Eye-Catching Designs Made from Recycled Plastic Bottles
waterlust.com / @abamabam
The company sells a range of eco-friendly items like leggings, rash guards, and board shorts that are made using recycled post-consumer plastic bottles. There are currently 16 causes represented by distinct marine-life patterns, from whale shark research and invasive lionfish removal to sockeye salmon monitoring and abalone restoration.
One such organization is Get Inspired, a nonprofit that specializes in ocean restoration and environmental education. Get Inspired founder, marine biologist Nancy Caruso, says supporting on-the-ground efforts is one thing that sets Waterlust apart, like their apparel line that supports Get Inspired abalone restoration programs.
"All of us [conservation partners] are doing something," Caruso said. "We're not putting up exhibits and talking about it — although that is important — we're in the field."
Waterlust not only helps its conservation partners financially so they can continue their important work. It also helps them get the word out about what they're doing, whether that's through social media spotlights, photo and video projects, or the informative note card that comes with each piece of apparel.
"They're doing their part for sure, pushing the information out across all of their channels, and I think that's what makes them so interesting," Caruso said.
And then there are the clothes, which speak for themselves.
Advocate Apparel to Start Conversations About Conservation
waterlust.com / @oceanraysphotography
Waterlust's concept of "advocate apparel" encourages people to see getting dressed every day as an opportunity to not only express their individuality and style, but also to advance the conversation around marine science. By infusing science into clothing, people can visually represent species and ecosystems in need of advocacy — something that, more often than not, leads to a teaching moment.
"When people wear Waterlust gear, it's just a matter of time before somebody asks them about the bright, funky designs," said Waterlust's CEO, Patrick Rynne. "That moment is incredibly special, because it creates an intimate opportunity for the wearer to share what they've learned with another."
The idea for the company came to Rynne when he was a Ph.D. student in marine science.
"I was surrounded by incredible people that were discovering fascinating things but noticed that often their work wasn't reaching the general public in creative and engaging ways," he said. "That seemed like a missed opportunity with big implications."
Waterlust initially focused on conventional media, like film and photography, to promote ocean science, but the team quickly realized engagement on social media didn't translate to action or even knowledge sharing offscreen.
Rynne also saw the "in one ear, out the other" issue in the classroom — if students didn't repeatedly engage with the topics they learned, they'd quickly forget them.
"We decided that if we truly wanted to achieve our goal of bringing science into people's lives and have it stick, it would need to be through a process that is frequently repeated, fun, and functional," Rynne said. "That's when we thought about clothing."
Support Marine Research and Sustainability in Style
To date, Waterlust has sold tens of thousands of pieces of apparel in over 100 countries, and the interactions its products have sparked have had clear implications for furthering science communication.
For Caruso alone, it's led to opportunities to share her abalone restoration methods with communities far and wide.
"It moves my small little world of what I'm doing here in Orange County, California, across the entire globe," she said. "That's one of the beautiful things about our partnership."
Check out all of the different eco-conscious apparel options available from Waterlust to help promote ocean conservation.
Melissa Smith is an avid writer, scuba diver, backpacker, and all-around outdoor enthusiast. She graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in journalism and sustainable studies. Before joining EcoWatch, Melissa worked as the managing editor of Scuba Diving magazine and the communications manager of The Ocean Agency, a non-profit that's featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Chasing Coral.
It could take years before the project finally gets off the ground (if it ever does), as the alternative route includes 63 miles of new pipeline not yet approved by the federal government and plenty of landowners could stand in the way.
As Crystal Rhoades, a commission member, wrote in her dissent: "The route violates the due process of landowners. There are at least 40 landowners along the approved route who may not even know that their land is in this pipeline's path. Since they might not know that they are in the path of the pipeline, they may not have participated in this proceeding."
And you can bet with last week's 210,000-gallon oil spill from the existing Keystone pipeline in South Dakota that many landowners wouldn't be thrilled about the project.
Even TransCanada seemed lukewarm about the commission's decision.
"As a result of today's decision, we will conduct a careful review of the Public Service Commission's ruling while assessing how the decision would impact the cost and schedule of the project," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer.
Even though President Trump has issued a presidential permit for the KXL, it was based on an environmental analysis assuming that the pipeline would follow the route TransCanada preferred, The Hill reported.
