push the project through before completion of the environmental impact study. (Photo\/Matt Wansley via Flickr)<\/p>\n<p>While President Obama made a big deal out of delaying the northern half of the Keystone pipeline\u2019s construction, he compensated by signing an executive order to expedite similar infrastructure projects everywhere else. (Photo\/Matt Wansley via Flickr)<\/p>\n<p>Large segments of the environmental movement declared a win on Jan. 18, 2012, the dawn of an election year in which partisan fervor reigned supreme.<\/p>\n<p>On that day President Barack Obama kicked the can down the road for permitting TransCanada\u2019s Keystone XL pipeline\u2019s northern half until after the then-forthcoming November 2012 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorthern half\u201d is the key caveat: just two months later, on March 22, 2012 \u2013 even deeper into the weeds of an election year \u2013 President Obama issued Executive Order 13604. Among other key things, the order has an accompanying memorandum calling for an expedited review of the southern half of Keystone XL stretching from Cushing, Okla. to Port Arthur, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The day before, March 21, Obama flew on Air Force One to a pipe yard in Cushing \u2013 the \u201cpipeline crossroads of the world\u201d \u2013 for a special stump speech and photo-op announcing the executive order and memorandum.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project by TransCanada \u2013 95 percent complete and \u201copen for business\u201d in the first quarter of 2014 \u2013 the 485-mile tube will ship 700,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day from Cushing to Port Arthur, where it will then reach Gulf Coast refineries and be exported to the global market. It will eventually have the capacity to ship 830,000 barrels per day.<\/p>\n<p>The subject of a large amount of grassroots resistance from groups such as Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance and the Tar Sands Blockade, the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project \u2013 when push comes to shove \u2013 is only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because Obama\u2019s order also called for expedited permitting and review of all domestic infrastructure projects \u2013 including but not limited to pipelines \u2013 as a reaction to the Keystone XL resistance.<\/p>\n<p>A months-long Mint Press News investigation reveals the executive order wasn\u2019t merely a symbolic gesture.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, many key pipeline and oil and gas industry marketing projects are currently up for expedited review, making up for \u2014 and by far eclipsing \u2014 the capacity of Keystone XL\u2019s northern half. The original TransCanada Keystone pipeline \u2013 as is \u2013 already directly connects to Cushing from Alberta, making XL (short for \u201cextension line\u201d) essentially obsolete.<\/p>\n<p>Keystone XL\u2019s northern half proposal is key for marketing oil obtained from the controversial hydraulic fracturing (\u201cfracking\u201d) process in North Dakota\u2019s Bakken Shale basin.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed the Bakken Marketlink Pipeline, the segment has lost its importance with the explosive freight rail boom for moving Bakken fracked oil to market and other pipeline proposals. One of those pipelines, in fact, has received fast-track approval under the March 2012 Obama Executive Order.<\/p>\n<p>Feeling the pressure from protest against the Keystone XL from groups such as the Tar Sands Action, Indigenous Environmental Network and others, Obama pulled a fast one: \u201cwait and see\u201d for XL\u2019s northern half \u2013 which many claimed as a victory \u2013 and expedited approval of everything else via executive order.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking down the Keystone XL executive order<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u2019s Keystone XL southern half March 2012 memo reads like Big Oil talking points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[W]e need an energy infrastructure system that can keep pace with advances in production,\u201d Obama states in the Memo. \u201cTo promote American energy sources, we must not only extract oil \u2014 we must also be able to transport it to our world-class refineries, and ultimately to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A metaphorical slap in the face to environmentalists who spent months working on opposing Keystone XL, Obama argued a more efficient, less bureaucratic means of approval was compulsory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[A]s part of my Administration\u2019s broader efforts to improve the performance of Federal permitting and review processes, we must make pipeline infrastructure a priority \u2026 supporting projects that can contribute to economic growth and a secure energy future,\u201d the memo reads.<\/p>\n<p>Though the order issued an expedited permitting process for Keystone XL\u2019s southern half, it also foreshadowed that expedited permitting would become the \u201cnew normal\u201d going forward for all domestic oil and gas pipeline projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo address the existing bottleneck in Cushing, as well as other current or anticipated bottlenecks, agencies shall \u2026 coordinate and expedite their reviews \u2026 as necessary to expedite decisions related to domestic pipeline infrastructure projects that would contribute to a more efficient domestic pipeline system for the transportation of crude oil,\u201d the memo states in closing.