WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) -- Industry advocates and environmental groups sparred over the issue of heavy crude shipments as U.S. lawmakers push for an oil sands pipeline from Canada.
Canadian pipeline company TransCanada wants to build a 1,700-mile extension to the Keystone pipeline that would carry oil sands from the Canadian border in Montana to refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
A U.S. House subcommittee on energy this week passed a measure that calls on the government to make a decision on the pipeline by November. The Environmental Protection Agency warned recently the potential for oil to get into the groundwater if a spill were to occur on the extension was "relatively high."
Anthony Swift, an energy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power that heavy crude blends, or diluted bitumen, like those from Canada are more corrosive and inherently more dangerous.
"Pipeline regulators have not assessed the risks of this new product or considered whether new pipeline safety and spill response regulations will be necessary to protect the public and environment," he said in prepared remarks.
Andy Black, president of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, testifying on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, said pipelines have shown improved safety over the years. There was a 59 percent decline in the rate of releases from 2007 to 2009. Corrosion, one of the expressed concerns, as a cause was down 73 percent, he said.