A State Department spokesperson told The Hill that the agency "heard about a possible modified route, and we are in the process of gaining more precise information in order to determine if there will be any permitting impacts as a result of those changes."
Many pipeline opponents stressed that the fight is not over.
"TransCanada has to now go back to the drawing board. They'll need new plans, new permits, new agreements with landowners, new assessments, and more," 350.org co-founder Jamie Henn tweeted.
"The decision to re-route the pipeline opens up *tons* of opportunities for legal challenges. To name a few: there was no tribal consultation, proper environmental impact studies haven't been done, landowners weren't consulted, etc." Henn added.
Jane Kleeb, the founder of Bold Nebraska and a prominent anti-KXL activist, tweeted that the Public Service Commission's decision means "years of new review and legal challenges are now on the table."
Today was a victory for everyone working to stop Keystone XL. TransCanada did not get their preferred route which m… https://t.co/kYhSIQ43JD— Jane Fleming Kleeb (@Jane Fleming Kleeb)1511202388.0
Immediately after Monday's announcement, environmental groups and Native American tribes launched a renewed effort to battle the controversial pipeline, including the "Promise to Protect" campaign to make "a concerted stand" against TransCanada's $8 billion project.
Finally, Mother Jones pointed out that TransCanada's biggest challenge might come down to economics:
"When TransCanada originally proposed the route, the energy economy was different. As gas has flooded the market and oil prices have come down, TransCanada has had trouble attracting buyers interested in the heavy viscous oil that is more expensive and energy intensive to extract and refine. The company wants enough customers to fill 90 percent of its capacity before it proceeds. In June, the Wall Street Journal reported the 'oil producers and refiners the pipeline was originally meant to serve aren't interested in it anymore.'"
As Henn noted: "Every bit of uncertainty and every day of delay makes Keystone XL less likely. The economics are already stacked against this project and it's just a matter of time before the last few backers pull out leaving TransCanada all alone."
And that's exactly what she's done around the fight against TransCanada's 1,179-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline, which, if built, would transport a minimum of 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil through Nebraska's heartland every day. As the founder of Bold Nebraska, which has since grown into the multistate Bold Alliance, Kleeb has successfully united Republicans and Democrats, ranchers and native tribes, country folk and city dwellers to battle the oil company's attempts to push its project through. And while the U.S. State Department's March 24 announcement that it was reauthorizing the project certainly dealt a blow to their common cause, the diverse group is not backing down.
"I'll tell you the reason our battle against KXL has been successful so far," said Art Tanderup, one of the farmers whose land is along the pipeline's proposed route. "That reason is Jane Kleeb. She is a great organizer. And she's a cheerleader—she's always out here saying, 'Come on guys, I know we can beat this.'"
For Kleeb, the first goalpost in the KXL fight was building that team to cheer on. Bold's initial meetings took place in early 2010 in the Nebraska Sandhills, home to the precious Ogallala Aquifer, which is threatened by the pipeline. At those meetings, skeptical landowners greeted her with crossed arms and stern faces.
"In the beginning, there was resistance," she remembered. "But I knew that if I kept showing up, and if their peers were always standing with me, we would build a good team and build trust. We've had political disagreements over the past seven years, but we're such a deep-knit community—we cherish each other like family members—that we just don't let that stuff divide us."
Jane Kleeb (third from right) and fellow activists before their meeting with White House officials during a 2014 Reject and Protect rally.Garth Lenz/iLCP
Those tight bonds, in addition to their unwavering persistence, bolstered the Nebraskans' efforts in helping defeat the Keystone XL pipeline in November 2015. Kleeb credited quality time spent together for bringing the group so close―the many late nights sitting around landowners' kitchen tables, the days they braved stormy weather to create crop art, their annual ritual of planting sacred Ponca corn along the pipeline route, and a 2014 trip to Washington, DC, where they camped out on the National Mall and urged President Obama to reject KXL and protect the heartland.
"We have these moments where we're all in it—hands in the soil trying to stop this thing," she said. "That's really important and a lesson for all pipeline fights. If you want to do this, it can't just be a bunch of people in a room writing a plan on paper. You have to be with the people that are directly in the path, because they're the ones we're standing up for and standing with."
