Keystone XL pipeline won’t benefit American families or the environment

By Emilie Winn 

As a 16-year-old high school student, I am deeply concerned about the long-term effects of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline on my and subsequent generations. This pipeline would transport tar sands 2,000 miles from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Producing synthetic oil from tar sands generates around three times the amount of greenhouse gases as regular oil production. TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline proposal, was ordered by the government to dig up 10 sections of the Keystone I pipeline after testing showed that the steel used was possibly defective. The company plans to use steel from the same manufacturer for the Keystone XL pipeline. In addition, the Keystone I pipeline has seen 12 spills in a single year. The idea of this level of error at a much higher magnitude is horrifying.

One of the most cogent claims made about the proposed pipeline was the number of jobs it would create, which many supporters estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Yet data from the U. S. State Department and TransCanada itself has shown the project would provide up to 6,500 jobs during production and leave only hundreds of permanent jobs. The effect Keystone XL would have on unemployed Americans has been largely fictionalized. For the Keystone I pipeline in South Dakota, a shockingly low 11 percent of construction jobs were taken by South Dakotans. The majority of jobs that such projects create are taken by immigrants willing to do menial labor for low pay. And the vast majority of jobs are temporary.

The second argument that supporters have used regarding Keystone XL is that it will help pave our country’s way to energy independence. There are many problems with this theory, foremost being that Keystone XL is an export pipeline. The majority of the tar will make its way to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, where it will then be shipped to Europe and South America.

I urge you to see through the empty promises made by Keystone XL’s promoters. This pipeline will not benefit our country. The facts speak for themselves. It will ravage the environment, exacerbate climate trends that are already on the brink of irreversibility, and pose a threat to the purity of our water and our health and safety. It is outrageous that those who advocate it claim to be working in the public interest. Clearly, TransCanada and the politicians supporting it believe that calling out “jobs” provides them with an invincible argument.

Let’s not be swayed so easily. Opposing this pipeline is not a matter of putting the environment above struggling American families because it will benefit neither. 

Emilie Winn is a Portland high school student.

 

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