Now Is The Time To Get Behind Pipeline Construction

[Anonymous]

The rejection of Keystone XL had nothing to do with the environment. While we cannot get our oil to tide water the US has been speeding up pipeline approval and ending a 40 year ban on oil and gas exports.



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Anyone who still believes the environmental narrative that restricting oil production is about saving the Earth is naive; it's all about money.



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Let's take the example of the United States. While Canada writhes to accommodate American concerns about our oil, the U.S. has taken complete advantage of the delay by exploiting its resources, and why wouldn't it? It's what smart countries do. In the time it's taken to quash the proposed 1,400 kilometres of Keystone XL pipeline, 19,200 kilometres of American pipeline has been built, some of it serving Canada.



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It's only an environmental issue it seems, when it's a Canadian pipeline.

Thanks for a long, thoughtful post.  This kind of perspective is one reason I joined this forum.  Although I've only quoted parts of it, I did read it all.



I am probably not much better informed on the issue than most Yanks are, which makes me quite ignorant I suspect.  But the two or three things I have to offer might surprise you, or at least illuminate some of your views of the US.



Several of my friends are Greens, rather than Dems or Reps.  I hear a lot from them.  Because the issue du jour right now is hydraulic fracking, and because the industry is rich enough to buy local pols with ease, and because I live between two major fault lines and fracking is empirically suspected in earthquakes now (as well as increased radon emissions and groundwater pollution) the fracking issue is on center stage around here with libs and greens.  



Most people I know did oppose Keystone, but not for any reason beyond its being an oil pipeline.  Oil pipelines generally, in the US midwest, have a poor safety record due to many factors that are mostly related to corporate greed....poor maintenance, poor oversight, lack of safety valving, slam-dunk construction in unwise areas, etc.  It has been assumed that Keystone would be bad for this reason, but not because of any real thoughts about the Canadian oil industry as opposed to the US oil industry.  In fact the thought that they are two separate interests has scarcely even crossed my own mind until recently.



For these reasons it is also safe to expect that newly constructed US pipelines would be met with the same groundswell of objections...yet they have not.  I believe the reason is that the US media has virtually blacked out the construction of those pipelines, and the ordinary and usual lib and green watchdogs were evidently either looking the other way or else they were also in the tank.  I don't pay a lot of attention to news, but although I have idly wondered how the hell they were gonna get all that oil from the Bakken field to a refinery or a tanker I simply haven't seen any headlines to speak of.

[Anonymous]

Several of my friends are Greens, rather than Dems or Reps.  I hear a lot from them.  Because the issue du jour right now is hydraulic fracking, and because the industry is rich enough to buy local pols with ease, and because I live between two major fault lines and fracking is empirically suspected in earthquakes now (as well as increased radon emissions and groundwater pollution)

Most buying of pols across this continent is buy selfish big greens. It's the reason we cannot get a new pipeline to tidewater and international markets because of downtown Toronto greens with a bigger carbon footprint than most working Canadians. The greedy Grinch greens get outside help of course from California billionaire. In your country it is Steyer, Rockefellers and of course Hollywood celebrities are among the finaciers who have the money to block energy projects.



As a wellsite consultant I can do drilling and completions/workovers. I have overseen hundreds of fracked wells across North America. In Western Canada nearly 200, 000 wells have been fracked for gas and oil. It has brought great prosperity to the area and not a single confirmed case of groundwater contamination. Drilling water wells is worse for the environment that fracking for gas and oil

Oil pipelines generally, in the US midwest, have a poor safety record due to many factors that are mostly related to corporate greed....poor maintenance, poor oversight, lack of safety valving, slam-dunk construction in unwise areas, etc.  

Pipelines are the safest way to transport anything across the US. Not a single case of injury in 2011 alone. That is amazing considering the billions and billions of gallons of oil that are transported around the US annually.



If there is a spill, it is usually on old infrastructure that was built more than 45 years ago. Todays modern pipelines with advanced pigs can be shut down in seconds if the pressure becomes to great at a pumping station. They are more environmentally friendly than pleasure boats.

I believe the reason is that the US media has virtually blacked out the construction of those pipelines, and the ordinary and usual lib and green watchdogs were evidently either looking the other way or else they were also in the tank.

The big green lobby in Canada has lots of money, lots of influence. Don't worry about them. They will continue to work against the interests of mortgage paying Canadians and Americans.

[Anonymous]

^^There is intelligent environmentalism, but what we have now is a war on working people. Our so called party of working families in Canada has totally abandoned their working class base. They have been hijacked by the latte quaffing downtown wealthy greens who are not only NIMBY's, but also consider all of Canada their own private back yard. Unfortunately they have resources disproportionate to their numbers.



It is good to see that some American politicians have not sold out working Americans entirely to the massive international green conglomerates the way so many pols in Canada have.