Canadian company starts Keystone pipeline in Texas

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HOUSTON (AP) — A Canadian company on Wednesday started
delivering oil through the Texas portion of a proposed cross-border
pipeline that has stirred controversy and tension between the United
States and its northern neighbor.
TransCanada said in a statement
on its website that it is delivering oil through the Gulf Coast portion
of its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from a hub in Cushing, Okla., to
Houston-area refineries.
The longer, $7 billion Keystone XL, which
would transport heavy tar sands crude from Canada and oil from North
Dakota’s Bakken shale, requires a permit from President Barack Obama
because it crosses an international border. That segment has not yet
been approved. Obama fast-tracked the shorter, southern portion of the
pipeline with the hope of relieving a bottleneck in Oklahoma.
The
pipeline has been mired in controversy. Opponents and landowners argue
that tar sands oil is heavier and dirtier than other forms of crude,
meaning that any spill would be harder to clean up and that the refining
process will be dirtier.
Texas landowner Julia Trigg Crawford has
been fighting the construction of the pipeline across her family’s
farm. She argues that Calgary-based TransCanada did not have the right
to take her land through eminent domain, and her case is currently in
the Texas Supreme Court.
Furious that the pipeline now snakes
under her land, Crawford vowed in a conference call Wednesday to walk
her farm daily looking for leaks or other problems.
"It’s a very sad day for me," Crawford said.
Crawford
met with other pipeline opponents earlier this month and officials from
the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration to discuss a variety of problems the agency found
while the pipeline was being built. The agency has said the pipeline is
safe and that all problems have been resolved.
But Crawford said
that when she asked whether an agency inspector had looked at the
portion of pipeline on her property, the agency was unable to answer her
question. At the moment, she said, it appears that only TransCanada’s
inspectors have been on her land, which is "like me owning a restaurant
and having the health department inspector on my payroll."
The company planned to hold a news conference later Wednesday.
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