As the United States continues to play political Ping-Pong with the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian officials and companies are desperately seeking alternatives to get the country’s nearly 200 billion barrels in oil reserves — almost equal to that of Saudi Arabia — to market from landlocked Alberta. Oil companies complain that they are losing revenues from pipeline bottlenecks. So Canada is plunging ahead with plans to build more pipelines of its own. To hasten development of new export routes, the Conservative government is streamlining permit processes by accelerating scheduled hearings and limiting public comment.
The government has also threatened to revoke the charitable status of environmental groups that are challenging the projects. And Public Safety Canada, the equivalent of the United States Department of Homeland Security, has classified environmentalists as a potential source of domestic terrorism, adding them to a list that includes white supremacists.
CONTINUED: http://weaselzippers.us/2012/06/14/as-expected-canada-to-build-replacement-for-keystone-pipeline-to-sell-their-oil-to-china/
Showing posts with label pipeline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pipeline. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Did Buffett Help Obama Kill Keystone Pipeline to Reap Financial Gain?
The Blaze.com
As the nation’s gas prices skyrocket, critics argue that President Obama’s recent rejection of the $7 billion, “shovel-ready” Keystone XL oil pipeline, followed by his continued vow to “double down” on green energy, is a clear sign the administration plans to do little of substance in terms of American oil exploration. The move has also stirred controversy about the president’s real intentions concerning job creation and reducing pain at the pump for everyday Americans.
TransCanada and the Keystone XL oil pipeline
TransCanada filed an application to build the nearly 1,700-mile underground pipeline in 2008 and passed two rigorous State Department reviews. In February 2010, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) granted a permit based on a thorough work up of the project.
“There has been a great deal of work and due diligence leading up to this decision,” said South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Dustin Johnson in an interview with DownStreamToday. “The record compiled in this case is pretty impressive. In the end, I feel the conditions we have placed upon this project ensure that it will be constructed in a manner that is sensitive to South Dakota and her people.”
Another Public Utilities official said he believed “the process by which this application was considered was open, thorough and fair” and Keystone openly pledged to station full-time personnel in South Dakota to respond to any emergency situations that may have arisen, according to the report.
That was apparently not enough for the White House, however, which sent TransCanada and others back to the drawing board in January 2012, citing environmental concerns.
To bypass obstacles created by special interest groups and the Environmental Protection Agency, a March 2012 amendment was introduced in the Senate that would have eliminated the need for a federal permit, while addressing environmentalists’ worries by placing more autonomy in Nebraska’s hands. After a vote, however, the measure was squashed 56 to 42.
If allowed, Keystone would have brought a reported 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. outposts and refineries on the Gulf Coast and created thousands of jobs.
In the wake of Obama’s political maneuvering, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper deemed the U.S. an unreliable energy partner and is thus expanding his country’s crude export. The move will result in Canada eliminating the discount it once afforded the U.S. on its oil products.
The administration’s alleged reason for rejecting the application for the pipeline submitted by Calgary-based TransCanada was said to be based on a “recommendation” by the State Department, which concluded there was not enough time to assess alternate pipeline routes. Yet, as we have pointed out, the pipeline was under review for no less than three years and was approved earlier. In addition, if environmental concerns were truly the catalyst for rejecting the pipeline, why then would the president seem comfortable with operating pollutant-emitting freight trains along a Northern railroad line through the United States?
Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Railroad
What would prompt the president to turn the lights out on what critics argue would have been an environmentally-sound, job-boosting, oil-producing project that would benefit the nation and preserve the financially beneficial Canadian-U.S. oil relationship? What does President Obama have to gain by rejecting Keystone XL and who else stands to benefit from his decision?
It was previously reported on The Blaze that Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC railroad — a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska based Berkshire Hathaway — would be among those poised to reap sizable gains by the administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp’s oil pipeline permit. According to Bloomberg, Berkshire Hathaway completed its roughly $26.4 billion purchase of Burlington Northern, issuing new stock and paying out $15.87 billion in cash.
“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern told Bloomberg. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”
CONTINUED: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-buffett-kill-the-keystone-pipeline-to-reap-financial-gain/
As the nation’s gas prices skyrocket, critics argue that President Obama’s recent rejection of the $7 billion, “shovel-ready” Keystone XL oil pipeline, followed by his continued vow to “double down” on green energy, is a clear sign the administration plans to do little of substance in terms of American oil exploration. The move has also stirred controversy about the president’s real intentions concerning job creation and reducing pain at the pump for everyday Americans.
TransCanada and the Keystone XL oil pipeline
TransCanada filed an application to build the nearly 1,700-mile underground pipeline in 2008 and passed two rigorous State Department reviews. In February 2010, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) granted a permit based on a thorough work up of the project.
