This webpage provides a summary of the status of crude oil, refined petroleum product and natural gas pipelines in Illinois, including information on planned but not approved additions and changes as of June 1, 2021.
Facts about Illinois (From Energy Information Administration)
- Illinois is the fifth-largest energy-consuming state in the nation, and its industrial sector, which includes petroleum refining and coal mining, uses the most energy of any end-use sector in the state.
- Illinois ranks fourth in the nation in crude oil refining capacity and leads the Midwest states with a refining capacity of nearly 1 million barrels per calendar day.
Because of the barriers presented by the Great Lakes, and particularly Lake Michigan, a large part of the flows of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas produced in the Canadian tar sands area of Alberta and the Bakken fields of North Dakota is carried south to the Gulf and to the east through pipelines that cross Illinois. Illinois is the home for two large tank farms (in Pontiac/Flanagan and Patoka), and several large refineries. There are many pipelines that carry refined petroleum products to cities and airports inside Illinois and to other states. Illinois also hosts a multitude on interstate and intra state natural gas pipelines as well as underground natural gas storage facilities, some of which leak an astonishing amount of methane into the atmosphere.
Illinois also hosts thousands of oil and gas wells in the south of the state. At this time there is no horizontal drilling for oil and gas in Illinois. The Illinois fracking wells require a network of small collector pipelines to move the oil and gas to collection centers. There are also thousands of injection wells where the contaminated and radioactive waste water by-products of fracking are pumped into the ground. The contaminated water that is pumped into the injection wells mostly comes from Kentucky by truck, as Kentucky regulations are too tight to allow injection wells in that state. Injection wells have been shown to trigger earthquakes in other states but, although the Illinois injection wells are located close to the Madrid fault there have been no reports that they have triggered earthquakes in Illinois yet.
For more information on the current state of pipelines in Illinois, or if you have any news about new activity that you would like included in this write up, please contact:
Richard Stuckey
rjstuckey@aol.com 312-543-5236
Also, check the website for Save Our Illinois Land (SOIL) at saveourillinoisland.org Whare pipeline activity is updated frequently.
The map below shows the crude oil pipelines in Illinois and adjacent states, and oil refineries. (Click here for an interactive version of the map which allows you to click on each pipeline and refinery to see the owner, pipeline name and some basic characteristics. Scale the map to show Illinois. Click on the Layers/Legend tab and delete all layers except crude oil pipelines and Petroleum Refineries)
Many of the most important crude oil pipelines in the country pass through Illinois
Patoka is the focus of many crude oil pipelines, as well as the location for one of the largest tank farms in the country.
The map below shows Petroleum Product Pipelines. These are generally smaller pipelines that distribute gasoline, jet fuel, heating fuel and other refined products to cities and airports from refineries and storage areas. As you can see, there are many more refined product pipelines than there are crude oil pipelines. (Click here for an interactive version of the map which allows you to click on each pipeline to see the owner, pipeline name and some basic characteristic Scale the map to show Illinois. Click on the Layers/Legend tab and delete all layers except Petroleum Product Pipelines and Petroleum Refineries)
The map below shows Interstate (dark blue) and intrastate (light blue) natural gas pipelines. As you can see, there are many more natural gas pipelines than there are other pipelines. (Click here for an interactive version of the map which allows you to click on each pipeline to see the owner, pipeline name and some basic characteristics. Scale the map to show Illinois. Click on the Layers/Legend tab and delete all layers except Interstate and Intrastate Gas pipelines).
There are a number of proposed oil and gas pipeline expansions that would involve Illinois. The map below shows some of them. Click here to see an interactive version of the map. However, you will need to select pipeline proposals that involve Illinois from the Layers list Descriptions of the projects from this source are not very specific. None of these proposed new pipeline projects are known to be active at this time. However, TC has announced that it will seek to double the capacity of the Keystone pipeline extension that goes from Oklahoma to Patoka. Dakota Access/Energy Transfer Crude Oil is in the process of doubling the capacity f their pipelines which as been approved in all states that the pipelines pass through. Approval granted by the Illinois Commerce Commission is being appealed in the 4th Circuit court of appeals in Springfield by Sierra Club, NRDC and SOIL.
EIA provides databases of Liquid Pipeline Projects and Natural Gas Pipeline Projects but they do not appear to be updated frequently. Both these databases can be accessed from this link.
Pipeline approval processes
Natural Gas pipelines are permitted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The process for getting approval is outlined here. There are several points in the process when public input is accepted, but the process of intervening in a FERC application for a new natural gas pipeline is very legalistic and expensive so only the largest and best funded environmental or community organizations can get involved. The process follows the rules of evidence and requires attorneys to prepare written briefs and present expert witnesses. The results are invariably to rubber stamp a project request. In fact, FERC has never refused to approve a project that has gone through their secretive private precedent review process, so few organizations even bother to intervene. FERC approval authorizes the pipeline company to use eminent domain to acquire easement rights from landowners in all states that the pipeline will cross. Historically, FERC has taken the narrowest possible view of its obligations to protect the public. It has never considered the impact of the pipelines it approves on the climate. It does not consider the risk of damage to the environment or communities that the pipelines pass through from leaks, bursts or explosions. It views each application as a stand-alone project and does not consider the cumulative impact of multiple projects in an area on the health and safety of communities, particularly environmental justice communities along a pipeline route. There is some indication that FERC might expand the scope of its enquiries to consider environmental impact of pipelines and reconsider their impact on environmental justice communities, but such changes are in an early stage of consideration. Click here for a useful overview of the issues involved for pipeline companies to deal with FERC.
FERC approval may include the requirement for the US Army Corps of Engineers to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the pipeline, but the rules of Nationwide Permit 12 allow them to ignore all impact other than for major water crossings. No one looks at the total impact of a pipeline project. Other laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Air Act may also be involved.
Crude oil and petroleum product pipeline permitting is very decentralized. There is no organization with the powers of FERC than approves interstate crude oil or petroleum product pipelines. Each state has its own organization for approving pipelines and the procedures differ significantly by state. In Illinois the Illinois Commerce Commission is the supervising authority for crude oil pipelines. The process is similar to that of FERC in that it is very legalistic, follows the rules of evidence, is very difficult and expensive for the general public to intervene. The process strongly favors the pipeline companies, so most applications are approved with little impact from public comments. Individual comments posted by the public are largely disregarded by the ICC, using the excuse that the members of the public who post comments are not available to be cross examined. The ICC has chosen to ignore safety considerations, using the excuse that safety regulation is the responsibility of a Federal organization (PHMSA). However, there is no reason why the ICC cannot consider community safety without trespassing on the responsibilities of PHMSA. The ICC also has a process similar to the FERC for private consultation where companies can meet and discuss projects with ICC staff long before the general public is aware that a project is under consideration. For a discussion of the difficulties the public experiences when dealing with the ICC, see The Dakota Access Pipeline in Illinois: Participation, power, and institutional design in United States critical energy infrastructure governance, written by McKenzie F. Johnson *, Anna G. Sveinsd´ottir, Emily L. Guske of Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contact McKenzie Johnson (mfj4@illinois.edu) or Anna Gudbjort Sveinsdottir <annags@illinois.edu> for a full version of the article. The same team is writing another article on the experiences of intervenors in the petition to double the capacity of the Dakota Access and Energy Transfer Crude Oil pipelines.