Kleeb noted that her four-year-old minivan already has nearly 200,000 miles on it from all the times she's crisscrossed Nebraska to be with the pipeline fighters. And, choking back tears, she said that after every single long night of work or strategizing, a landowner would leave eggs or meat on her passenger seat. "No note, nothing—just one of the farmers or ranchers decided they were going to make sure that I left with some food to take home to my family."
Still, Bold Nebraska doesn't succeed because of personal relationships alone. Kleeb is a seasoned political organizer and strategist—the former executive director of the Young Democrats of America and current chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. She started Bold Nebraska in 2010 as a means to counter the growing force of the state's Tea Party and keep Nebraskans informed about issues that cut across the political spectrum. About two months after she founded the organization, the Keystone XL controversy arose as exactly one of those issues, beginning with a series of phone calls Kleeb received from concerned farmers and ranchers. She and the landowners quickly learned about tar sands—the particularly harmful, dirty crude that would flow under their land and endanger their water supply.
Bold Nebraska supporters gather at the site of a solar and wind powered barn outside Benedict, Nebraska.Mary Anne Andrei/Bold Nebraska
"Jane Kleeb deserves a lot of credit," said Anthony Swift, director of NRDC's Canada Project, who partnered with Bold Nebraska to help make a strong case to the state legislature about the pipeline. "She worked with all of the landowners along the route, and Nebraskans as a whole, to educate them about the risks of the pipeline." Meanwhile, he added, "TransCanada came and told them things that really stretched the truth." The company also rattled landowners who didn't want to sign easement agreements by threatening the use of eminent domain. "Nebraskans can identify a straight-talker; they know when people are not being entirely honest with them. So the juxtaposition between Jane Kleeb and TransCanada was pretty perfect—it made a clear choice for them on who they could trust."
Bold Nebraska's communal efforts and hard work were validated when President Obama rejected the pipeline in 2015. Since then, as the director of Bold Alliance, Kleeb has expanded her pipeline-fighting efforts to other states like Iowa and Louisiana. And back in the Cornhusker State, even without her day-to-day oversight, the fight continues. With the Nebraskan holdouts once again on the front lines, the pipeline route is still unapproved, and they await a final call from the five elected members of Nebraska's Public Service Commission. (The battle is simultaneously playing out in federal court in Montana, where NRDC, Bold Alliance, and partner groups Northern Plains Resource Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club are suing the Trump administration for unlawfully issuing a cross-border permit for the project.)
A series of public hearings were held in the spring, and the Bold Nebraskans will gather in Lincoln from Aug. 7 to 11, many as formal intervenors, to testify anew against the pipeline and raise awareness with a kickoff parade that will feature Harleys, horses and tractors. "We want to show that this unlikely alliance is still here, still fighting," Kleeb said. An official decision on Keystone XL could be made as soon as September.
With the roller-coaster emotions the pipeline has brought so far, how do Kleeb and other Nebraskans keep the faith? "We fundamentally see this as such a wrong project that for us there's no other way to look at it," she said without hesitation. "We have no option but to think that our work will stop this pipeline again."
Although the company had some early takers, many Nebraskans along KXL's proposed route questioned the pipeline's safety, the risks to their water supply, and the legality of TransCanada's tactics. With the help of an organizer named Jane Kleeb, they banded together as Bold Nebraska to forge a unified resistance to Keystone XL.
Still No Approved Route for Keystone XL in Nebraska as Resistance Mounts https://t.co/H3W1kV8gfU #NoKXL @NRDC @IENearth @StandingRockST @350— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1496583162.0
Following years of protest and courtroom battles, a rigorous U.S. State Department environmental review that echoed the concerns of pipeline resisters, and the conflicting decisions of President Obama to reject it and President Trump to later reauthorize it, the bold Nebraskans haven't given up. After all, as Anthony Swift, director of NRDC's Canada project, said, "There's no question that Nebraskans know more than most people how high the stakes are with regard to Keystone XL."
So, on the KXL front lines in the Cornhusker State, it's now up to the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve or deny TransCanada's permits for construction. (The battle is simultaneously playing out in federal court in Montana, where NRDC is suing the Trump administration for unlawfully approving the project.)
