Letter to County Commissioners re: Keystone XL

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Dear Commissioner,

Scattered out across Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, there are dozens of huge lime green TransCanada trucks, headed our way.   Loaded with pipe and heavy equipment, they weigh over 200,000 pounds each.  They are taking their time as they meander across the country, cutting through Indian reservations and county roads in order to avoid costly weigh stations.  Some are heading for the six Oklahoma counties where the most toxic and dangerous pipeline on earth will be installed.  Some will go straight through to Texas.

TransCanada has gone to great lengths to avoid any potential liability for the havoc they intend to wreak on our counties, our state and our region.

Why didn’t they just run their pipeline across their on country?  Because the people of Canada understood how toxic this tarsand oil really is, and they knew TransCanada’s poor safety record.  The Canadian people said “No”, so they decided to bring their pipeline right down through the middle of Indian country.

You’ve probably been told that TransCanada is going to pay a lot of ad valorem taxes.  The amount of taxes they will pay will be small in comparison to the damage they will do to our roads and bridges,  not to mention our underground water.

You have probably been told that this is just another pipeline.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Tarsand oil is too sluggish to move smoothly through the pipe on it own, so it will be heated.  There has never, in the history of our planet, been a pipeline that big carrying hot oil laced with benzine and arsenic.

I urge you to look at the easements TransCanada pressured your friends and neighbors into signing.  Unless your friends are very wealthy and spent a great deal of money on attorneys, the easements leave TransCanada blame free.  When that pipeline leaks (and it will leak sooner or later) your county, your state and your constituents will be left holding the bag.

Perhaps you think you are off the hook because the pipeline does not come through your county.  That doesn’t mean that TransCanada’s Trojan trucks won’t cut through your county, tearing up your roads and bridges.

I urge you to strictly enforce all existing weight limits on county roads and bridges, and to decrease those limits where appropriate to keep TransCanada’s truck from doing permanent and irreparable damage to our roads and bridges.

I am attaching a link to a brief video where three Texas landowners talk about how TransCanada trespassed on their land and pressured them into signing easements they didn’t want to sign:

Click on the title:  “Texas Landowners Fight Keystone XL Pipeline”

The third speaker on this video is a pipefitter/mechanic/welder named Mike Hawthorne.  Mike explains:

It’s a dangerous pipeline.  This is a tarsand under high pressure and high temperatures, and I know what sandblasting does to metal.  It’s gonna eat is up, and it’s gonna eat it up pretty fast.

This pipeline can leak 1.7 million gallons of tarsand oil per day without triggering any alert system.  Eventually, it will leak into our Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer.

Thank you for your careful consideration of this important matter.

Sincerely,

(Your name goes here)

Address

Phone

 

 

 

Citizens Investigating the Keystone XL Pipeline Route

Community Voices, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Native Americans and other environmentalists are among a coalition which is investigating the route TransCanada intends to take as it cuts a swath across our country.

A member of the Coalition Against Keystone XL Pipeline, Johnny Cole of Guthrie, has provided some very detailed maps and lists which will be very helpful as this effort proceeds.

The first document in the set is 52 pages long.  It can be downloaded and printed, but it has geospatial information imbedded in the PDF.  You can use Adobe 9, Tools, Analysis, or Geospatial Location Tool to read the geographic coordinates at the pointer.  These special attributes that can only be seen online with a special reader such as Adobe Reader 9.

http://oklahoma-contracting.com/Tab%20005-%20Oklahoma.pdf

This second file is much larger and has more detailed info. LARGE FILE!
http://oklahoma-contracting.com/Tab%201-%20Oklahoma.pdf

Coalition member Justin Hayden of Tulsa had trouble being able to see it on his computer at first,  but finally got Adobe Reader 9 working and was glad he took the time to figure it out:

[This larger] PDF is incredible. Includes satellite imagery of each specific area. Thanks so much for sharing this, Johnny. I think this will help tremendously.

I couldn’t find the geospatial tool in Adobe 9 for Ubuntu, but Windows has it (also has it in Adobe X – just click Edit -> Analysis -> Geospatial location tool). This gives the latitude/longitude along any point of the pipeline build route, which might be a good starting point for organizing some kind of direct action.

The third file shows the list of changes TransCanada has agreed to make to the Keystone XL pipeline route.  It shows about thirty changes in Oklahoma.

http://oklahoma-contracting.com/FEISAppendix_W_Route-Changes.pdf

There is lots of valuable information of this list.  For example, it says there is a horse trainer in Hughes County, and the Canadian company is planning to run the pipeline right down through the middle of his pasture.  Our hope is that we can find this landowner before they rip through his land and make sure he understands that this is not another pipeline carrying good ole American oil.  Tar sand oil is the dirtiest oil on the planet.   One leak could be absolutely devastating to someone training horses.  Benzine and arsenic are poisonous to horses and humans alike.  And the landowner is probably not going to know there is an oil leak until a horse dies of benzine or arsenic poisoning.

There is a huge amount of work to be done.  We still need the list of all the archeological sites and historical structures that TransCanada plans to bulldoze straight through.  In Oklahoma alone, there are 93 of these.  If you would like to help, you can join the Coalition Against Keystone XL Pipeline on Facebook or email fannie_bates@yahoo.com

Tantoo Cardinal Joins Lobbying Group Heading Back to D.C. to Fight Keystone XL

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Tantoo Cardinal Joins Lobbying Group Heading Back to D.C. to Fight Keystone XL

Actress Tantoo Cardinal is among a group of Native Americans headed back to D.C. this week to express continuing objections to the Keystone XL pipeline.

We citizens are being led to believe that the digging will stop whenever TransCanada runs into any artifacts suggestive of an archeological find.  However, Mary Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental Network states:

TransCanada found plenty of artifacts in Northern Oklahoma near Ponca City.  The tribes were notified of the finds, but the diggers kept going.

