Monday, January 12, 2015

No matter how many battles Canada wins on Keystone, Obama has the last shot


... "The Alberta pipeline company keeps winning battles, but gets farther away from winning the war. That’s because, no matter how many victories it racks up, President Barack Obama has the last shot. All he has to do is avoid saying yes, and the answer is no. And avoidance is something he’s proven good at.
...
" Mr. Obama had repeatedly cited the need to wait for a decision from Nebraska before making a final ruling on it. There is little doubt he will ultimately reject approval – just this week the White House said he would veto a bill approving Keystone if the new Republican-dominated Congress sends him one – but rather than admit his bias he has preferred to hide behind protestations that each new delaying tactic must be allowed to play itself out."
 Political Cartoons by Chip Bok

It is truly hard to find an unbiased source, but we will try here: Keystone XL Pipeline Project: Pros, Cons, and Other Facts
"The Keystone XL project is a proposed plan to construct a 1,179 mile-long crude oil pipeline across the US-Canada international border. The northern leg of the 36-inch wide pipeline plans to connect Hardisty in Alberta to Steele City in Nebraska. The Southern Leg connects Steele City with Port Arthur in Texas. Since the northern leg passes through the international border, it is pending approval from the Department of State of the US Federal Government, since 2008, when TransCanada first proposed it. The Southern Leg of the pipeline became operational in 2014. The Keystone XL project is expected to cost around US $7 billion."

 Keystone
A negative issue that I feel is overemphasized: the tar sands
The pollution caused by extraction of tar oils is thrice that which is caused by conventional oils. Tar oils have routinely been described as the 'dirtiest fuel' that can be used. Also, there are fears that by approving this project, US technology will become almost completely dependent on such polluting energy sources.
The tar sands have and will continue to have been extracted no matter if Keystone is built or not. 

"If the project is not approved, then US will still be dependent on its oil sources in the Middle East. Such transport of oil over long distances will definitely increase carbon footprint, compared to direct piping of oil from Canada.

"It is much safer to transport crude oil by pipelines than by railroads or tankers, where the chances of explosions is higher. The chances of spillage is lesser in pipelines. In more than 80% spills from pipelines, less than 5 barrels of oil were wasted. The Keystone XL project would have one of the safest pipelines equipped with sensors that send data to monitoring satellites every 5 seconds. "

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