TransCanada and the Lying corrupt politicians in the U.S, along with all there corporate lobbyist puppet masters, Keep on praising all the great benefits that the Keystone XL Pipeline will bring to America, when it's finished, Job's , lower gas prices oil ienergy endependence etc, That all sound's great on paper, however there seems to be a lot of fact's that they just conveniently overlook......
Republican's recently tried to push an amendment to force the Keystone project through on an important and unrelated transportation bill, if the Keystone XL pipeline has the support they claim it dose than let it stand on it's own or fail !
The XL Pipeline is a dangerous bill For the Environment and for job's it should NOT be passed !!
The only one's that stand to benefit from it are the Oil Company's and their political lapdog's!
I 'm sick of hearing all the lie's and misinformation about how this pipeline will create job's and lower the cost of gasoline at the pump, they know full well that it will NOT!!
Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer,has stated that until this pipeline is constructed, the US will continue to import millions of barrels of oil from the Middle East, Venezuela and other foreign countries who do not share the democratic values of Canadians and Americans........ The fact is even if the XL pipeline was passed today we would still be importing oil from overseas!
Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president for energy and oil pipelines, has said that Keystone would bring many benefits to America including Energy Security,Though when asked by Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts if he could get assurances, "… so that this country realizes all of the energy security benefits your company and others have promised?" Pourbaix replied, "No, I can't do that," ................ So another lie!
Sen. Orrin Hatch a Republican from Utah Has gone on record slamming President Obama, well emphasizing how the XL project would stop America's dependency on foreign oil, create job's and lower price's at the pump, Same old Republican banter, we hear the same kind of ill-informed stupidity coming from Romney, Gingrich and Santorum in regard's to this project. The most repeated Lie being pushed by the Republican party and big Oil is that this pipeline will reduce the U.S.'s dependency on foreign oil. That means that the oil from Canada will be used in the United States in order to reduce our oil imports. and that U.S. manufacturing jobs would be dramatically increased in the building of, and producing of the materials to construct the pipeline. Lie's on top of Lie's!!!
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, introduced a measure that would insure that the tar sands oil and natural gas pumped through the pipeline had to by law stay in the U.S. and that no foreign materials could be used to build it meaning only American iron and steel could be used, and that only American companies and American workers would be involved in its construction and maintenance, thus guaranteeing those promised American jobs, and lower gas prices that the Republican's claim would come from this pipeline, Needless to say It was soundly defeated by Republicans in a 34-64 vote. If Hatch's statement were true, (There Not) then why the objections and defeat of a reasonable guarantee like that?
If the Keystone XL Pipeline is approved it would actually increase the price of gasoline, as well as cut American job's, But i guess that's fine as long as Oil company's, lobbyist's and politician's make a buck, well everyone else suffers!
A report to TransCanada by Purvin and Gertz Inc, stated that the Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally, are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil," and goes on to report, "Access to the via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in by removing this oversupply. This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to the equivalent cost of imported crude," and then goes on to say, "Not only will this directly benefit these shippers, it will also provide a benefit to all heavy crude producers by increasing the price they receive for their crude, as well as providing significant pipeline capacity to an alternative market, that would raise the price of Canadian crude to the equivalent of Middle East/OPEC crude. After all, when the 830.000 barrels a day of that crude pass through the XL pipeline, the price of it will be based on the world market, not the over-supplied local Midwest and Canadian western market. Where is the midwestern oversupply coming from? 546,000 barrels a day are being pumped in North Dakota alone! The only states pumping more are Alaska and Texas, with ND surpassing even California. That crude will eventually be heading to the gulf coast and most likely be exported… through the XL pipeline. At the current rate of increase North Dakota could surpass even Alaskan production.
An HIS CERA report advised: If a minority of the barrels were sold at the Gulf Coast at a Gulf Coast price, that would have the effect of raising the price not only in the Midwest and Ontario but in Western Canada.
Retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson - So seven shippers or seven producers are, in your view, pursuing this strategy in order to increase the Ontario prices. The pipeline will not reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil." It would "…set back our renewable energy efforts for at least two decades!
