Report: No to Keystone could mean six deaths per year via oil trains

Failing to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline would force more crude oil onto trains, resulting in an average of six additional rail-related deaths per year, according to the State Department’s environmental review.

State released its highly anticipated environmental analysis on Friday, which many are arguing makes a strong case for President Obama to approve the $5.4 billion TransCanada pipeline.

{mosads}The report also spent several pages examining the possible human impact of multiple ways to transport oil.

State’s analysis says Keystone XL would carry 830,000 barrels per day of crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf refineries.

But if Obama denies the project, those barrels of crude “would result in an estimated 49 additional injuries and six additional fatalities for the No Action rail scenarios,” Reuters reports.

If Keystone is built, transporting the crude oil would result in “one additional injury and no fatalities” per year.

The report also states that carrying crude oil by rail would lead to a higher number of spills and larger amount of leakage over time than carrying it by pipeline.

While State’s analysis paints a better picture of pipelines than rail, Bloomberg reports the producers are becoming less reliant on Keystone XL to ease bottlenecks of Canadian crude flowing south.

Producers are using new rail terminals to increase their shipments of oil on trains, said Todd Kepler, an analyst at Cormark Securities Inc. in Calgary.

“I don’t think that a positive Keystone announcement would benefit these players to the same degree now that we thought it would have six to 10 months ago,” Kepler said, according to Bloomberg.