Dear No Bakken Here activists, Here is our latest update for you, including actions to take this week against the proposed Bakken oil pipeline. What’s included below: 1. Send a written comment to the Iowa Utilities Board (points you may want to cover are reprinted at the bottom of this post.) 2. Contact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – this may be the best way to stop the Bakken pipeline in Iowa 3. Oil Trains: Unsafe (and Unnecessary) at Any Speed, and pipelines are not the answer - by Ralph Nader Send a written comment to the Iowa Utilities Board — Dakota Access will file a request for a permit for the Bakken pipeline toward the end of January, 2015. The Iowa Utilities Board will make its determination sometime after that - probably 3rd quarter of 2015. It will be most effective to file comments before mid-January 2015. The only statutory qualification that has to be met in Iowa prior to the IUB issuing a permit is that the Bakken pipeline project “promotes the public convenience and necessity.” Anything you say that indicates that it will not meet that requirement will be helpful. Attached is a list of points that you can use to help you write your comments. You can submit the same comments to both the IUB and the Army Corps of Engineers, although the Corps of Engineers will be focused mostly on protecting waterways. To file comments with the Iowa Utilities Board (a 3-person board appointed by Governor Branstad): Docket No. HLP-2014-0001 (Be sure to put this on your comment) Mailing Address (regular mail) - recommended as best way to submit comments: Executive Secretary Iowa Utilities Board 1375 East Court Avenue Rm 69 Des Moines, IA 50319-0069 Electronic Filing: (it’s tricky – we think a hardcopy letter is better) https://efs.iowa.gov/efs/ShowBasicSubmit.do Contact the Army Corps of Engineers — Contacting the Army Corps of Engineers at the addresses below is the only way we can get the Federal government to require an environmental impact statement for the Bakken pipeline. The state of Iowa does not require one before issuing a permit. This is the most promising way for us to stop the Bakken crude oil pipeline from crossing Iowa. Rock Island District Regulatory Office Phone: (309) 794-5057 Email: [email protected] Mailing Address (regular mail): U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island ATTN: Regulatory Branch Clock Tower Building P.O. Box 2004 Rock Island, IL 61204-2004 You can submit the same comments to both the IUB and the Army Corps of Engineers, although the Corps of Engineers will be focused mostly on protecting waterways. Oil Trains: Unsafe (and Unnecessary) at Any Speed, and pipelines are not the answer - by Ralph Nader — In the midst of a North American oil boom, oil companies are using fracking and tar sands mining to produce crude in remote areas of the U.S. and Canada. To get the crude to refineries on the coasts the oil industry is ramping up transport by oil trains. In 2008, 9,500 crude oil tank cars moved on US rails. In 2013 the number was more than 400,000! With this rapid growth comes a looming threat to public safety and the environment. No one — not federal regulators or local firefighters — is prepared for oil train derailments, spills and explosions. Unfortunately, the rapid increase in oil trains has already meant many more oil train disasters. Railroads spilled more oil in 2013 than in the previous 40 years combined. Pipelines, such as the Keystone XL, are not the answer either. (Keystone oil would be routed for export to other countries from Gulf ports.) Pipelines can also leak and result in massive damage to the environment as we have seen in the Kalamazoo, MI spill by the Enbridge Corporation. Three years later, $1.2 billion spent, and the “clean up” is still ongoing. Here’s the reality — we don’t need new pipelines and we don’t need oil by rail. This is “extreme oil,” and if we can’t transport it safely, we can and must say no. Read the full article here: counterpunch.org/2014/12/16/oil-trains-unsafe-and-unnecessary-at-any-speed/ Baaken Oil Pipeline Main points for letters to the Iowa Utilities Board 1. Dakota Access LLC must prove to the Iowa Utilities Board that their proposed pipeline “promotes the public convenience and necessity” and meets other Iowa law requirements. For Jefferson County and Iowa residents, the risks of this pipeline far outweigh the rewards. This is not a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 2. The primary risk is that even with stringent, government-enforced manufacturing and safety standards, energy pipelines have a proven history of leaking and rupturing. According to the federal government’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, between 1992 and 2011, there have been over 10,000 energy pipeline incidents costing 384 lives, over $5 billion in property damage, and over 100 million gallons of spilled hazardous liquid. The Keystone I pipeline was designed and constructed with state-of-the-art safety features and was expected to spill no more than once every 7 years. In fact, however, in the first year and one-half of operations, Keystone I spilled at least 14 times, including a 20,000 gallon spill in North Dakota in May 2011. This level of risk indicates that this project does not qualify as a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 3. When asked at the Tuesday, Dec. 3 information meeting in Jefferson County what Dakota Energy’s estimates are for potential spills for the proposed pipeline, VP of Engineering Chuck Fry responded, “We aren’t estimating any leaks with this pipeline,” immediately after which the room broke out into laughter. We are being asked to trust a company with a senior executive who thinks that this is an adequate response to potential leak and spill concerns. This hardly qualifies the project as something that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 4. Dakota Access claims that they are designing the pipeline to never have a leak. But history says otherwise. Dakota Access’s parent, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ETP) is a master limited partnership which owns and operates one of the largest and most diversified portfolios of energy assets in the United States. ETP currently owns and operates approximately 43,000 miles of natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined products, and crude oil pipelines. They own: • A large share of Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE: SXL) • Southern Union Company • Sunoco, Inc. • Panhandle Eastern, which owns Anadarko These companies have a history of many, many spills including a $5 billion settlement with Anadarko in the largest environmental contamination case in American history. This track record does not support claims that this project promotes the public convenience and necessity. 