Don’t Let the Pipeline Pass

OpinionsBrigitte Moran & Hannah McCormick — Published October 4, 2011

Parliament Hill saw one of the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian environmental history last Monday—courtesy of those in opposition of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project.

Over 200 protesters risked being arrested by crossing a Royal Canadian Mounted Police fence, and many more stood in solidarity to protest Harper’s support of both the pipeline project and the Alberta tar sands. We were two of those protesters—and we’re writing to tell you why.

Buried underneath the boreal forest of Northern Alberta, the tar sands represent the second largest oil reserve in the world, after that of Saudi Arabia. With a ratio of two tons of sand for one barrel of oil, the extraction process is extremely energy-inefficient.

According to EcoWatchOhio the tar sands use enough water every day to supply 2 million people, and enough energy to warm 6 million homes.

The pipeline, extending across over 3,000 kilometers, would accelerate the transport of crude oil to the United States. The U.S. Gulf Coast, and Texas in particular, has multiple refineries where large amounts of tar sand oil can be processed.

If the Keystone XL pipeline is completed, 700,000 barrels of toxic bitumen will be crossing the Western part of North America on a daily basis.

The environmental repercussions of the tar sands are overwhelming—placing Canada firmly in the top 10 carbon emitters in the world. Tack on the Keystone pipeline and you have an environmental time bomb.

The planned extension of the current pipeline, which has already leaked on multiple occasions, would be passing underneath the soil of multiple states from Alberta to Texas putting aquifers, wilderness, important agriculture land and communities at risk of contamination.

The proposed plan also blatantly disregards treaties and acts that protect National Parks and indigenous communities. On a social level, the pipeline, while claiming to provide jobs for Canadians—especially indigenous workers, is in fact providing temporary contract work that would not be sustained once the pipeline is finished.

While indigenous communities arguably would monetarily benefit from the growth of the tar sands, this is putting under threat their time-honoured ways of life, and potentially endangering their health.

This Monday, Canadians responded to this project by jumping the fence—literally crossing the line and demanding a fair and responsive government.

The protesters want a government that will value the wilderness unique to Western Canada and acknowledge the unsustainable nature of the tar sands.

The tar sands are destructive. This is environmentally and economically true on a global scale. By standing by the Keystone pipeline despite knowing the risks, Harper is showing Canadians that he would rather conspire with oil company lobbyists than listen to the voices of the people he was voted to represent.

Our hope is that sustainability, concerns for our exceptional wilderness and respect for Canadian indigenous peoples will become the focus of a heated debate in Parliament. This, we believe, would force Harper to become accountable for the risks he is taking with our country’s resources and communities.

Energy alternatives are numerous, but they lack political and economic support. Canada has the potential of being at the forefront of the alternative energy movement, but for this to happen, Harper needs to be shown the error of his ways by a vocal and united public.

Although the bigger picture is ridding Canada from a culture of dependence on oil, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline from seeing day is a step in the right direction to halting and reversing the exploita