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 energy independence
etc, That all sound's great on paper, however there seems to be a lot of
fact's that they just conveniently overlook......
Earlier this year Republican's 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. instead 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?
Simple, 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. Obviously the Canadian people are a lot smarter the some of us here in the States...
On top of that refining tar sand's will require 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:
Earlier this year TransCanada, 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 only been moved a little to the west and it still crosses over aquifer and it should be re submitted to the
necessary Environmental review process which FEDERAL LAW requires from the State Department and other
agencies.
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.
Last year and again in the early part of this year, 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. Though 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, , 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's 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 in the first place, but also the health of our
natural resources and the balance of the global climate. The Southern portion of this monstrosity is already here, and with this being an election year combined with political pressure and down right lie's coming from the RighWing nut's out there, That the rest of this pipeline will be approved soon, But i hope to god that it is NOT!!
Let's hope Obama make's the right choice for our nation, we need clean renewable energy, NOT more pollution and destruction!
On i side note The Boreal Forest is an amazing place to visit and it will be a tragic loss if / when it's destroyed by Greed and Corruption!
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!
