The Gulf Coast Pipeline: A Stealthy Step Toward the Completion of the Keystone XL Pipeline Project

• Author: Lindsay M. Nelson
• Position: Juris doctor candidate, Capital University Law School, May 2016. Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies, Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University, May 2013. I would like to thank my roommate, Taylor, and our newest roommate, Bruce. Thank you both for your positive spirit and friendship through this process. I would also like to...
• Pages: 429-460

THE GULF COAST PIPELINE: A STEALTHY STEP

TOWARD THE COMPLETION OF THE KEYSTONE XL

PIPELINE PROJECT

LINDSAY M. NELSON*

I. INTRODUCTION

In every generation, there’s an overwhelming issue that

people may not recognize at the time, but that becomes the

issue that is the measure of what you did. . . . Climate

change is the issue we’ll get measured by as a country and

a generation. If we blow this, it will be because we were

very focused on the short term, on our pocketbooks, and we

had no broader sense of what we were trying to do and what

we were trying to pass on.1

Oil production and transportation significantly contribute to carbon

dioxide emissions and the climate changes that result.2 The United States is

the largest consumer of oil in the world, and almost two-thirds of this oil

Copyright © 2016, Lindsay M. Nelson.

* Juris doctor candidate, Capital University Law School, May 2016. Bachelor of Arts in

Environmental Studies, Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University, May 2013. I

would like to thank my roommate, Taylor, and our newest roommate, Bruce. Thank you both

for your positive spirit and friendship through this process. I would also like to thank my

family for all of their encouragement (and warm meals). And of course, I could not have

written this paper without the knowledge of Professor Dennis Hirsch or the support of the

other members of Capital University Law Review.

1 Ryan Lizza, The President and the Pipeline, NEW YORKER (Sept. 16, 2013),

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/the-president-and-the-pipeline (internal

quotation marks omitted) (quoting environmentalist Tom Steyer).

2 Oil, DAVID SUZUKI FOUND., http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-

change/science/energy/oil (last visited Nov. 11, 2015).

430 CAPITAL UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [44:429

comes from foreign nations.3 Today, Alberta, Canada, is home to the third-

largest crude oil reserve, ranking behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.4

Known as “the most controversial oil deposit in the world,” the oil sands

in Alberta, Canada, are quickly becoming a highly contested political issue

in the United States.5 The Keystone XL Pipeline is a “bullet” pipeline6 that

is proposed to begin in Alberta and connect to existing pipeline segments

spanning the central United States—from Nebraska to Oklahoma—and to

the Gulf Coast Pipeline in the southern United States.7 The Gulf Coast

Pipeline is a 487-mile, $2.3 billion endeavor extending from Cushing,

Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas.8 The purpose of the Gulf Coast Pipeline is

to relieve the concentrated supply of crude oil in places like Oklahoma and

to prepare for the growing supply of domestic oil.9 Its construction began

after the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted approval in 2013,10 and

delivery to crude oil refineries started on January 22, 2014.11 Currently, the

Gulf Coast Pipeline has the capacity to transport 700,000 barrels12 of oil per

day, with the potential to transport as many as 830,000 barrels of oil per day

if construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline moves forward.13

Renowned National Aeronautics and Space Administration climate

scientist James Hansen described the Keystone XL Pipeline as “[a] fuse to

3 Press Release, TransCanada, Gulf Coast Project Begins Delivering Crude Oil to

Nederland, Texas (Jan. 22, 2014), http://transcanada.mwnewsroom.com/Files/95/95a67860-

e86f-428c-b13e-2adf4250d471.pdf; Fossil Fuels: Oil, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOU T

ENERGY, http://needtoknow.nas.edu/energy/energy-sources/fossil-fuels/oil/ (last visited Nov.

11, 2015).

4 Oil Sands, ALBERTA ENERGY, http://www.energy.alberta.ca/ourbusiness/oilsands.asp

(last visited Nov. 11, 2015).

5 Lizza, supra note 1.

6 A bullet pipeline is one “without any intermittent supply or receipt points.” Keystone

Pipeline: Connecting North Americans with Energy, STANTEC.COM, http://www.stantec.com

/our-work/projects/canada-projects/k/keystone-pipeline.html (last visited Oct. 23, 2015).

7 Lizza, supra note 1.

8 See Press Release, TransCanada, supra not e 3.

9 See id.

10 Sierra Club, Inc. v. Bostick, 539 F. App’x 885 (10th Cir. 2013).

11 See Press Release, TransCanada, supra note 3.

12 One barrel of oil equals forty-two gallons. See History of the 42-Gallon Oil Barrel,

AM. OIL & GAS HIST. SOC’Y, http://aoghs.org/transportation/history-of-the-42-gallon-oil-

barrel (last visited Oct. 23, 2015).

13 See Press Release, TransCanada, supra not e 3.

2016] THE GULF COAST PIPELINE 431

the biggest carbon bomb on the planet.”14 Furthermore, in 2011, State

Department officials determined the Keystone XL Pipeline would have

“limited adverse environmental impacts.”15

Although the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline hinges on approval from

the U.S. Department of State,16 the Gulf Coast Pipeline is already quietly

pumping oil from Oklahoma to Texas.17 President Obama holds the ultimate

authority to allow the Keystone XL Pipeline construction to move forward,

and his most recent veto on the bill approving construction18 reflects the

14 Elizabeth McGowan, NASA’s Hansen Explains Decision to Join Keystone Pipeline

Protests, INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS (Aug. 29, 2011), http://insideclimatenews.org/news

/20110826/james-hansen-nasa-climate-change-scientist-keystone-xl-oil-sands-pipeline-

protests-mckibben-white-house. “Thirty years ago, Hansen was among the first scientists to

warn that burning fossil fuels was warming the Earth—and would lead to dire consequences.”

Id.

15 Id. The State Department must comply with federal environmental laws prior to the

construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, one of which includes that the project must have

“limited adverse environmental impacts.” Id.

16 TransCanada, the corporation building the Keystone XL pipeline, must await approval

from the U.S. Department of State becau se the pipeline will cross U.S. international borders.

See id. “The State Department is required to determine whet her the pipeline is in the national

interest.” Michael D. Shear & Coral Davenport, Obama Vetoes Bill Pushing Pipeline

Approval, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 24, 2015), http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/us/politics/as-

expected-obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-pipeline-bill.html.

17 Steven Mufson, Keystone Pipeline’s Southern Leg to Begin Transporting Oil to U.S.

Gulf Coast, WASH. POST (Jan. 21, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/

economy/oil-to-begin-flowing-in-southern-leg-of-keystone-pipeline/2014/01/21/ffe35abc-

82bb-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html.

Since 2011, the proposed Keystone pipeline has emerged as a broader

symbol of the partisan political clash over energy, climate change, and

the economy. . . . The debate began in 2008 . . . [because] the last word

on whether the project will go forward ultimately rests with the president.

Shear & Davenport, supra note 16.

18 Barack Obama, Veto Message to the Senate: S. I, Keystone XL Pipeline App roval Act,

Feb. 24, 2015, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/24/veto-message-

senate-s-1-keystone-xl-pipeline-approval-act.

Through this bill, the United States Congress attempts to circumvent

longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not

building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national

interest.