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2100 Miles of Biking and Reporting Along the Keystone I Pipeline

Brief: The summer of 2012 was when I independently designed, funded and executed an international relations, journalism, research project. I cycled and tented over 2100 miles alone along the Keystone 1 pipeline from Illinois (US) to Alberta (Canada), interviewing locals, economists, and workers to write about energy, economic and environmental issues.

Summary:

The main impetus for this project was the Grand Strategy class I took as a senior at Yale. It required a final paper/project over the course of a summer and the professors almost promised funding for students who needed it.

The Keystone XL issue had just inspired a massive protest outside the White House and, being an energy-issues enthusiast, I lit reviewed it. I soon found that there was another pipeline, the Keystone 1 (see map: blue line), that was built..rather quietly. That diff sparked my curiosity and after weeks of research, I designed a project and applied to maybe a dozen fellowships. I had no prior serious athletic, long distance biking or long term camping experiences, but I convinced four fellowships to fund me. My extensive journalism experience at the YDN and YSM along with my extensive energy research experience probably helped.

On the journey, I realized biking 60-100 miles/day, camping, and interviewing to write a research paper while publishing blog posts at Huffington was rather fun, but exhausting. Somewhere along the way, I prioritized biking to the right places in time for the pre-scheduled interviews and gathering information for my final paper, which won the Archilochus Award from Yale’s Grand Strategy program.

Awards/Fellowships: