The arrests of eight college students in Westboro on Monday for protesting the Keystone XL oil pipeline project — part of broader protests around the U.S. and Canada — refocuses attention on vital and difficult questions of how the world will obtain the energy it needs in an environmentally responsible way.
Unfortunately for the protestors, the answers are not as simple as putting an end to the discovery, extraction and transportation of fossil fuels.
The U.S. should continue to fund research into alternative fuels and advanced technologies, but there is no doubt that fossil fuels will retain a primary role in meeting energy needs for years to come.
Portions of the Keystone XL project have been in place for more than two years. The bulk of the remaining controversy centers on environmental concerns over the route of the project’s Phase 4. Originally, it would have crossed the Sand Hills of Nebraska, which sit upon the Ogallala Aquifer, vital for drinking water supply and agricultural needs.
After extensive protests, TransCanada proposed an alternate route that avoids the most environmentally sensitive areas. A recent environmental review concluded the new route poses minimum risks.
The Keystone project’s main purpose is to bring oil from the Athabasca Oil Sands region of Alberta, Canada, to U.S. and foreign markets. By some estimates, the Canadian oil sands contain enough oil to make it the second largest oil reserve in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia.
Extraction of oil from oil sands is a messy and expensive business, but one that has become economically feasible in recent years as demand for oil has increased around the world. It also creates temporary and permanent jobs, and can help the U.S. reduce its dependence on foreign sources of oil. Moreover, transporting the oil by pipeline may well pose less of a risk to the environment than sending it by ocean-going tankers.
These protesters envision a future in which fossil fuels play a smaller role in meeting the world’s energy needs — or perhaps none at all. Their dream is not to be scorned or discounted, for the world needs its visionaries.
But their views must be tempered by practicality and realism. The world cannot meet its appetite for energy — nor, indeed, address global warming — without an adequate supply of energy to harness human ingenuity and fuel the development of cleaner alternatives.