Obama Rejects Keystone
Prince George, B.C.- U.S. President Obama has announced his government is rejecting the construction of the proposed "Keystone XL" pipeline that would have carried bitumen from Alberta to refineries in the southern U.S. The news release from the U.S. State Department says the decision "“does not preclude any subsequent permit application or applications for similar projects.”
Which means, it is possible the pipeline proponents may come back with a proposal for a pipeline that would take a different route.
The decision today puts more pressure on the Joint Panel Review committee to approve the proposed Northern Gateway twin pipeline project .
U.S. President Obama is said to have called Prime Minster Stephen Harper to personally advise him of the decision. The Prime Minister’s Officer has issued this statement: “The President explained the decision was not a decision on the merits of the project and that it was without prejudice, meaning that TransCanada is free to reapply.”
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters have expressed their disappointment with the decision, saying it will "cost thousands of North American jobs and jeopardizes the future of shared economic prosperity between the world’s two largest trading partners."
"Keystone delivered the promise of a safe and dependable North American energy supply and the opportunity to create good, high-paying jobs – 118,000 south of the border alone," says CME President & CEO Jayson Myers. "Our countries need Keystone to compete on the world stage. It is extremely disappointing that political posturing has gotten in the way of sound industrial strategy."
The United States currently imports more than 2.5 million barrels of petroleum from Canada each day, accounting for roughly 21 per cent of its total annual intake. Completion of the Keystone pipeline would have added 830,000 barrels per day to capacity.
"US communities and US workers need Keystone – and, in broader context, Canadian oil," says Myers, "CME will continue to work with our American business allies in Washington to reinforce the vast economic and social benefits of this project."
Comments
One decision doesn`t affect the other!.
Unless the writer, the author of the above story is saying the joint review is rigged?
The NEB are examining the Environmental risks, have those risks changed because of a decision 4000 miles away?
Another pathetic summation.
Does one divorce ruling affect another, one murder trial affect another.
Me thinks it`s one writer looking to spur a strawman argument.
Why don’t we create our own jobs, refine the oil here? Sell the fuel to the states at a higher price sell it to ourselves at a lower price and we win both ways!!!! this isn’t rocket science. Or is it? We are talking about our Government aren’t we!
We refine a good portion of out oil already. To build more refineries to sell into the states would require many piplines for the different products, not just one. The US centres are a long way from Alberta.
Keep all the pollution in Alberta. Let them refine the tar sands oil and truck and rail the oil to its’ destination. They want the lions share of the wealth so they may as well be the wasteland of Canada too, since they don’t really have much else going for them over there. BC can import any extra petroleum products they can’t get here and we would pay less for gas than what we are paying now.
But…. the average albertan has an exponential amount going for it over you.
But, never been there have you, but you are an expert.
but, your bitterness is making you look like a fool.
Easy to see who the alberta boys are here. BTW I spent the mid 70s to 80s in alta. Never again.
Can you say ‘political posturing’? I knew you could.
IMO Its all about neocon politics.
The neocons want war. They want to take out Iran big time and will do just about anything to help that war along. The choke point to their war is China being Iran’s biggest oil customer… China has expressed interest in finding a new supplier, and even went so far as to refuse Iranian oil last month over a pricing dispute. The Saudi’s stepping in to fill the short term gap, and China’s President was in Saudi Arabia last week no less, but Iran is warning of war for any of the Gulf states that make up any shortfalls that would result from an Iran war.
Meanwhile America would like to have China on side with any attack on Iran that Israel or America undertakes. The Gateway when if built would go a long way to replacing Iran as China’s oil supplier… holding Gateway out as a carrot and Saudi oil as a stop gap ensures China doesn’t feel like Japan in the 1930’s… hence Obama playing word games with the Keystone pipeline nominally canceling the project knowing full well it will be approved once the new route around the sensitive aquifer is finalized.
The idea is to put pressure on Canada for the Gateway project to buy peace with China for an American war on Iran… then next year Keystone will go ahead and Gateway hype will have run its course and need as far as the Americans are concerned. Under this scenario Harper is a sock puppet that plays his part well.
I agree completely that we should be refining our own oil here in Canada, keep some for us, sell it to Canadians at lower prices, and then sell the excess to others. There is no reason why we need to pay world prices for oil except for corporate greed.
The Enbridge project calls for two pipelines. One for the bitumen and one for the return of the condensate thinner. Two pipelines, double the risk. The XL Keystone project never mentions a condensate return pipeline. Are the Americans buying *better* bitumen, being preferred customers?
Does anyone actually believe by refining the oil here gas would be cheaper?…..when was the last time you tried to buy a knot free n straight 2×4 here….cheap?
Here are some gasoline prices in US$/UD gallon. The red bars show the total price with the blue indicating the tax proportion of the price.
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/assets_c/2011/05/internationalgasprice-thumb-500×605-49619.png
Here are high and low prices from a year ago.
[ur]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.dailyfinance.com/media/2011/03/gas-prices-chart.jpg[/url]
It is easy to see which countries have their own oil and have a bit of a different philosophy about who actually owns the oil and whether the people should reap the benefits of owning that oil.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.dailyfinance.com/media/2011/03/gas-prices-chart.jpg
Eagleone wow, so are you saying Iran is misunderstood? Me thinks Harper is playing all sides.
WTH has happened to this world we live in? It makes one want to ask this: are the people living out in the woods, disconnected from “civilized society”, really all that crazy, as most people make them out to be. I am starting to understand that way of life more and more each day. Politics suck!
Seamutt, I don’t think Iran is misunderstood at all. Hyper aware and ultra nationalistic, but not misunderstood. A danger to the world most likely, but to use that as an excuse to treat related issues as an exception to the rule of law I would say is a boogyman too far.
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