Illinois farmers blocking completion of oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast

In the race to transport oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast, some rural Illinois farmers have become major players. Partnering with Exxon Mobil, the Canadian firm Enbridge is working to finish a pipeline from Alberta to Texas before anyone else does, but those farmers are blocking the 175-mile missing piece, reports Kari Lydersen of The Washington Post (which produced the graphic). The U.S. gets most of its foreign oil from Canada, which shipped in 1,919,000 barrels of oil per day in November, compared to 1,530,000 barrels per day from Saudia Arabia. (For data from the Energy Information Administration, go here.)

"Farmers said they are concerned about a fire along an Enbridge pipeline in Minnesota that killed two welders in November and incidents on Enbridge pipelines in Wisconsin, including a 126,000-gallon spill in February that contaminated the water table," Lydersen writes. "They also worry that the pipeline would interfere with the underground tile drainage system needed to keep their once-swampy land farmable." Some also note that the pipeline is designed for exporting oil to other countries.

Enbridge has offered farmers fair market value — plus fees for crop loss and soil damage —to use a 120-foot wide strip of their land to make way for the 36-inch diameter pipeline. David Sykuta, executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Council, told Lydersen the $350 million project was "absolutely vital" to the nation's oil economy. (Read more)