Smith: Pipeline project would hasten climate change in Texas

Planned protests aim to highlight dangers to our environment

Updated 6:50 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013

The damage remains at an oil spill cleanup site, where a pipeline burst in March, in Mayflower, Ark.

The damage remains at an oil spill cleanup site, where a pipeline burst in March, in Mayflower, Ark.

Photo: JACOB SLATON, STR

Smith: Pipeline project would hasten climate change in Texas

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This weekend, thousands of activists worried about climate change are staging nationwide rallies to urge President Barack Obama to reject completion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would support accelerated production of the world's dirtiest fuel, tar sands crude oil.

Rallies to "Draw the Line" at the pipeline have been organized all over the country through the group 350.org, and it's clear that Texans are playing a leading role in the struggle. Activists here are staging at least 10 rallies in four cities.

Houstonians are organizing a mock blockade of the pipeline. Dallas activists are holding a "Remember Mayflower" event to draw attention to the March spill of ExxonMobil's Pegasus line - when 200,000 gallons of oil flooded Mayflower, Ark. A San Antonio rally will be anchored around an immense, pipeline-shaped piñata. Dallas is holding three rallies, Austin three more; Nacogdoches is holding one.

The intensity is owed to the disproportionate effect that climate change has had on Texas and the resulting anxiety among Texans.

In recent years, Texas has received more federal disaster aid because of climate-linked extreme weather than any state in the nation, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress, which reviewed 30 years of state and federal records.

During the 2011-12 fiscal year, Texas received $5.3 billion in federal disaster aid, largely because of drought-induced crop losses, according to the report. The next state on the list, Illinois, received $4.2 billion.

The report also brought up an ironic disconnect: While Texas received more aid for extreme weather events, its congressional delegation includes the most climate-change deniers (18).

Climate change scientists draw a dire picture of the state's future. Temperatures here will increase an average of five degrees by the year 2100. Regions west of Interstate 35 will become hotter and drier, the scientists say, making ranching and farming almost impossible. And east of I-35, torrential rain and sea level rise will become more frequent.

At the same time, Texans living near oil refineries are acutely aware of the immediate impact of carbon pollution. (Organizers of the Houston rally ironically call the city the Fossil Fuel Capital.) Tar sands crude produces at least 14 percent more carbon dioxide than average fuels, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the 830,000 barrels carried daily by the Keystone XL pipeline would end up in Texas Gulf Coast refineries primarily for export.

That would add to the millions of barrels that already come here through two old, repurposed lines - Exxon's Pegasus line, more than 60 years old, and the Seaway line, more than 37 years old, according to corporation websites.

Pegasus has been shut down, following the Mayflower spill. But if it's reopened, the three lines together would bring 1.7 million barrels of tar sands crude into Texas daily. (Public Citizen is among groups organizing statewide hearings on the safety and eminent domain issues presented by the pipeline.)

So it's no wonder that Texans are helping to lead the charge.

To make the point of climate change clear, Dallas' Young Sierrans are meeting at the water-starved Lake Ray Hubbard.

"For Draw the Line, we will show how the drought has affected our area," the group's literature reads. "We'll meet at Lake Ray Hubbard to Draw the Line where the lake level used to be. We'll create signs with messages about our drought and how the Keystone XL would add further devastation to climate chaos."