<\/p>\n<p>The memo also notes all projects placed in the expedited permitting pile can have their statuses tracked on the online Federal Infrastructure Projects Dashboard, with 48 projects currently listed.<\/p>\n<p>Little time was wasted building the XL\u2019s southern half after Obama issued the Order and within a slim two years, TransCanada will have its first direct line from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries in southern Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Muted opposition: \u201ceco-terrorists,\u201d SLAPP lawsuit threats<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not as if the Keystone XL southern half expedited permit has gone unopposed. It\u2019s just that activists who have chosen to resist the pipeline have paid a heavy price for doing so.<\/p>\n<p>A case in point: opposition to Keystone XL\u2019s southern half has earned many activists the label \u2013 on multiple occasions \u2013 as potential \u201ceco-terrorists,\u201d named as such by TransCanada, the U.S. FBI and Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Nebraska-based \u201cfusion center\u201d and local undercover police.<\/p>\n<p>Other activists were threatened by TransCanada with a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), all of whom made an out of court settlement in January 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Activists agreed to \u201cno longer trespass or cause damage to Keystone XL property including the easements within private property boundaries,\u201d explained FireDogLake\u2019s Kevin Gosztola in a January 2013 article.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement was a quintessential \u201clesser of two evils\u201d choice, given activists could have found themselves bogged down in legal fees from TransCanada and may have eventually owed the corporation big bucks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe activists had a choice: either settle or face a lawsuit in court where TransCanada would seek $5 million for alleged financial damages \u2026 that could have much worse consequences,\u201d Gosztola further explained.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond SLAPP threats, key lawsuits aiming to fend off TransCanada have also failed.<\/p>\n<p>Texas lawsuit highlights expedited permitting corruption<\/p>\n<p>One of those lawsuits in particular \u2013 filed on April 25, 2013 by a Douglass, Texas-based citizen named Michael Bishop representing himself in court \u2013 paints a picture of what President Obama meant when he said he would fast-track permitting for infrastructure projects going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Before filing the lawsuit, Bishop penned a four-part series for EcoWatch in February and March of 2013 on his experiences as a landowner living a mere 120-feet from pipeline construction and dealing with TransCanada in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am amazed by the lack of understanding about this project by the general public and even more amazed that people in other parts of the country are so focused on the \u2018northern segment\u2019 while the pipeline is actually being laid right here in Texas and will begin transporting diluted bitumen, tar sands crude oil, to Gulf Coast refineries by the end of the year,\u201d Bishop wrote in Part III. \u201cSo many seem oblivious to this fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bishop alleges in his Complaint for Declaratory Relief and Petition for Writ of Mandamus that on-the-books bread-and-butter environmental laws were broken when fast-tracked permitting for Keystone XL\u2019s southern half unfolded.<\/p>\n<p>The permitting mechanism utilized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers \u2013 following Obama\u2019s March 2012 executive order and memorandum \u2013 was a Nationwide Permit 12.<\/p>\n<p>Nationwide Permit 12 has also been chosen for fast-tracked permitting of Enbridge\u2019s Flanagan South Pipeline. That pipeline is set to fill the gap \u2013 and then some \u2013 for Keystone XL\u2019s northern half, bringing tar sands crude along the 600-mile long, 600,000 barrels per day pipeline from Pontiac, Ill. to Cushing, Okla.<\/p>\n<p>A 2012 document produced by the Army Corps of Engineers explains Nationwide Permit 12 is meant for permitting of utility lines, access roads; foundations for overhead utility line towers, poles, and anchors: pipelines carrying corrosive tar sands crude go unmentioned.<\/p>\n<p>The Corps\u2019 document also explains Nationwide Permit 12 exists to \u201cauthorize certain activities that have minimal individual and cumulative adverse effects on the aquatic environment,\u201d further explaining, \u201cActivities that result in more than minimal individual and cumulative adverse effects on the aquatic environment cannot be authorized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bishop cited the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), arguing Nationwide Permit 12 as applied to Keystone XL\u2019s southern half violated the spirit of that law because no environmental assessment was conducted and no public hearings were held.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven the fact that the Corps was involved in the preparation of the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline XL for the State Department \u2026 knowledgeable of the toxic nature of the material to be transported and massive public opposition to the project, public hearings should have been held in accordance with the law,\u201d wrote Bishop.