“There has been a great deal of work and due diligence leading up to this decision,” said South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Dustin Johnson in an interview with DownStreamToday. “The record compiled in this case is pretty impressive. In the end, I feel the conditions we have placed upon this project ensure that it will be constructed in a manner that is sensitive to South Dakota and her people.”
Another Public Utilities official said he believed “the process by which this application was considered was open, thorough and fair” and Keystone openly pledged to station full-time personnel in South Dakota to respond to any emergency situations that may have arisen, according to the report.
That was apparently not enough for the White House, however, which sent TransCanada and others back to the drawing board in January 2012, citing environmental concerns.
To bypass obstacles created by special interest groups and the Environmental Protection Agency, a March 2012 amendment was introduced in the Senate that would have eliminated the need for a federal permit, while addressing environmentalists’ worries by placing more autonomy in Nebraska’s hands. After a vote, however, the measure was squashed 56 to 42.
If allowed, Keystone would have brought a reported 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. outposts and refineries on the Gulf Coast and created thousands of jobs.
In the wake of Obama’s political maneuvering, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper deemed the U.S. an unreliable energy partner and is thus expanding his country’s crude export. The move will result in Canada eliminating the discount it once afforded the U.S. on its oil products.
The administration’s alleged reason for rejecting the application for the pipeline submitted by Calgary-based TransCanada was said to be based on a “recommendation” by the State Department, which concluded there was not enough time to assess alternate pipeline routes. Yet, as we have pointed out, the pipeline was under review for no less than three years and was approved earlier. In addition, if environmental concerns were truly the catalyst for rejecting the pipeline, why then would the president seem comfortable with operating pollutant-emitting freight trains along a Northern railroad line through the United States?
Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Railroad
What would prompt the president to turn the lights out on what critics argue would have been an environmentally-sound, job-boosting, oil-producing project that would benefit the nation and preserve the financially beneficial Canadian-U.S. oil relationship? What does President Obama have to gain by rejecting Keystone XL and who else stands to benefit from his decision?
It was previously reported on The Blaze that Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC railroad — a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska based Berkshire Hathaway — would be among those poised to reap sizable gains by the administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp’s oil pipeline permit. According to Bloomberg, Berkshire Hathaway completed its roughly $26.4 billion purchase of Burlington Northern, issuing new stock and paying out $15.87 billion in cash.
“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern told Bloomberg. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”
CONTINUED: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-buffett-kill-the-keystone-pipeline-to-reap-financial-gain/
Saturday, March 24, 2012
THE BLAZE: ‘This Is Such a Crock’: Limbaugh Calls Out President for ‘Approving’ the Keystone Deal
During a segment of the Rush Limbaugh show on Thursday, the host took on President Obama for claiming he “approved” the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf. “Obama could not have stopped this leg of the Keystone pipeline if he’d wanted to,” Limbaugh said. “He’s simply there…There’s no other way to say it. He’s just glomming onto it. It‘s like trying to be present when the Ten Commandments are given at the burning bush and claiming you wrote ’em.” Well, that’s not exactly how that story goes, but you get the idea. Limbaugh was amazed that the president would try to position himself as a proponent of oil drilling
CONTINUED: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-is-such-a-crock-limbaugh-calls-out-president-for-approving-the-keystone-deal/
CONTINUED: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-is-such-a-crock-limbaugh-calls-out-president-for-approving-the-keystone-deal/
Friday, February 24, 2012
Message from Congressman Walter B Jones on HR 3408
Last week I voted for H.R. 3408, legislation that would expand oil and gas drilling in the United States, approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil and lower gas prices. The bill passed by a vote of 237 to 187 and now moves to the Senate for further consideration. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has announced its opposition to the provisions in H.R. 3408.
Among other things, H.R. 3408 would:
Thanks,
Walter
Among other things, H.R. 3408 would:
- open up Alaska’s Arctic Refuge (ANWR) for oil and gas exploration;
- require the federal government to issue a permit for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada within 30 days;
- require new oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coasts of Virginia, California and Alaska; and,
- require up to 37.5% of revenues from federal offshore oil and gas leases to be shared with coastal states within 200 miles of the leased land.
Thanks,
Walter
Monday, December 12, 2011
Top 11 Big Government Busts Of 2011: #10
Here is a look at jobs that could have been but were blocked. Here’s the tale of the Keystone XL pipeline. See how this made our Top 11 Big Government Busts of 2011.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Did President Obama Kill Thousands of Jobs?
If Americans needed any further proof that the Obama Administration is one of the most political on record, or that, for all the recent demagoguing, it really cares only about re-election, not about job creation, then you need look no further than its cynical Keystone XL oil pipeline decision last week.
http://www.askheritage.org/did-president-obama-kill-thousands-of-jobs/?utm_source=AH_Weekly&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=2011-11-18&utm_campaign=2011_Brand
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