EEIA: Biden’s KXL carbon footprint

An analysis by the energy supply chain group, Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), does the maths about what not completing the Keystone XL pipeline would mean for carbon emissions. Here’s how the CO₂ numbers are calculated.

According to the Association of American Railroads, it requires 433 gal. of locomotive diesel fuel to pull one loaded crude oil tank car from the Canadian Oil Sands to the US Gulf Coast, about 2200 miles. It takes another 144 gal. to bring the empty tank car back for a refill. That’s 577 gal. in total.

• It takes 645 loaded tank cars per day to transport the amount of oil that Keystone XL might have carried – about 400 000 bpd. That’s 235 425 tank car loads per year. Multiplied by 577 gal.each, that amounts to about 136 million gal. of diesel burned per year.
• Since each gallon of diesel emits 22.44 lb of CO₂, that means the locomotives pulling those trains will emit over 1.5 million t of CO₂. That’s all net addition to CO₂ emissions since Keystone XL would have been powered entirely by renewable energy.
• 1.5 million t of CO₂ is equivalent to emissions of 490 000 more cars on the road.

“In the real world, Canadian oil will still travel from Alberta, Canada to US refineries on the Gulf Coast, but by railroad. We know that jobs will be lost. The Administration said the pipeline was cancelled to help the environment, so we ask the questions, ‘What is the real impact on our carbon footprint? What’s the impact on overall CO₂ levels?’

“It’s clear that politics, not a commitment to the environment, dictated the Biden Administration’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Toby Mack, EEIA’s CEO.

EEIA is a non-profit organisation representing people and businesses who work in the energy supply chain. EEIA's member companies and their workers provide construction, equipment, materials, and services essential to building the infrastructure necessary to produce and deliver America's energy. The energy supply chain’s more than 60 industry sectors provide over a million good jobs and have a massive economic footprint throughout all of America’s 50 states.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/04022021/eeia-bidens-kxl-carbon-footprint/