Once again, empirical data loses out to environmentalist rhetoric. Terry Anderson, president of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Mont., and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, lays out the safety data of pipelines versus tankers in this Wall Street Journal piece. Despite what “environmentalists” say, building the Keystone pipeline would protect birds, wildlife, and people.
President Obama’s own State Department answered the comparison question plainly in February. According to the report, pipelines larger than 12 inches in diameter in 2013 spilled more than 910,000 gallons of crude oil and petroleum products—compared with 1.15 million gallons for tank cars, the worst in decades. Comparing total oil spilled makes it appear, at first glance, that pipeline and rail safety records are similar. That’s only until you factor in that pipelines carry nearly 25 times more crude oil and petroleum products.
The State Department report estimates that the Keystone XL carrying 830,000 barrels a day would likely result in 0.46 accidents annually, spilling 518 barrels a year. Under the most optimistic rail-transport scenario for a similar amount of oil, 383 annual spills would occur, spilling 1,335 barrels a year.
The anti-Keystone movement: blinded by rhetoric.