Without a route though Nebraska, Keystone XL can't move forward, and landowners are making sure the five-person commission hears their objections. Many testified during public hearings held this spring, and some will return to the podium as registered intervenors in August, when five days of formal arguments will precede an official decision on the pipeline as soon as September.
Below, several of the intervenors share their stories of resistance:
Art and Helen Tanderup: Neligh, Nebraska
It wasn't long after Art and Helen Tanderup retired that TransCanada began trying to claim areas of the couple's 160-acre farm—owned by Helen's family for more than a century—so the company could run its Keystone XL pipeline a mere 600 feet from the Tanderups' house in the state's eastern sandhills and directly over the Ogallala Aquifer, a primary source of water for a vast stretch of the country's agricultural heartland. "We have two kids, and we hope to pass this farm on to them and our grandchildren," Art said. "If this pipeline's here, we don't know what we'll do."
Their land, which is situated along the historic Ponca Trail of Tears, has since become a hub for the KXL resistance in Nebraska. Landowners and Native Americans whose properties and heritage are directly threatened by the pipeline have joined forces here. Together, they've created massive crop art, welcomed supporters for the Harvest the Hope concert (featuring Neil Young and Willie Nelson), and organized the annual sacred Ponca corn planting and harvest.
Part of the battle cry for the pipeline-fighting Tanderups and others has been to "leave tar sands in the ground" and invest instead in renewable energy sources as a means to address global climate change. And the Tanderups have put their money where their mouths are, by installing solar power on their farm and purchasing an electric car, choices they wouldn't have made before learning about the climate impacts of tar sands oil—thanks to TransCanada.
With so much invested in their fight against Keystone XL, the Tanderups remain concerned about Trump's plan to revive the pipeline. Art's message for the president? "I would ask him, as I have before, to come to Nebraska. Come out and visit the landowners on this route. Come out and see the sandhills. Come out and look at the aquifer and see what it does for us. Come out and see how this is going to destroy the livelihood of the heartland of the United States. Come out and see how this is not—this is not—making America great again."
Susan and Bill Dunavan: York, Nebraska
Susan and Bill Dunavan have moved around a lot, living in New York, California and Lesotho, where they spent time as missionaries. So when they landed in York, Nebraska, in 1979, they were looking forward to living in the countryside in a small, quiet place to raise their family.
Susan and Bill Dunavan on their land.Alex Matzke/Bold Nebraska
Things turned out quite differently.
"I didn't realize what kind of trauma we would end up experiencing," Susan said, referring to the nine-year battle they've fought with TransCanada. The Dunavans live on 80 acres of native pastureland, land they've been working on restoring to its natural state for decades—and land through which TransCanada wants to run its KXL pipeline. The Dunavans received their first letter from the oil company in May 2008, and soon after, land agents began stopping by to negotiate easements. All told, they've received seven offers—of just about enough money to buy a used car—and countless letters threatening eminent domain.
"TransCanada didn't treat us very well," Susan said. "I couldn't understand why they were threatening us with eminent domain when they had no authority." (It wasn't until 2015 that TransCanada filed paperwork to exercise this power over the unwilling landowners, a move later nullified with President Obama's pipeline veto.)
Susan talks about the "dirty tricks" TransCanada has employed to get people to sign their land over. She wonders why her state's legislators won't stand up for the citizens they represent and why they'd put the profits of a foreign company above the health and safety of Nebraskans. And if you resist? "They demonize you. They turn you into a radical protester," she said. "What is so radical about wanting to give clean water to our children?"
A devout Catholic, Susan draws strength from her faith as she fights against Keystone XL. "The integrity of creation is being sacrificed for economic gain," she said, invoking the words of an Alberta-based bishop. "The scale and the pace of the development of oil sands cannot be morally justified. It's just wrong."
Tom Genung: Atkinson, Nebraska
For Tom Genung, community is at the heart of the fight against Keystone XL. A member of the Cowboy Indian Alliance—a group of ranchers, farmers and members of tribal communities who have coalesced around their opposition to the pipeline—Tom is quick to honor "the spirits of the indigenous people that lived on these grounds way before we did." He talks often of the "unlikely alliances"—farmers and Native Americans, Republicans and Democrats—that the battle against KXL has created.
