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Pipeline begins process to enter U.S.
By Bill Hankins
Published February 2, 2009
A Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that, if approved, would eventually work its way through Lamar County on its way to refineries along the Gulf Coast, is in the beginning stages of its application process.
The first stage of the process is getting the right to cross the Canada-U.S. border, and the U.S. State Department has opened the environmental study process and is taking public comments for the next 45 days.
The State Department will prepare an environmental impact statement and hold public meetings relating to the Keystone XL pipeline, part of a system that would carry Canadian crude to Texas refineries.
Keystone, known as TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, has asked for a permit to begin construction, operation and maintenance of facilities at the U.S.-Canada border.
The pipeline would start at Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, and enter the U.S. at Montana’s Port of Morgan.
The State Department first will consider if the pipeline would serve the national interest.
The first leg of the pipeline would be through eastern Montana, South Dakota and end near the Nebraska-Kansas border.
There it would connect to a pipeline to be constructed in 2010 that would end at Cushing, Okla.
From that junction, a pipeline is proposed from Cushing through Texas to the Gulf Coast.
The environmental impact study would include a series of 20 public meetings in Montana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The first meeting is scheduled Monday, Feb. 9, in Beaumont, Texas, and the last Thursday, Feb. 26 in Glasgow and Malta, Mont.
Monday, March 16, is the deadline for written comment.
The Keystone XL project’s first leg would span 2,000 miles, would cross several major rivers and would disturb 20,000 acres of land.
The environmental process also would involve the National Historic Preservation Act, American Indian tribes and state historic organizations.
Along the way, pump stations would be built.
Subsidiaries of TransCanada and ConocoPhillips would own and operate the pipeline system.
The pipeline would be the third to cross Lamar County in the past two years, making six pipeline operations through the county.
MidContinent and Gulf Crossing are in the process of constructing natural gas pipelines through the county.
When completed, the Keystone XL pipeline would transport heavy Canadian crude to refineries through a thinning process that would allow the crude to flow through a 41-inch pipeline.
Proponents have contended the purchase of oil from a friendly nation would reduce American dependence on crude from the Mideast and help reduce prices.
Opponents have said the fuels refined from the heavy crude would cause more air pollution than fuels made from light, sweet crude.
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