{"id":6679,"date":"2012-02-27T19:52:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T01:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=6679"},"modified":"2012-02-29T10:54:05","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T16:54:05","slug":"the-keystone-xl-pipeline-is-coming-to-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/27\/the-keystone-xl-pipeline-is-coming-to-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Keystone XL Pipeline is Coming to Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6691\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline says they will go ahead and build the portion from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries in Texas.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6691\" title=\"4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z-620x408.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z-220x145.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/02\/4566547488_1f1fe01fc8_z.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Flickr user roy.luck\/Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline says they will go ahead and build the portion from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries in Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<h5>David Barer of StateImpact Texas contributed reporting and research for this article.<\/h5>\n<p>Today&#8217;s announcement that Canadian pipeline company TransCanada would <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/02\/27\/us-keystone-idUSTRE81Q1II20120227\">start construction<\/a> on a section of its <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Keystone XL pipeline<\/a> from Cushing, Oklahoma to Texas didn&#8217;t come as a great surprise to those who have been watching the pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since the Obama administration rejected TransCanada&#8217;s original request for a presidential permit to pipe tar sands crude from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas, TransCanada officials have been talking about building out the project incrementally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Quite frankly we need a presidential permit for about 50 feet of pipe. If we weren\u2019t crossing that border than we wouldn\u2019t be having this conversation,&#8221; TransCanada Public Relations representative Jim Prescott told StateImpact Texas earlier this year. &#8220;W<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/17\/defending-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-company-speaks-out\/\">e&#8217;re ready to start putting pipe in the ground<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company says completing this part of the pipeline will help it move a bottleneck of crude oil from Oklahoma to refineries on the Gulf Coast.\u00a0 The full<em><\/em> pipeline project \u2013 which would move crude from Alberta, Canada to Texas \u2013 is being re-submitted for approval at the federal level.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of the pipeline greeted today&#8217;s news with weary resignation.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/14\/this-land-was-your-land-now-its-our-land-keystone-xl-and-eminent-domain\/\">This Land Was Your Land, Now It\u2019s Our Land: Keystone XL and Eminent Domain<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/17\/prosecuting-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-enviromentalists-concerns\/\">Prosecuting the Keystone XL Pipeline: Enviromentalists\u2019 Concerns<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/17\/defending-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-company-speaks-out\/\">Defending the Keystone XL Pipeline: Company Speaks Out<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/24\/farmer-loses-restraining-order-against-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Farmer Loses Restraining Order Against Keystone XL Pipeline<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/07\/Oil-FirstDrillinAustin-Trinity-street-By-Daniel-Reese-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/oil-production-in-texas\/\">Oil Production In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/131643233-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">What is the Keystone XL Pipeline?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;[It is] kind of a sad day today, but not unexpected.&#8221; farmer Julia Trigg Crawford told StateImpact Texas in a telephone interview. Crawford had f<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/16\/keystone-xl-company-goes-to-court-against-farmer\/\">iled a restraining order against the pipeline company<\/a> to stop it from being able to begin construction on her Texas farm.<\/p>\n<p>That restraining order was <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/24\/farmer-loses-restraining-order-against-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">dissolved by a judge on Friday<\/a>, though Crawford does not believe the legal development had anything to do with TransCanada&#8217;s decision to begin building the pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Crawford now looks forward to an April 30th court date where she will <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/20\/the-pipeline-vs-the-farmer-what-happens-next-for-keystone-xl-in-texas\/\">challenge the company&#8217;s status as a &#8220;common carrier,&#8221;<\/a> a legal designation that allows it to <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/14\/this-land-was-your-land-now-its-our-land-keystone-xl-and-eminent-domain\/\">claim land through eminent domain<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Keystone XL project has also faced strong opposition from environmental groups that say the pipeline may damage sensitive areas, and that processing and drilling tar sands crude is more environmentally costly than other forms of crude oil.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The impacts that the pipeline could have on the people of Texas aren&#8217;t going away just because TransCanada is trying to slice and dice its project into two different pieces,&#8221; Kelly Trout, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, told StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Trout anticipated that a &#8220;fierce grassroots resistance&#8221; of the type that mobilized against the full pipeline would &#8220;rise up again&#8221; in opposition to the new plan.<\/p>\n<p>TransCanada spokesperson Robert Jones told StateImpact Texas that he expected the project would be completed by midway through next year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This project already has over 99 percent of the easements and we\u2019ve already awarded construction contracts to proceed with this,&#8221;\u00a0 said Jones. &#8220;We anticipate that we\u2019ll be well under way into construction by midyear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As far as the legal battle between TransCanada and farmer Julia Trigg Crawford is concerned, Jones said, &#8220;in every state there&#8217;s a small percent of landowners we need a process in order to come to a resolution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here is a map of where the Keystone XL would go through Texas:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4612\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 566px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Where the Keystone XL pipeline would go through Texas.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/keystone-map.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4612\" title=\"keystone map\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/keystone-map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"566\" height=\"644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/keystone-map.jpg 566w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/keystone-map-300x341.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/keystone-map-220x250.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Map by the Department of State<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Where the Keystone XL pipeline would go through Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TransCanada announced it will start construction on a section of its Keystone XL pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":6691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[73,21],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6679"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6760,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions\/6760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}