Tom Genung sits alongside fellow pipeline opponents during the Nebraska Supreme Court hearing on September 5, 2014.J Grace Young/Bold Nebraska
It wasn't until TransCanada came knocking at Tom's door that he and his wife, Cathie, realized their land in Atkinson was at risk. "We'd never been activists in any sense of the word," Tom said. "Sure, we took interest in things and did our voting and hoped for the best. But when this came along, it got our attention and it became a calling. The most powerful realization for him has been that "a lot of landowners don't feel any different than native people do about honoring the earth—we have a mutual understanding that maybe we didn't know we had prior to getting together."
Going to meetings, distributing educational materials, testifying at hearings, joining protests and chairing the landowner collective Nebraska Easement Action Team has been a lot of hard work and, at times, emotionally draining. But Tom considers the experience a privilege, regardless of the outcome. And he remains optimistic that the local resistance he's helped build will be able to stop Keystone XL once again. "I'm excited to kick TransCanada's ass one more time," he said. "We're having more fun than they are, I'll tell you that."
Larry Wright, Jr.: Lincoln, Nebraska
Under the fluorescent lights of a conference room in York in early May, Larry Wright, Jr., chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, delivered testimony against the Keystone XL pipeline to a panel of PSC members. The next day, near David City, he joined a 273-mile march through the state in commemoration of the Ponca's forced removal 140 years earlier. The remembrance walk followed the Ponca Trail of Tears, the path the tribe was made to traverse from its homeland in Nebraska to a reservation in Oklahoma—a route Keystone XL would cross several times in the northern and central parts of the state.
Larry Wright, Jr. testifies before the Nebraska Public Service Commission against the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, May 4, 2017.Alex Matzke
"The proposed pipeline is going through what we consider cultural and historic traditional lands," said Wright. "Even though we don't physically own those lands today, at one point in our history, that's where our people were. Our people are buried there." Some were willing to die to try and move back home from Oklahoma, Wright adds. "That should say what the land means to us."
In August, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska will serve as an official intervenor in the review process for KXL's permit. Wright said the tribe is particularly sensitive to TransCanada's forceful efforts to use eminent domain. "We know what it's like to have a foreign entity come in and take our land without just compensation. We empathize with those property owners and we stand with them."
As Wright retraced the steps of his ancestors, he reflected on the beauty of his home state and the potential dangers the pipeline would bring. "It's hard to fathom that Nebraska is considering approving this permit, especially when you're out here and you're walking. Hopefully we'll bring a bit of light to that issue."
Nancy and Bob Allpress: Naper, Nebraska
The Allpress homestead, 13 miles southwest of Naper on the South Dakota border, lies at the end of a long dirt road that's unpassable in the rain or snow. Nancy and Bob run cattle and grow corn and alfalfa on these 900 acres, which are a Homestead Act acquisition and owned by Bob's family since 1886. A century and a quarter later, the land entered TransCanada's crosshairs as part of the Keystone XL pipeline route revised in 2012.
Bob and Nancy Allpress on their land near Naper, Nebraska.J Grace Young/Bold Nebraska
"Our family was in consensus that we did not think it was a good thing for us or for Nebraska," Nancy said. "We drew that conclusion way before we were notified of it coming through our land."
The Allpresses are the only family in Keya Paha County that have not signed an easement agreement. Many landowners, without the resources or power to fight the oil company, felt resigned to comply with it, the Allpresses said. "A lot of landowners signed on early out of fear. There were people that signed because they didn't have all the information. And the lure of some money for your land is hard for some people to pass up, especially in these rural communities."
But Nancy also sees a steady resistance to the pipeline among people who are confident that fighting back can make a difference. Local history buoys them: in the 1990s, citizens successfully stopped a nuclear waste dump from making its home in nearby Boyd County.
She, too, remains cautiously optimistic. "You can't come into Nebraska and threaten people with eminent domain. It just doesn't go over. Nebraskans are strong pioneer stock, very proud people and great stewards of the land."
Encouraged by the Obama administration's shelving of the Keystone XL pipeline and its revoked authorization for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on federal lands, activists are now eyeing new battles.
At least 14 new pipeline projects are in the works, carrying both oil and natural gas. These projects involve at least 24 states, adding to the existing 2.5 million miles of energy pipelines in the U.S.—the largest network in the world. Driven by low natural gas prices and the fracking boom, these new pipelines will cross major urban areas as well as important watersheds.