5. The potential damage to rivers and water supplies is enormous. This pipeline is proposed to go under eight Iowa rivers, including the Mississippi, Des Moines and Missouri rivers. At least 667,000 people rely on those rivers for drinking water. A prime example of the danger of crossing rivers with oil pipelines can be seen by the recent Enbridge Kalamazoo spill, which has now exceeded $1 billion in cleanup costs with the cleanup still not finished. This project’s potential hazards could end up generating astronomical cleanup costs, and become a burden on Iowa taxpayers. The IUB should not issue a permit for this pipeline. It does not qualify as a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 6. Dakota Access has not been willing to make a written commitment to that a specific minimum amount of the oil carried by this pipeline will be sold in America. They’ve referred to a current law that no crude oil can be exported out of the USA. The ports that their parent company owns and other similar ports export refined oil products internationally and they are preparing to export crude oil products. Exceptions allowing shipping of crude oil are already being made and the current Congress is already preparing legislation to make it legal to export crude oil products. Iowa is therefore being asked to accept responsibility for supporting transport of crude oil that provides no benefit for our State or the United States. This project will only benefit a limited number of companies who own the pipeline and oil. This is not a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 7. The potential application of eminent domain as it relates to this project is troubling. “Eminent domain” is defined as “the power to take private property for public use by a state, municipality, or private person or corporation authorized to exercise functions of public character, following the payment of just compensation to the owner of that property.” The construction of this oil pipeline by a private company, primarily for the benefit of drillers, distributors, processors and retailers of crude oil and its byproducts, is hardly something that will benefit the greater Iowa public. It is not a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 8.The direct economic benefits of this pipeline for Iowans are modest – the company claims that after construction is completed, it will provide 25 permanent jobs. The potential consequences, on the other hand, are extremely serious. If the IUB gives due weight to the severe damages that result from spills, and how often they occur, the unavoidable conclusion is that this is not a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 9. The Bakken pipeline would transport a light crude oil that is highly explosive compared to typical crude oil. Its chemical composition as well as the unusually high pressure it would exert on the pipeline would make it highly explosive. Having up to 500,000+ barrels per day of such a volatile substance flowing through Iowa does not qualify this project as a project that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 10. Dakota Access claims that the pipeline would be of significant economic benefit to Iowans. Iowa State University economist, David Swenson, believes that company estimates of both permanent and temporary jobs are seriously exaggerated and that tax benefits are likely to be a fraction of those estimated by the company. Dakota Access would have farmers believe that the pipeline will improve rail access for fall grain shipments. But this pipeline is about dramatically increasing the flow of crude oil, not substituting how it is transported, so farmers may not benefit at all. This hardly qualifies this project as one that promotes the public convenience and necessity. 11. In its 2014 report, the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change has affirmed that the world must begin reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and or we will be driven off the climate chaos cliff. Even here in Iowa, all of us, especially farmers, are faced with more frequent droughts and increasingly severe and unpredictable weather that we have never faced before. And it’s only going to get worse if we don’t begin phasing out our dependence on fossil fuels. This pipeline flies in the face of these dire warnings, by facilitating the extraction of even great amounts of Bakken crude oil. In fact, the massive amounts of flaring – burning off of natural gas – done in the Bakken field makes Bakken extraction about twice as carbon polluting as traditional oil extraction. Such a project does not promote the public convenience and necessity. 12. Whatever the claimed economic benefits of this pipeline turn out to be, they will be miniscule compared the enormous costs that could result from even a single spill. That means that this project does not promote the public convenience and necessity. 13. Iowa is a leader in developing renewable, sustainable, green energy technologies. Iowa has the highest state percentage of renewable energy in the U.S.: 27.4%. This pipeline is a giant step backwards for the people of our state It is an assault on our State’s natural resources and an economic sham. It does not, and will not, promote the public convenience and necessity. We encourage you to file an objection letter with the Iowa Utilities Board using the above points as a basis for a letter in your own words. Send your letter to the IUB at this address: IUB Customer Service, 1375 E. Court Avenue, RM 69, Des Moines, IA 50319-0069. INFORMATION TO INCLUDE in your letter to the IUB: • Name of company you are writing about - Dakota Access LLC (an Energy Transfer Company) • Date/Location of Informational Meeting you attended - Jefferson County, Dec 2, 2014 • Docket Number of the proceeding - HLP-2014-0001 • Statement of your objections • Description of the remedy or relief that you seek. If you are proposing an alternate route, please attach map. • Your name and signature, mailing address, phone number and date signed • Your email address • Description of affected property, including Section, Township, Range, and County [if applicable] • Statement of your property interest. E.g., owner, contract purchaser, mortgagor, lessee-tenant, holder of mineral rights, etc. • Are you the party in possession? Yes or No Mail your comments to: Executive Secretary Iowa Utilities Board 1375 East Court Avenue, Room 69 Des Moines, IA 50319-0069
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:40:42 +0000