The contingency includes Marty Cobenais, an attorney from the Ogallala Sioux, a Chairman from the Ft. Belknap (MT) tribe, a representative of the Caddo tribe, and a person from the Gulf Coast.

Oklahomans are extremely grateful for the work that Cantoo Cardinal, the Indigenous Environment Network, and the tribes are doing to help us protect our heritage and avoid the pollution associated with the inevitable leakage of this toxic substance.

A previous archeological survey found 88 archeological sites and 34 historic structures located on the Oklahoma route.  Sacrificing the vast majority of these treaures to TransCanada’s greed, our government asked TransCanada to save 17 of the sites and 12 of the structures.  That means there are 29 adjustments from the original route.  Oklahomans have asked the contingency to demand a map of the new route and an archeological survey of the new areas which have added to the route.

Oklahomans are also requesting the list of 71 archeological sites and 22 historical structures that our government is so willing to sacrifice so TransCanada can make a profit.  Groups of citizens will be visiting each of those sites in the next few days and will report back to Oklahoma Citizen.

 

TransCanada Plans to Destroy 71 Archeological Sites and 22 Historical Structures in Oklahoma!

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While the governors of Oklahoma and Texas may have given in to TransCanada and Exxon, millions of Americans continue to stand in solidarity  against the Keystone XL pipeline and the tarsand oil (laced with benzine and arsenic) which it will bring carry across our state.

According to an article by Paighten Harkins in the OU Daily,  the Oklahoma Archeological Survey worked with American Resources Group and Steven W. Carothers and Associates Environmental Consultants to examine the likelihood of the proposed route damaging cultural heritage.  Their results showed that there were 88 archelogical sites and 34 historical structures along the Keystone XL’s Oklahoma route, but the government has decided that it is okay to preserve only 17 of the sites and 12 of the structures.  The government is willing for the remaining 71 archeological sites and 22 historical structures  to be bulldozed.  And for what?  Just what are we getting in exchange?

The oil that will be produced is already promised to other countries.  And the Keystone XL pipeline will actually make the price of gas in Oklahoma go up!

To hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, all Native burial grounds are considered sacred.  Under federal law, they are supposed to be protected.  But will they be?   Would you trust a greedy mogul with your ancestors’ graves?

Obama has opposed the Keystone XL.  The Sierra Club opposes it.  The Indigenous Environmental Network opposes it.  But the moguls and their minions seem determined to bulldoze through our ancestors’ graves, leaving behind a path of arsenic and benzine for our grandchildren to clean up.

This pipeline is specifically designed to carry tarsand oil, the dirtiest oil on the planet.  And for what?  So some Canadian company can sell oil to other countries.

TransCanada has contracted with Tribes in regards to burial mounds.  But what will they do when they come across graves that are not marked?  They should stop digging.  But why should we trust them to protect our interests when they have lied to us from day one.

TransCanada claimed that this pipeline was going to create tens of thousands of new jobs.  A federal government entity has stated that it will create about 2,000 temp jobs.  That is for the entire 1,700 mile project.   The number of those jobs that Oklahomans will get is probably around 35.

But this is not over til it’s over, and the people are still energized and ready to oppose this injustice.  Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental Network is heading back to DC this week to lobby against the Keystone XL along with a representative from the Caddo Nation.

The Indigenous Environmental Network is also working closely with Ms. Julia Trigg Crawford, the Texas rancher who succeeded in getting a restraining order against TransCanada.  It has been established that there are cultural artifacts on her property.

So why did Governor Fallin acquiesce to a foreign mogul?  Oklahoma is getting nothing out of this except for pollution from inevitable leaks.  The last Keystone pipeline has leaked over a dozen times in about a year.  All oil pipelines leak eventually.  Does the governor not understand that fact, or does she just not care?

There are thousands of unmarked graves in Oklahoma and Texas, all sacred to somebody.  Probably not to TransCanada.

The coalition against the Keystone XL continues to activate its warriors.  We are planning an art show – coming soon.  And we will continue to support the land owners who do not want to roll over and let a foreign corporation ruin their soil and their water.  And we will strive for the day when eminent domain will only be used for legitimate government interests – not for foreign corporations who are just passing through to make a quick buck at our expense.

If you want to join the fight to preserve our graves, our archeological sites and our historical structures for future generations, you can join “Occupy Keystone XL Pipeline Route” at Facebook, or contact this writer at fannie_bates@yahoo.com.

The end. 

Note:  Cultural heritage is being defined as “any evidence of previous civilizations, such as burial grounds, remains or artifacts”.

Oklahoma Sierra Club hosts Keystone XL Party

Environment, Events, Politics , , No Comments
Oklahoma Sierra Club hosts Keystone XL Party

The Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club is throwing a party to celebrate our recent success in persuading the administration to stand up against the Keystone XL pipeline.  We will have free food, free non-alcoholic beverages and door prizes. A cash bar will be available.

Who: Everyone’s Invited!  Please bring your friends.

When: Wednesday, February 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Belle Isle Brewery, 50 Penn Place, Oklahoma City

With the Senate currently trying to override the will of the administration using legislative loopholes, and Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe leading the charge, it is more important than ever that we stand together in opposition to this pipeline!

  • Cornell University and numerous independent economists have evaluated the pipeline proposal and assert that the pipeline’s supporters are massively inflating their numbers.
  • The pipeline would put Oklahoma citizens’ health and Oklahoma property owners’ land at risk to benefit a foreign oil company.
  • Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth and this project, if approved, would place our children’s future in jeopardy.

So, join us as we celebrate the administration’s support and stand up to big oil and their many supporters.

Please take a moment to RSVP and let us know you’ll be able to make it!