TransCanada proposal means Bakken Pipeline is new KXL

TransCanada proposes pipeline from Canada to origin spot of controversial Bakken Pipeline

CCI members claim proposal is a stand-in to build alternate route for the Keystone XL Pipeline

Des Moines, IA: TransCanada, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, recently proposed the Upland Pipeline to carry Bakken Crude from Williston, ND, to existing pipeline infrastructure in Canada. The proposal raised suspicions among Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members, who noted that Williston is the place of origin for the proposed Bakken Pipeline in Iowa. 

“TransCanada is claiming they need to transport Bakken Crude to markets in Eastern Canada,” said Nathan Malachowski, community organizer with Iowa CCI. “We know this is just a ruse- TransCanada and Energy Transfer Partners are getting the easements and infrastructure in place to build the equivalent of the Keystone XL Pipeline through our end of the Midwest.”

 Protests on a national scale and the work of grassroots organizations in South Dakota and Nebraska have brought the fate of the Keystone Pipeline into question in recent months. President Obama’s veto of a bill to fast-track the project further solidified the failure of TransCanada’s proposal, and a pending permit refusal from Obama for the project has raised the spirits of pipeline fighters across the country.

“We’ve been overjoyed to see the President take a strong stance against the Keystone Pipeline.” shared Brenda Brink, CCI member of Huxley. “But we need to pay attention to how Big Oil is advancing many tar sands and Bakken crude pipelines throughout the entire Midwest, and see how this infrastructure is connected.” 

While the Upland Pipeline proposal is supposed to bring Bakken Crude northward, oil companies have the power to convert both the direction and content of the pipelines they operate. For this reason, the connection between the Upland Pipeline and the proposed Bakken Pipeline could easily be converted to transport tar sands oil south to the Gulf. Energy Transfer Partners and TransCanada could even negotiate building a new pipeline on the existing easement for the Bakken Pipeline, and they would not need to pursue the hazardous liquid pipeline regulatory process laid out by the Iowa Utilities Board. 

“Big Oil hopes to get their way at the expense of our farmland, our waterways, and our communities” said Dick Lamb, who owns land in the path of the Bakken Pipeline in Boone County. “Iowans are standing against the proposed Bakken Pipeline- it’s time for folks across the United States to pay attention to what is happening in the Midwest and see that the fight against crude oil pipelines is far from over.” 

This development comes as Iowa CCI members and landowners plan to head to the June 6th Tar Sands Resistance March in St. Paul, Minnesota, where folks fighting against pipelines across the Midwest will join together to call for an end to Big Oil’s regional assault on our communities. The march will serve as a launching point for regional organizing against new pipeline proposals.

Iowa CCI is part of a growing number of organizations, landowners, and everyday citizens across the state committed to stopping the proposed Bakken Pipeline under the banner of the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition. Iowa CCI is currently planning community meetings across the state in the counties impacted by the proposed Bakken Pipeline. 

Iowa CCI is a statewide, grassroots people’s action group that uses community organizing to win public policy that puts communities before corporations and people before profits, politics, and polluters. For more information, visit www.iowacci.org.