None of the officials of TransCanada dispute this claim, They even admitted it during hearings before the U.S. Congress last May and December. It should also be noted that a lot of the refineries in the gulf area are in what's called a foreign trade zone, a fact that most American taxpayers are unaware of, This means that Oil company's can and will be exporting oil internationally without paying a dime in U.S. taxes. With the Republican-driven defeat of the stipulation that the crude stays in the U.S., that alternative market would be China and India along with cornering European and Asian countries.
Not to mention that TransCanada is currently trying to pressure American landowner's into taking a deal to lease out there property for as little cost as possible, even resorting threats of legal action and taking the individuals to court in order to force them into taking a deal against there will, Well completely ignoring the landowner's concerns or the damage that would result to the environment and drinking water if / when an accident occurs!
An independent analysis conducted by the University of Nebraska concluded that Keystone XL over a 50-year period is expected to experience 91 significant spills (greater than 50 barrels). In fact, the University of Nebraska study found Keystone XL could spill as much as 6.9 million gallons of raw tar sands crude oil at the Yellowstone River crossing. In just its first year of operation, the first Keystone pipeline operated by TransCanada has spilled 35 times in the United States and Canada in 2010. This spill frequency is 100 times higher than forecast by TransCanada.
Why don't they just build a refinery in Canada, and produce the product themselves. insted of spending 7 + billion building this thing all the way across another country, plus hundreds of thousands in payoff's to Lobbyist Groups, Government official's and Special Interest's?
Simply, it's because the Canadian people don't want it, and because there are higher regulation on the industry up there than there is here in the states.
On top of that refining tar sand's will reqiuaer the use of a huge amount of Water and Energy, We already have all the oil we need....we have alternative energy solutions we could pursue.... The problem is our politicians are far too greedy, bringing in more oil will not make prices go down...
Another important point, the massive amount of water this pipeline will wast, we will have tons of oil AND NO WATER. People don't want to believe we can create drought and famine in this country, and that water is some how an inexhaustible recourse, But we can and will eventually run out, what good will the oil do then!!
The solution to America's energy consumption needs to be resolved, but continuing on a road of self destruction using a fuel source that is not renewable is completely absurd !
Jobs Facts...
TransCanada, claim's that the project should create 20,000 "man years" of new jobs. That could be 10,000 jobs for 2 years, or 5,000 jobs for 4 years, but it is NOT 20,000 jobs for multiple years, it's 20,000 jobs spread out over multiple years. On top of that the vast majority of those jobs will NOT be filled by Americans, they will be filled by Canadians and people from other countries. And that's according to the company building the pipeline.
The US State Department, the lead federal agency on the Keystone project, estimates at most 6,500 temporary jobs will be created. The only independent study, conducted by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute, concludes that it may generate 6-7,000 temporary jobs but no more than 50 permanent jobs when the work is done. Even TransCanada only claims that “hundreds” (their exact term) of permanent jobs will be created by the project.
Pipeline Route:
TransCanada has, at the request of Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Dave Heineman (who called legislators in to a special session on the issue) and agreed to change the proposed rout of the pipeline. The old route crossed over an aquifer that provides ONE THIRD of the irrigation water used in the US. Nebraskans were legitimately concerned about this fact. However this new route has not been subjected to the necessary review process (including but not limited to environmental reviews) which FEDERAL LAW requires from the State Department and other agencies. This will easily take more than a year, which makes it basically impossible for ANYONE to meet the ridiculous 60 day deadline imposed by the GOP. Republicans know this and that’s why their demand is absolutely ridiculous!
During his election campaign in 2008, President Obama spoke about Americas need for a "new energy future," one unencumbered by addiction to foreign oil and marked by investment in "alternative" sources of energy, such as solar power, wind turbines, geothermal power and wave generation. He vowed that, if elected President, he would push strongly for investment in these areas. he reiterated this point again in the powerful State of the Union address that he delivered in 2010.
