TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline leaked 210,000 gallons of oil Thursday, gushing the equivalent of ten backyard swimming pools of toxic tar sand oil onto the grassy plains of South Dakota – just miles from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate reservation.
This spill came just days before the Nebraska Public Service Commission will decide the fate of Donald Trump’s pet project, Keystone XL – a proposed expansion of the same pipeline system.
We’re confident Nebraska will make the right decision and reject this project, but no matter what happens on Monday, communities are ready for whatever outcome — and we won’t stop until this project is dead for good. Stay tuned for an announcement from us and next steps.
These pipelines, like all pipelines, are fundamentally and inherently dangerous. They threaten land and water and poison the climate. If Keystone XL is approved, there will undoubtedly be more disasters like this spill. And the climate crisis will hurtle even closer to the tipping point. We must keep tar sands in the ground.
While Big Oil’s leaky pipelines fail, we remain strong and resolute. A coalition of Indigenous peoples, farmers and ranchers along the Keystone XL route have held the line against this project for years. Whatever Nebraska commissioners decide on Monday, we are prepared to stop this pipeline and all fossil fuel developments that threaten people and planet.
We’ve been stopping Keystone XL and TransCanada for the better part of a decade. We will keep stopping them. Last month, TransCanada withdrew its application to build the Energy East tar sands pipeline after thousands of people (including 350.org‘s tar sands team in Canada) successfully pressured the Canadian government to apply a climate test to the project.
This fight goes beyond one project. Resistance to Keystone XL has reshaped the fate of every fossil fuel project. Now, the industry fears the “Keystone-ization” of any proposed fossil fuel project. It’s time to double down.
As the Trump administration attempts to ham-fist the Keystone XL pipeline down the throats of Indigenous peoples, ranchers, and Mother Earth, we say no more.
A better world is possible and deeply necessary right now. Let’s fight for it.
Read our statement from 350.org Executive Director May Boeve.
Tweets:
Keystone pipeline spills 210,000 gallons of oil on eve of key permitting decision https://t.co/6cbn1Z9Hvt
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 16, 2017
Developing: More than 200,000 gallons of oil have spilled out of the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota https://t.co/zk7haIqQ0b
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) November 16, 2017
A total of 210,000 gallons of oil leaked from the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota, according to the pipeline’s operator, TransCanada.
The spill involved the equivalent of about 5,000 barrels of oil. https://t.co/yWHLmf7tVl pic.twitter.com/XAsvivpi1u
— CNN International (@cnni) November 17, 2017