The energy industry wants to use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor pipelines.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/15501\/tar_sands_drones_are_on_their_way\/<\/a><\/p>\n BY\u00a0COLE STANGLER<\/a><\/p>\n It isn\u2019t all that difficult to imagine a scenario in which hundreds of pipeline drones are actively working to block direct action across the continent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n North American energy companies are planning to use drones to monitor their pipelines\u2014in part to check for potential gas or oil leaks, but also to limit \u201cthird-party intrusions,\u201d a broad range of activity that includes anything from unwanted vehicles entering restricted areas around pipelines to environmental activists.<\/p>\n The Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), a multi-national organization funded by some of the world\u2019s largest pipeline operators like BP, Shell, TransCanada and Enbridge, is leading efforts to research and develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology for pipeline monitoring. The PRCI has been working with the American Petroleum Institute and the Interstate Natural Gas Association on drone research for the last two years, according to PRCI President Cliff Johnson. He says researchers are currently running test flights.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be a more efficient and more cost-effective tool \u2026 than a manned system,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n Today, companies often rely on piloted aircraft for pipeline monitoring. That involves surveillance of the pipeline\u2019s \u201cright of way,\u201d a strip of land surrounding the pipeline whose rights are typically shared by pipeline operators and landowners. In the right of way, which can range from about 25 to 125 feet, companies check for unauthorized vehicles, people and anything else that\u2019s not supposed to be there. Meanwhile, companies engage in additional environmental monitoring to check for potential threats to the integrity of the pipeline, such as leakage.<\/p>\n Drones may ultimately be able to accomplish both of these monitoring tasks more effectively than humans, says Peter Lidiak, pipeline director at the American Petroleum Institute (API). Lidiak believes that pipeline operators will start adopting drones in the next five to 10 years.<\/p>\n These drones will probably be deployed in the United States before taking off in Canada. In 2015, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) will release its regulations for commercial drones, paving the way for thousands of UAVs to enter domestic airspace. Canada, on the other hand, does not yet have any such plans. The country\u2019s FAA equivalent, Transport Canada, does issue licenses for commercial drones, but the existing regulations are\u00a0stringent<\/a>.<\/p>\n But this doesn\u2019t mean Canada will miss out on all the action\u2014especially once multi-nationals like TransCanada, which operate on both sides of the border, start using drones on the American segments of their network.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that Canada and the United States, in terms of energy, are very closely connected, I can\u2019t see but that once the restrictions are lifted in the States, there won\u2019t be pressure to do so in Canada,\u201d says Angela Gendron, a national security expert and senior fellow at Carleton University\u2019s Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies.<\/p>\n The use of drones to monitor pipelines, like any other form of domestic surveillance, raises an array of privacy concerns.<\/p>\n In the eyes of the energy industry, anything entering the pipeline\u2019s right of way is ultimately considered a security threat. The logic behind drone surveillance is focused on making it easier for companies to detect those threats\u2014an ambiguous concept that can refer to animals, vehicles, non-violent protesters, violent protesters or unauthorized developers.<\/p>\n Paul Drover, the executive director of Unmanned Systems Canada, the nation\u2019s top drone lobby, advertises the benefits of pipeline UAVs by pointing out their ability to scan for environmental activists. At the international drone lobby\u2019s\u00a0annual convention in Washington last week<\/a>, Drover told\u00a0In These Times<\/em>\u00a0that aerial surveillance from UAVs would enable pipeline companies to better detect \u201cfolks setting up camp.\u201d When asked if he was referring to activists, Drover replied \u201cthat\u2019s the left side of the arc.\u201d<\/p>\n The API’s Lidiak insists that concerns about environmental activism are not driving industry interest in developing drones. Yet he acknowledges that protesters could be covered as potential intruders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary reason for those monitoring for any kind of intrusion, whether it\u2019s individuals that are potentially protesting or for construction equipment, is really to find out if there\u2019s anyone doing anything on the right of way that might be harmful for the pipeline,\u201d Lidiak says. \u201cThe primary purpose wouldn\u2019t be monitoring for activists. You might be able to detect that activity as a result of doing your patrols, but that\u2019s not the primary reason for any kind of patrolling.\u201d<\/p>\n Angela Gendron, who wrote a December 2010\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0for Canada\u2019s Department of National Defence about the need to protect the nation\u2019s \u201ccritical energy infrastructure,\u201d says that monitoring activists makes a lot of sense from the energy industry\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do get security officers at private-sector energy companies who are very concerned about environmental activists and I can see that they would feel that a UAV sitting up there hovering for 19 hours or whatever [it may be] would be quite useful,\u201d Gendron says. \u201cAs it now stands, they have to rely on police reports and anything else they have on hand to monitor where those activists are going to demonstrate next and so on. Having a UAV up there would be much a more economic measure.\u201d<\/p>\n While the industry appears to only be interested in using drones on completed pipelines for now, UAVs could potentially be used in the future to monitor pipelines under construction. The technology may not be ready today, but if industry enthusiasts are to believed, drones could be a fixture of pipelines 10 to 20 years from now. And with the expansion of the natural gas industry combined with an oil industry eager to link Albertan tar sands to global export markets, pipeline construction doesn\u2019t exactly show signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n As those plans face increased pushback from climate justice activists\u2014whether it\u2019s from radicals in the Great Plains or First Nations groups in western Canada\u2014it isn\u2019t all that difficult to imagine a scenario in which hundreds of pipeline drones are actively working to block direct action across the continent.<\/p>\n Catherine Crump, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, says that \u201cnarrowly-targeted\u201d pipeline monitoring isn\u2019t necessarily problematic in itself, but warns about its potential for abuse. \u201cI think drones raise the prospect that Americans will be subjected to constant aerial surveillance in ways they\u2019ve never experienced before and that poses the possibility of changing our ability to engage in political protest,\u201d Crump says.<\/p>\n