The Keystone XL Pipeline: Coming to Terms and Demanding the Impossible

La Jicarita

By NICK ESTES

As the mass demonstrations and opposition to the construction of TransCanada’s 1,200-mile Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline project mount, key concern has been paid to the serious environmental and social risks the KXL pipeline poses. The recent State Department publication of the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project (EIS) has raised important objections as to the validity and potential outcomes of the construction or non-construction of KXL. But what is at stake? More importantly, what does the EIS say about the current and future world of oil-dependence? If we take look a close look at the EIS, we can begin to understand that much more than construction of pipelines is at stake if we are to begin to imagine an oil-free future.

The proposed KXL Pipeline’s 1,200-mile route would connect Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, NE. This graphic shows the only…

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