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the pipeline crosses \u201cnearly 1,000 crossings of bodies of water in Texas alone,\u201d according to Bishop\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n<p>In following the dictates of the March 2012 executive order and memorandum, Bishop argues the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted in total disregard for long-established environmental law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of Nation Wide Permit-12 is not a substitute for following NEPA and the Corps, while having some degree of latitude, failed in its ministerial duty,\u201d Bishop wrote. \u201cThere was a blatant disregard for established environmental law\u2026which not only included public input, but also directed the agency to consider human health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To date, the lawsuit has not been heard in court.<\/p>\n<p>Hastening Bakken shale development<\/p>\n<p>While the environmental community hones in on Keystone XL\u2019s northern half, the business community has focused on expediting permits in the Bakken Shale and filling in the gap left behind by the lack of a TransCanada \u201cBakken Marketlink.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Big Business has done so \u2013 in the main \u2013 by using pipelines to ship Bakken crude to key rail hubs.<\/p>\n<p>One of the pipelines listed in the Federal Infrastructure Projects Dashboard is the Bakkenlink pipeline \u2013 not to be confused with the \u201cBakken Marketlink\u201d \u2013 a 144-mile-long tube set to carry fracked oil from the Bakken to rail facilities that would then carry the product to strategic markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrently, crude oil from this region of the Bakken field is transported to rail facilities via truck,\u201d explains the Dashboard. \u201cThe proposed BakkenLink pipeline provides an opportunity to eliminate a vast amount of overland truck traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Petroleum News Bakken, an industry news publication, explains Bakkenlink was proposed when the northern half of Keystone XL was put on hold by the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOriginally the BakkenLink was intended to run all the way to Baker, Mont., where it was to connect to the Keystone XL pipeline, but when the Keystone XL project was put on hold in 2011, BakkenLink LLC modified its plan and opted to terminate the pipeline at the Fryburg rail facility,\u201d Petroleum News Bakken explained.<\/p>\n<p>The Bismarck Tribune explained Great Northern Midstream LLC \u2013 which wholly owns BakkenLink LLC as a subsidiary \u2013  has built capacity to load fracked Bakken oil onto 110-car unit trains via the Fryburg rail facility.<\/p>\n<p>For sake of comparison, TransCanada\u2019s Bakken Marketlink Pipeline \u2013 aka Keystone XL \u2013 was slated to bring 100,000 barrels per day of crude to market.<\/p>\n<p>The freight trains scheduled to carry this oil are owned by Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF). BNSF itself is owned by Warren Buffett, the fourth richest man on the planet and major campaign contributor to President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n<p>With plans to \u201cspend $4.1 billion on capital improvements in 2013, a single-year record for an American railroad\u2026BNSF says it is transporting more than half of the oil produced in the North Dakota and Montana regions of the Bakken,\u201d according to a June 2013 Dallas Morning News article. \u201cThe boom would not be as big, nor would it have happened as fast, without BNSF.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recent investigative pieces on Buffett\u2019s ties to the tar sands also shows he owns over $2.7 billion worth of stock in tar sands producers such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, General Electric and Suncor as of September 7, 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Another key data point: a 70-unit train carrying 51,428 barrels of fracked Bakken Oil to a Canadian east coast export terminal owned by Irving Oil derailed and exploded in a fireball on July 2013, killing 47 people in Lac-M\u00e9gantic, located in Qu\u00e9bec province.<\/p>\n<p>Coming full circle, Irving Oil and TransCanada announced a joint venture to develop and construct an export facility in St. John, Canada on August 1, less than a month after the lethal Lac-M\u00e9gantic derailment. That facility would take tar sands crude shipped from the 1.1 million barrels per day proposed TransCanada Energy East pipeline and export it to the global market.<\/p>\n<p>Bakken Federal Executives Group<\/p>\n<p>Bakkenlink isn\u2019t the only game in town for the March 2012 executive order\u2019s impact on expedited permitting in the Bakken Shale.<\/p>\n<p>Enter the Bakken Federal Executives Group \u2013 helped along by Obama\u2019s Assistant for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal \u2013 the Obama White House\u2019s industry-friendly liaison to Big Oil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmong Zichal\u2019s tasks is wooing Jack Gerard,\u201d explained a May 2012 article in Bloomberg. Gerard was thought to be one of the candidates for Chief-of-Staff for Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney if he became president.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]dentified by the President as one of five priority regional initiatives under Executive Order 13604 \u2026 [the] [g]roup represents a dozen federal bureaus with review and permitting responsibilities that are working collaboratively to address common development obstacles associated with the Bakken boom\u2026,\u201d explains an August 7 U.S. Department of Interior press release.