Below is my letter to Secretary of State John Kerry regarding the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (Northern segment). Feel free to copy and plagiarize as much as you'd like to send him your own version as well, or to cut and paste for crafting your own public comment.
The public comment period ends at midnight on 3/7/14, and you can submit comments at:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=DOS-2014-0003
To submit a comment to Secretary Kerry, you can use this link from the Friends of the Earth website:
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15004
Dear Secretary John Kerry,
I'm writing to urge you to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. The problems with this proposed pipeline are many and varied. As I would hope you understand by now, and as the pipeline rupture in the Arkansas town of Mayflower in 2013 made abundantly clear, dilbit, which the XL would carry if completed, presents major challenges that conventional crude oil does not, both in terms of conveyance, and in terms of remediation, should that become necessary due to ruptures or other possible catastrophes.
Due to these major challenges, TransCanada's recent history does not inspire confidence. Their Bison natural gas pipeline exploded in Wyoming in July of 2011, about 6 months after completion, and 2 months after TransCanada's director of pipeline integrity was quoted in an industry trade journal saying that Bison was built with “state-of-the-art” technology. "They [the pipelines] will be in place for 20 or 30 years before they need any repairs," the director said. When the company's director of pipeline integrity can be that spectacularly wrong, giving them a green light on the XL project seems like courting disaster and asking for trouble.
Behind the many catastrophic examples of TransCanada's incompetence that a quick internet search can reveal, we have the inside information from Evan Vokes, who worked for TransCanada from 2007-2012 in the engineering department that has responsibility for construction standards. Mr. Vokes has spoken out about the company's lack of compliance with industry welding standards, and about how TransCanada's management preferred to try to silence him rather than to work to improve their standards compliance. In light of these revelations, it's not that surprising that the completed Keystone Southern section already has substantial problems, which Public Citizen has compiled in a recent report, available at:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Keystone%20report%20November%202013.pdf
I also instinctively don't trust any project EIS compiled by people who stand to gain substantial income from the approval of that project, any more than I would trust defense contractors to make decisions about war and peace.
Furthermore, recent findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicate that levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions into the air from tar sands operations may be 2 to 3 times higher than industry estimates. The industry's officially-reported emissions for the oil sands area show an emissions density that's lower than just about anywhere else in the world, including Greenland, and such findings insult the intelligence of anyone concerned with industrial pollution. I would trust the word of a man like James Hansen much more than what self-interested and short-sighted petrochemical hacks have to say.
We don't need to endanger our environment simply so that some wealthy Texas refiners can pay less for their raw materials by getting them from Canada instead of Venezuela, and in so doing, encourage greater tar sands development. What's good for a few rich Texas oil barons will not be good for the rest of humanity.
Sincerely,
-Dave Elder
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