| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Many say building of Keystone Pipeline now “irrelevant”
Photo courtesy of Bloomberg News
For the last 6 years, ever since Obama has been in office, the words “Keystone XL Pipeline” have been on the lips, and in the plans and thoughts of both conservative and progressive groups, companies, consumers and employees who would benefit from it and environmental groups who claim it would destroy our earth.
It’s no secret Obama nixed Keystone, stating because the proposed pipeline would cross from Canada to the United States it was an international issue and therefore up to the State Department to nix or approve it. Hillary Clinton who was Secretary of State at the time, would not approve the plan presumably under the direction of Obama.
Keystone came up for another Congressional vote two weeks ago. It passed the House with all Republicans on board and even several Democrats. One Democrat who surprised this author by voting “yea” was Sheila Jackson Lee, most probably because she represents Houston where the pipeline would finish before the oil would be shipped out.
However, as predicted it failed to pass in the Senate. Probably most stung was Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu who has claimed for quite some time she could get Keystone passed. Landrieu’s seat is up for a run-off December 6 against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy as neither, according to Louisiana law, garnered 51% of the vote. Either way Landrieu has lost much already. Even if she is re-elected because the Democrats have lost the Senate, Landrieu has lost her seat as chair of the Energy Committee.
But many including oilmen, have said Keystone after 6 years of waiting and failing, doesn’t really matter any more. And it’s really irrelevant as other ways have been found around Keystone. One of the most outspoken is Republican oil mogul Harold Hamm, CEO of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources:
Hamm said his company, which had planned to use Keystone to ship some of its North Dakota crude, is already using other pipelines for half of its oil. And the percentage is growing.
“We’re supporting other pipelines out there, we’re not waiting on Keystone. Nobody is,” said Hamm, a former energy adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, who made a vast fortune as an early investor in North Dakota’s booming Bakken oil shale region. “That thing … needed action on it six years ago. I just think it’s too late and we need to move on.”
Also of the same opinion is Jackie Forrest of Canada’s ARC Financial Corp. who states Canadians have found other ways to get more of its crude to southern U.S. seaports. From the same article:
“Keystone is kind of old news,” Sandy Fielden, director of energy analytics at Austin, Texas-based consulting company RBN Energy, said Nov. 12 in an e-mail. “Producers have moved on and are looking for new capacity from other pipelines.”
Bud Weinstein of the McGuire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University tells us Keystone has become a sort of “rallying point” for environmentalists in their quest for more and bigger donations.
In fact, the Keystone XL has long ceased to have any meaningful relation to the world of oil. Environmentalists are using the pipeline to raise money by hanging out a ‘straw man’ that people can rally against. They have noticed that demonstrations against the Keystone Pipeline generate larger crowds, and raise more money, than demonstrations against the somewhat muddy concept of ‘climate change’ which are usually far less well attended.
It’s pretty ironic the environmentalists are against this pipeline, as there is a myriad of other pipelines crisscrossing the United States. Pipelines are the safest ways to carry oil, much safer than rail and trucks. Who here can remember the last time the Alaska Pipeline blew up?
Yes, in the short term building of the pipeline would have created thousands of jobs, but it’s unclear how many would have remained after its completion. However, pipeline supporters, all is not lost.
So even though we located the blockage long ago, in the long run it appears, at least according to some, it won’t make much of a difference.
Source: http://conservative-outlooks.com/2014/11/30/many-say-building-of-keystone-pipeline-now-irrelevant/