<\/p>\n<p>Newly-minted U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell \u2013 a former petroleum engineer for Mobil Oil Company \u2013 recently took a trip to the Bakken Shale oil fields to advocate for the dictates of the March 2012 Executive Order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe group\u2019s Aug. 6 itinerary began with a tour of a rig operated by Continental Resources Inc., followed in the afternoon by a tour of facilities operated by Statoil, which has invested more than $4 billion in the Bakken,\u201d explained the Oil and Gas Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Continental Resources\u2019 CEO is Harold Hamm, who served as energy advisor to Mitt Romney, the Republican Party presidential nominee for the 2012 election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInterior continues to be a leader in implementing President Obama\u2019s vision for a federal permitting process that is smarter [and] more efficient,\u201d David Hayes, Department of Interior Deputy Secretary said in a June press release. \u201cBy coordinating across the many federal agencies involved in the Bakken region \u2026 we are able to offer a better process for industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Obama May 2013 memo: Cut it in half<\/p>\n<p>On May 17, 2013, President Obama issued an updated memorandum titled, \u201cModernizing Federal Infrastructure Review and Permitting Regulations, Policies, and Procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Citing his March 2012 executive order as precedent, this memo called for cutting the time it takes to approve major infrastructure projects \u2013 pipelines included \u2013 in half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to advance the goal of cutting aggregate timelines for major infrastructure projects in half,\u201d he states in the memo, with a final goal to \u201cinstitutionalize or expand best practices or process improvements that agencies are already implementing to improve the efficiency of reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scary math<\/p>\n<p>Adding insult to injury, a recent story appearing in The Wall Street Journal explains Keystone XL\u2019s northern half is no longer a priority for refiners, investors or the industry at large.<\/p>\n<p>With a further delay in the cards due to conflicts of interest in the State Department\u2019s environmental review process, it may start to matter less and less for Big Oil as it plans out its other options for getting its product to market going forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cU.S. companies that refine oil increasingly doubt that the controversial Keystone XL pipeline [northern half] will ever be built, and now they don\u2019t particularly care,\u201d explained the Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Enbridge recently proposed an expansion for its Alberta Clipper pipeline (approved by Obama\u2019s State Department in August 2009, now known as \u201cLine 67\u201d) from 450,000 barrels per day to 570,000 barrels per day to theState Department in a November 2012 application.<\/p>\n<p>It upped the ante since the original Clipper expansion application \u2014 a move met with activist opposition \u2014 requested 800,000 barrels of tar sands run through it per day.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s on top of Enbridge\u2019s recently proposed Nationwide Permit 12 \u2013 paralleling what TransCanada did for Keystone XL\u2019s southern half \u2013 set to bring 600,000 barrels per day of tar sands to Cushing, Okla from Pontiac, Ill.<\/p>\n<p>The reaction to pressure against building Keystone XL\u2019s northern half has been \u2013 put simply \u2013 \u201cbuild more and faster.\u201d Simple math and geography shows \u2013 as The Wall Street Journal boasted \u2013 project permitting parameters have tilted more and more in Big Oil\u2019s favor under President Obama\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n<p>With full-throttle expansion of the tar sands described as \u201cgame over for the climate\u201d by now-retired NASA scientist James Hansen \u2014 and with fracked oil and gas found to be dirtier than coal when examined in its entire lifecycle according to a May 2011 Cornell University study \u2014 it makes for scary math indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INVESTIGATION: The Flip Side Of Obama\u2019s Keystone XL Delay By Steve Horn | September 7, 2013 The Republican-controlled House is voting today on a measure that would strip the president\u2019s authority on Keystone XL pipeline approval, allowing Congress to push the project through before completion of the environmental impact study. (Photo\/Matt Wansley via Flickr) While &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2013\/09\/09\/mintpressnews-com-the-flip-side-of-obamas-keystone-xl-delay-even-as-president-obama-cast-a-veneer-of-caution-over-the-keystone-pipelines-northern-half-he-quietly-expedited-dozens\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mintpressnews.com: The Flip Side Of Obama\u2019s Keystone XL Delay:  Even as President Obama cast a veneer of caution over the Keystone pipeline\u2019s northern half, he quietly expedited dozens of similar projects.<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,20,17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-policy","category-fracking","category-keystone-xl","category-tar-sands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4756,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions\/4756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}