Our country’s dependence on gasoline has significantly increased as a result of the increase in global mobility, which is also responsible for the concept of the installation of the highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline. It’s path is located all the way from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast, the Keystone Pipeline is a 2925 mile oil pipeline system designed to carry numerous barrels of petroleum per day. The Keystone Pipeline carries petroleum from the oil and tar sands which contain oil, located in the Boreal forests in Canada, all the way to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. (Davenport). Furthermore, the oil sands, which contain a type of crude oil are formed by a combination of sand, water, clay, and bitumen. Bitumen is a viscous liquid made of hydrocarbons and is used for gasoline and other petroleum products. Currently, more than half of the pipeline system has been built as Coral Davenport states, “ About half of the system is already built, including a pipeline that runs east from Alberta and south through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska”. The construction of the Keystone Pipeline was evidently an intricate process, as a result, it was divided up into four phases of construction. Throughout the past few years, the first two phases have been successfully finished, while the remaining phases and the Keystone XL are incomplete and have drawn controversy. In 2005, the Keystone Pipeline was first proposed by a company called TransCanada. Subsequently, TransCanada submitted an application to the United States State Department in 2008, inquiring for approval to build the pipeline. The pipeline was commissioned in 2010 as they constructed the first section of the pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Patoka, Illinois. After the first section was completed, TransCanada started Phase 2 and 3a of the Keystone pipeline which extended the pipeline from Steele City, Nebraska to Nederland, Texas and eventually it reached its current endpoint in January, 2014. Even though they have been constructing the Keystone Pipeline for several years, there has not been significant progress. The third phase of the Keystone Pipeline, also known as the Houston Lateral Phase is still under construction and is expected to be completed later this year. Ultimately, the Keystone Pipeline’s main controversy comes from the rejected Keystone XL which is a proposed additional pipeline that would be built from Alberta all the way to Nebraska and would be able to carry 830,000 barrels of petroleum in a day. Although there are drastic disadvantages for installing the Keystone XL pipeline, there are some various benefits. Firstly, the pipeline will …show more content…
Although the pipeline’s construction would create many job opportunities, the majority of them would only be temporary. As stated previously, the Keystone XL project will provide for approximately 42,000 temporary jobs. However, after the expected 2 years of construction, the pipeline is predicted to only support 35 permanent jobs, which is minuscule compared to the amount of temporary jobs. As the construction of the pipeline will contribute approximately 3.4 billion dollars to the United States economy, our country will still have spent much more. The Keystone XL pipeline have increased it’s cost by almost fifty percent. TransCanada says the cost of the pipeline has increased to 8 million dollars, which is significantly more money spent to create the pipeline than it gives to the economy