Throughout his Presidency, he has repeatedly claimed that, although fossil fuels and nuclear power are, in his view, parts of the energy picture for the foreseeable future, that he is still a strong believer in and advocate for the development of energy alternatives, not only in order to decrease America's dependence on foreign oil, and not just because of the enormous potential for jobs and economic growth that investment in the alternative energy sector could provide, but also because of the necessity of reducing, immediately and drastically, the amount of CO2 being added to the atmosphere by the combustion of fossil fuels. Global warming is an urgent problem of global proportions, as he argued during his election campaign, and as he has repeated at times during his presidency. Having American car manufacturers raise fuel efficiency standards is an acknowledgement of the seriousness of the problem and a significant move in the right direction.
That brings me to the Keystone XL pipeline for transporting bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to Texas to be refined.
Bitumen, or "tar," is a viscous, sticky oil-like substance that has been used for centuries as an adhesive and building material, but not as oil, because it is not the same as crude oil. To be burned like oil it first needs to be mixed with lighter hydrocarbons. It is nothing like "light sweet crude," the oil in reserves in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, etc. The process of transforming bitumen into liquid fuel requires energy for steam injection and refining, a process which generates anywhere from two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel of final product as the "production" of conventional oil.
Alberta's "tar sands" contain around 85% of the world's reserves of bitumen, an amount that equals the world's total reserves of conventional crude oil. This kind of resource has only recently become thought of as profitable. It requires huge inputs of energy and water, but as conventional crude becomes more scarce, it will undoubtedly only become more profitable to extract unconventional oil and natural gas.
The reason i mention this is because we have passed the era of peak oil. That is to say, global production of conventional oil has peaked and is now on the decline. We have passed through the era of easy oil - reserves that could be tapped simply by drilling into the ground, and releasing the pressure holding the oil in place - and into the era of difficult oil. This is why we are now drilling for oil 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean, which is what led to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This is why the government of Canada is now so actively pursuing the extraction of oil from the Alberta Tar Sands.
But Canada has no refineries capable of transforming bitumen from the tar sands into usable liquid oil anywhere near where the resource lies, beneath Alberta's boreal forests. (More on that later...) Hence, the Keystone XL pipeline project, to bring the bitumen to the refineries of Texas to be transformed into a product the oil companies can transport and sell.
For months, thousands of Americans of every political persuasion bombarded the White House with demands that the president reject this pipeline, which would carry the oil through the Ogalalla Aquifer, the groundwater resource accessed by eight U.S. states, from South Dakota to Texas, for drinking water. The project has been opposed by Democrat's and a few Republican's, ranchers, farmers and civilians of every kind, as well as many environmental groups. Of course, and the president has also been lobbied intensely by the Canadian government and by oil industry representatives, for this project to go forward.
Many breathed a huge sigh of relief when, a month ago, Obama declared no decision on the pipeline this year. Now, however, it seems that, thanks to pressure from his political opponents in Congress, the issue has been raised from the dead and he must, again, issue a decision on it in the near future.
When considering what decision to make, i hope he keep in mind that this project isn't just about job creation or the economy. Yes, it would create a relatively small number of short-term jobs, and yes, it would increase profits for the oil industry, which some people (Mostly Republican's) suggest somehow benefits everyone else as well. But it would also create, not just temporarily, but in the long term and for the foreseeable future, a drastic increase in greenhouse gas emissions just when we need to be working hard to achieve the exact opposite.
More to the point, approval of this pipeline represents a strong and enduring commitment to the very sources of dirty energy that he forcefully argued against as a presidential candidate.
This is a watershed moment.
If, as many Americans have loudly and clearly demanded, he stand by his promise to veto this project, he will reinforce his commitment to a clean energy future and a definitive move away from reliance on foreign oil.
If, on the other hand, he cave's to the pressure of oil industry lobbyists and misleading republican political calculations, then he risk not just losing the support of Americans concerned about the environment that carried him into office, but also the health of our natural resources and the balance of the global climate.
Let's hope he make's the right choice, we need clean renewable energy, NOT more pollution and destruction!
On i side note the process that they will be using to extract the Tar sands from under Alberta's boreal forests involves clear cutting a large portion of the forest and when all is said and done the aftermath will be a toxic wasteland roughly the size of Florida ...... But hey as long as a few rich oil company's and corrupt politicians can make a few extra dollars i guess the planet is a small price to pay!