Some of the proposed pipelines being monitored by activists.Oil Change International/E&E Publishing
Supporters say that they supply energy needs for many communities, provide jobs and are safer for oil transport than truck or rail. Take the case of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline expansion. Running from Louisiana through the Southeast all the way to Long Island, New York, the project is an expansion of an existing Transco pipeline operated by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Companies.
Counting branch pipelines, Transco is a 10,200-mile system that can move 10.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The company transports 10 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S., but it was built to move gas mainly from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast.
Now, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania provides lower-cost gas and the Atlantic Sunrise will be reconfigured to move product south. In 2014, 1,370 wells were being drilled in the Marcellus, with high-yield wells using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The Marcellus provides more than 36 percent of the shale gas produced in the U.S.
Williams Companies said that construction of the pipeline expansion in Pennsylvania will create 2,300 jobs for one year, with 15 permanent full-time jobs after that for operation and maintenance. Citing U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics, the company's website states that "pipelines are the safest method for transporting energy." They add that their safety practices include 24/7 monitoring of the pipeline.
But critics aren't convinced. While pipelines are, statistically, far safer than trucks or trains, "When a pipeline does fail, the consequences can be catastrophic," ProPublica said.
On a quiet Thursday evening, six years ago this month, a massive blast shattered the peace of San Bruno, California, as a tower of fire erupted from a natural gas pipeline under the city of 41,000. Whipped by fierce winds, the blaze killed eight people and severely injured 58. It destroyed or damaged 55 homes.
Last month, a federal jury convicted Pacific Gas & Electric of obstructing the investigation and violating pipeline safety laws both before and after the explosion.
From October 2015 to February 2016, the largest methane leak in U.S. history spewed out of a natural gas storage field near Porter Ranch, California, releasing 94,500 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas. The leak sickened thousands and forced the temporary relocation of more than 5,000 households. Methane absorbs heat more effectively than carbon dioxide.
NASA: Porter Ranch Gas Leak Was So Big It Could Be Seen From Space https://t.co/AToTYowaYC @energyaction @tcktcktck— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1466197275.0
"In the first two decades after its release, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide," according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
Southern California agreed to pay $4 million to settle criminal charges but still faces civil actions. In March, the Los Angeles Times found leaks in 229 natural gas storage fields in California, and said that they "are often left untreated for months."
Oil-carrying pipelines may leak or rupture, creating dangerous spills. In 2010, an Enbridge Energy pipeline released 840,000 gallons of heavy tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Oil flowed for 17 hours before the pipeline was shut down. Cleanup costs reached $1.2 billion, making this the most expensive on-shore oil spill in U.S. history.
The company agreed to a $177 million settlement, which also included violations relating to a 269,000 gallon pipeline spill in Illinois. And in 2011, an ExxonMobil pipeline spilled 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, agreeing Wednesday to a $12 million settlement.
Enbridge, the company responsible for the Kalamazoo River spill, is now seeking to pump 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin by expanding its Alberta Clipper pipeline. This facility crosses the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, along with tribal lands including Fond du Lac, Red Lake Nation and Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Enbridge is also behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which threatens the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia.
While the Obama administration has put a stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline, it has permitted two pipelines linking the Permian Basin in Texas with customers in Mexico. Despite the administration's legacy of conservation actions and its role in the historic Paris climate agreement, fossil fuel development continues unabated. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook 2016 projects a 55 percent increase in natural gas production by 2040.
"The currently planned gas production expansion in Appalachia would make meeting U.S. climate goals impossible," states a July 2016 report published by Oil Change International.
Which brings us back to the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. The state is enjoying a boom to the tune of more than $10 billion in pipeline projects. Production from the Marcellus gas wells is outpacing the capacity to bring it to market. That's why the Atlantic Sunrise project is seen as key to the state's economy. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has voiced concerns about the pipeline.
In a June 27 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), EPA Associate Director Jeffrey D. Lapp criticized FERC's draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). "[The] EPA is concerned that the selection of the current preferred alternative may result in significant adverse environmental impacts," the letter states.
The EPA also voiced concerns about "terrestrial resources, including interior forests, aquatic resources, rare, threatened and endangered species."
