Activist try to stop pipeline from Canada to Texas

Truck Hauling 36-Inch Pipe To Build Keystone X...Image via Wikipedia
Guardian:

In an earlier life, David Daniel jumped through fire and performed a motorcycle stunt called the Wheel of Death. For his second act, he picked a fight with a $7bn oil pipeline set to run through Texas.

He is not doing badly for a man taking on big oil in the home of black gold. Growing opposition to a Canadian project to pump crude from tar sands in Alberta across six American states to the Gulf coast could force the Obama administration to reconsider – and possibly delay – the project.

The grassroots rebellion will come to Washington on 9 March, just as the state department is due to decide whether to grant final approval to the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. If it orders additional environmental or safety reviews it would force a delay in the construction start date, now set for the end of the year.

But a delay could also be forced by activists along the proposed pipeline route through Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. About 750 landowners have refused to allow the company, TransCanada Corp, on their land, setting the stage for court battles over compulsory purchase.

It's more than Daniel expected when he began posting "stop the pipeline" signs on roads near his rural east Texas home. "Normally people are so used to pipelines that they don't think twice about it," said Daniel, a carpenter who gave up his life as a stuntman six years ago when he settled on 20 acres near Winnsboro. "Everybody has a pipeline running through their yard, or will have one eventually, so it is kind of the accepted standard," he said. "There is a mindset of apathy."

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Pipelines are not like the gulf blowout. There are shutoff valves all along the route limiting any leakage to a relatively small amount which the pipeline company would be responsible for cleaning up. I do not have any pipelines through my property, but I can see some from it. I get safety notices from the company on a routine basis. I have never had a problem with the pipelines around here. I tend to think they are a better way of transporting oil and gas than ships or tanker trucks.

It is possible that some of the opposition to this particular pipeline may be related to special concerns about the tar sand oil. It is also possible that those holding out are trying to get a better price. That is their right, but they may also incur significant expenses too.
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