Did TransCanada Lie?

A judge has halted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas in result of the newest lawsuit that had come out of the Keystone XL debacle. A Texas resident is claiming that TransCanada, the company behind the pipe, lied to Texans when it said it would be using the Keystone XL pipeline to transport crude oil.

The pipeline will be designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast through Texas. Although the pipe requires permission from Obama to cross country lines - which is denied last year, inter-country has begun.

As we reported earlier this month, an appeals court ruled that TransCanada could use eminent- domain law to seize land in Texas to build the Keystone XL pipeline. This left many Texans asking, "What is eminent domain?" They soon realized, however, that it meant the the state could physically take their property and hand it over to TransCanada.

One such resident, Michael Bishop, who had has land taken for the construction of the pipeline, wanted to check the validity of the taking. A Texas judge examined the plea, and ordered TransCanada to temporarily discontinue working on the private property where it has been building part of an oil pipeline for a two-week injunction.

The previous court case ruled that tar sands oil are a form of crude oil, which is a common carrier that pipelines are allowed to use eminent domain to carry. However, tar sands oil does not meet the definition as outlined in Texas and federal statutory codes which define crude oil as “liquid hydrocarbons extracted from the earth at atmospheric temperatures. When tar sands are extracted in Alberta, Canada, the material is almost a solid, and can only be in liquid form when heated and melted down.

TransCanada had not mentioned that the tar sands would be refined. This not only violates the orginal definition, but now environmentalists are concerned that if the pipeline leaks or spill occurs, the heavy tar sands will contaminate water and land - as tar sands are more difficult to clean than is regular crude oil. In addition, refining the product will further air pollution in the Gulf Coast.

Since the onset of the pipeline design, several landowners across the country - not just in Texas - have brought lawsuits to the courts to fight the company’s land condemnations. In the majority of the cases, construction has been allowed to resume despite injunctions held prior. In such cases, the landowner is awarded compensation for their land. Several times, such as for Bishop, the landowners can not afford to hire a comdemnation attorney and are forced to settle.