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Keystone XL is not going to take tar sands off the rails—tar sands isn’t on the rails

The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Is Still a Bad Idea
January 23, 2017 Anthony Swift



Keystone XL is not going to take tar sands off the rails—tar sands isn’t on the rails

The choice between a tar sands pipeline and unregulated crude by rail has always been a false one. Despite what many of Keystone XL’s proponents have claimed, tar sands is not a significant part of the crude by rail boom—it’s difficult and expensive to move thick, heavy tar sands by rail and the companies that first tried to make it work are either struggling or bankrupt.

And Keystone XL’s rejection didn’t cause more crude to go on the rails—in fact, according to the Energy Information Administration, the relatively small shipments of Canadian crude by rail to the Gulf Coast have declined since Keystone XL was rejected.

Even the tar sands industry tacitly admits that rail is not a viable expansion plan – which is why it companies cancelled expansion projects and some even pulled out of the tar sands after Keystone XL’s rejection rather than shift wholesale to rail.

Keystone XL is a pipeline through the United States, not to it

The Keystone XL pipeline was supported by refineries in the Gulf Coast that export the majority of their product internationally.

This was the case in 2015 when the Gulf Coast exported about 3 million barrels of crude oil and refined products—and U.S. exports have only increased since then. In a world where the United States regularly exports over 5 million barrels of crude oil and refined products from its coastal refineries, it time to stop pretending that those same refineries need Canadian tar sands from Keystone XL to provide for U.S. consumers.

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