The rush to build pipelines may soon result in overcapacity. Referring to two competing projects in the Mid-Atlantic, the Atlantic Coast pipeline and the Mountain Valley pipeline, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a report published last week that they would be unnecessary if the Atlantic Sunrise project is completed and a proposed upgrade to an existing Columbia Gas pipeline goes through.
Hundreds of activists, joined by high-profile allies including Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley and Josh Fox, rallied outside the U.S. District Court in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Aug. 24.
Against this background, activists look askance at every new pipeline proposal. Protests have taken place against the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in both Pennsylvania and at FERC's office in Washington. The Sierra Club in Pennsylvania is working to stop the pipeline. Elsewhere in the state, both the EPA and National Park Service have condemned FERC's DEIS for the Penn East pipeline, which would connect the Marcellus Shale to markets in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The proposed Pilgrim Pipeline is under attack in New York and New Jersey by residents and numerous conservation groups. More than 60 towns and cities in the two states have passed resolutions opposing the pipeline, which would carry oil across major groundwater aquifers and two aqueducts feeding New York City's public water supply.
Thousands rally nationwide demanding permanent end to Dakota Access Pipeline https://t.co/ggbnwf6G9Z via @EcoWatch #climate— climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)1473901264.0
Another Williams Company project, the Constitution Pipeline in Pennsylvania and New York, used eminent domain to force its way across private property, cutting down hundreds of trees to make way for the pipeline. The company had the approval of FERC to proceed.
"I think the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley [pipelines] are cued up to be the next hot spots. They have river crossings, and there are such historic grounds of American history—literally land given by George Washington to families during the wars," Bold Alliance President Jane Fleming Kleeb said. As pipeline builders take private property, desecrate sacred Native American land and attack protesters with dogs and mace, angry citizens prepare for future battles.
Sierra Club Natural Resources Defense Council
This week, environmentalists called on the State Department to reopen the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline environmental review process. New information from the Department of Energy, the International Energy Agency, industry analysts and refining executives offers new evidence that Keystone XL will, in fact, directly contribute to increased tar sands development, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and pollution at U.S. refineries, calling into question the original State Department findings.
“Since the close of the comment period, evidence of inaccuracies and bias in the State Department’s review of Keystone XL has been steadily mounting,” says Doug Hayes, Sierra Club attorney. “This new information demonstrates that the review relies on an overly-simplistic, outdated view of a rapidly-changing oil market.”
The new data contradicts three primary conclusions by the State Department:
- Increased rail shipments of crude oil have the potential to completely replace the capacity of Keystone XL if the pipeline were rejected.
- Increasing domestic production of oil will not affect the demand for heavy Canadian crude oil in Gulf Coast refineries.
- Canadian crude will not be exported from the Gulf Coast if the pipeline is built.
“The State Department is alone in its conclusion that the Keystone XL pipeline is not fundamental to the prospects of the dirty tar sands industry,” says Lorne Stockman, research director at Oil Change International and coauthor of the letter. “State needs to take a careful look at the new evidence that we’ve compiled in the past several weeks and they will reach the same conclusion that we do: that the Keystone XL pipeline is crucial to the expansion of the tar sands, and that expansion is not in the public interest.”
President Obama said his administration will weigh the pipeline's impact on the climate and it will be approved only if "this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution." Evidence that Keystone XL is the lynchpin for tar sands development detailed in the letter includes:
- A Goldman Sachs report that says that rail shipments of tar sands could not replace the proposed pipeline logistically and economically.
- Royal Bank of Canada’s estimate that denial of Keystone XL would jeopardize $9.4 billion in tar sand development.
- U.S. EPA estimates that Keystone XL will add 18.7 million metric tons of carbon pollution per year. And a new U.S. government report increases the estimated social cost of this pollution—related to human health, sea level rise and other natural disasters—by as much as double.
“This recent information paints a clear picture,” said Anthony Swift, Natural Resources Defense Council attorney. “The Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline would significantly increase climate emissions while providing few benefits to the United States—it really is an all risk and no reward proposition for the American people.”
According to the groups, the State Department is obliged by federal law to analyze and respond to this new data.
Groups who have signed on to the letter include Bold Nebraska, Center for Biological Diversity, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oil Change International and the Sierra Club.
Visit EcoWatch’s KEYSTONE XL page for more related news on this topic.
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