Partisan Support for Keystone XL Says Report

A recent report suggests that public support for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline falls along partisan lines. The Pew Research Center recently found that over 80% of Republicans are in favor of TransCanada’s building the massive pipeline while only a little over half of Democrats are as enthusiastic.

Oklahoma Governor and Republican Mary Fallin has shown her support for the pipeline numerous times, stating that the proposed pipeline would boost the state’s energy sector and create new construction jobs for Oklahomans. Numerous times since President Barak Obama’s 2012 rejection of TransCanada’s application, Governor Fallin has expressed her frustration with the project’s continued delays.

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline has long been a subject of debate since its initial proposal in early 2005. The pipeline would carry synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen from Alberta, Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast of Texas. President Obama has considered the plan for several years, even visiting the Cushing, Okla. oil refinery in March 2012 where he announced his support for the project.

Celia Mata, an environmental sustainability major at the University of Oklahoma, has a long list of reasons why she feels Keystone XL is a bad idea.

“[The Keystone XL pipeline] goes through so many environmentally sensitive areas…These pipelines leak all the time,” says Mata. “The oil coming through that pipeline is from the tar sands. There are so many issues with that oil.”

Risk assessors and environmentalists argue the same, claiming that TransCanada’s worst-case spill assessment is conservative and ignores the historical trend that pipelines transporting diluted bitumen tend to leak more than those carrying conventional crude oil. 

Oklahomans must consider the major environmental and economic impact the pipeline presents as it stretches over 1,100 miles. In the meantime, the US Department of State continues to review the Keystone XL proposal before it will submit the application for Pres. Obama to reconsider.