Pipeline XL 4 articles

ExxonMobil last week provided a copy of a metallurgical analysis to federal regulators detailing flaws in its Pegasus pipeline that researchers believe formed the root cause of the March 29 oil spill in Mayflower, Ark. But the oil giant is fighting to keep the information about recent inspections of the 850-mile pipeline out of the public eye, triggering concerns that the 70-year-old tube may have many more oil spills in store for those in its path. According to Fox 16 in Little Rock, “Six weeks before the spill happened ExxonMobil sent a piece of equipment through the line during a ... Read More

ExxonMobil has released information concerning the cause of a March 29 rupture in its Pegasus oil pipeline, which flooded a Mayflower, Ark., neighborhood and surrounding woodlands with more than a million gallons of dense Canadian tar sands oil. According to the oil company, an independent metallurgical analysis of the 70-year-old pipeline determined that original manufacturing defects formed the root cause of its failure. Those defects included small hook cracks near the seam where the breach occurred. “Additional contributing factors include atypical pipe properties, such as extremely low impact toughness and elongation properties across the … seam,” ExxonMobil said in a ... Read More

A new analysis of the hidden costs to society presented by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline estimates the damage to human health, property, the environment, and the climate could easily top $100 billion per year. The new report by Oil Change International comes on the heels of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis prepared for the State Department detailing the serious risks posed by the proposed pipeline, which would move thousands of barrels of highly toxic diluted bitumen (dilbit) oil through the middle U.S. from Canada to the Gulf Coast. The EPA’s sharp criticism of the plan was submitted to ... Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an Environmental Impact assessment of TransCanada’s proposed Keystone Pipeline XL project, sharply criticizing the State Department’s own recent environmental review of the plan. If allowed to proceed, the $7-billion pipeline would transport millions of barrels of highly toxic, viscous tar-sands fuel from Canada across the United States to the Gulf Coast. In its April 22 letter to top State Department officials, the EPA gives a number of reasons for its objection to the pipeline, detailing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the especially toxic and difficult-to-clean nature of the diluted bitumen (dilbit) oil, questions about ... Read More