Environmental Reviews Ignored The Pollution Potential of Petroleum Coke

Environmental reviews of TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline have so far ignored the pollution potential of petroleum coke, a byproduct of the diluted bitumen that would get carried by the system, a group opposed to fossil fuels said Thursday. 

Oil Change International said in a report that the US State Department has as a result underestimated by at least 13% the greenhouse gas emissions that would be released if the government approves TransCanada's application to build the pipeline. 

Petcoke, a solid residue left behind in the refining process, is used as a feedstock by steel makers and coal-fired power plants. 

"Petcoke is the coal hiding in the tar sands," Lorne Stockman, Oil Change International's research director and author of the report, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. "Petcoke from the tar sands is making coal-fired power generation dirtier and cheaper, and this puts another nail in the coffin of any rational argument for further exploitation of the tar sands." 

The report said the diluted bitumen carried by Keystone XL would supply enough petcoke to fuel five coal-fired power plants emitting 16.6 million mt of carbon dioxide annually. 

Stockman said a ton of petcoke emits more than 3.4 tons of carbon dioxide when burned, or 56% more than conventional coal. 

The State Department is soon expected to release its first environmental review of the project since TransCanada filed a new application last year. 

The White House rejected the first Keystone XL application in January 2012, blaming Congress for imposing an impossible-to-meet 60-day deadline on the process. 

TransCanada's original application envisioned a nearly 1,700-mile system from Alberta's oil sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, but TransCanada has since split it in two. 

The $5.3 billion northern segment would run 850 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, carrying up to 700,000 b/d initially and up to 830,000 b/d after planned pumping upgrades. 

Separately, TransCanada has started construction on the $2.3 billion southern segment, calling it the Gulf Coast Project, which will run from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Nederland, Texas. That section has faced its own delays, including regular demonstrations by pipeline opponents locking themselves to logging machines and trees along the route.