Comment EI-32158
Received or sent (printed as 9/2/2022)
Noise abatement is not the primary environmental concern, as stated in the advance EIS draft by the STB; rather, it should relate to the transport of tar sands from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. For the tar sands industry to succeed, EXTREME EFFICIENCY of transport is needed to make this industry competitive with other sources of energy. The Keystone XL pipeline failed in a manner similar to the failure of coal slurry pipelines in the past, where the railroads provided a more competitive and environmentally friendly service; but the merger of KCS and CP will provide a MONOPOLISTIC RAILROAD VERSION of the Keystone XL pipeline, using a NEW TECHNOLOGY to efficiently extract the diluent at the destination, returning it to Alberta for reuse-- a service pipelines cannot provide. Further, the atmospheric carbon and heavy metals produced by the tar sands industry, facilitated by this new technology, will be many times more destructive to the environment than currently possible from energy production, in general. All this is occurring at a time when global warming requires EVERY EFFORT to be made to limit atmospheric carbon as a greenhouse gas driving global warming to the destruction of the environment for all life-- to say nothing of the threat to, aquifers and rivers-- particularly, the Mississippi River, where contiguous derailments are almost certain to occur in the future. Money is driving this merger, when in all reality conscience should be the deciding factor. I know this in my own life, because as a former KCS employee I will not sign over my held stock to the CP. I will not "touch pen to paper" to profit from this merger!
Submitted by: Richard McBroom · Kansas City, MO
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-36500/comment/EI-32158 · back to the docket sheet