Pending Victimization: The Future of the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

• In Event: State-Corporate Environmental Crime Victimization

Abstract

The proposed expansion of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline has been an ongoing political debate in the US. If completed, the pipeline would transport an estimated 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta through the northern Great Plains down to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. Tar sands are a form of unconventional petroleum deposits in which heavy crude oil is naturally mixed with sand, clay and water. Due to the energy required to extract and process the oil, the production of tar sands produces three times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventionally produced oil. Within Canada, local communities and especially indigenous populations are already beginning to experience public health and environmental consequences of tar sands extraction through direct exposure and contamination of the local watershed. Expanding the Keystone pipeline will further contribute to climate change, increased asthma and respiratory disease, and more cancer and cardiovascular problems. However, the proposed expansion has been met with growing resistance across the US raising awareness of the environmental consequences. This paper uses Michalowski and Kramer’s (2006) Theoretical Model of State-Corporate Crime to explore the motivation, opportunity and social controls surrounding the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and its potential victims.

Author

• Elizabeth Bradshaw, Central Michigan University