BREAKING: President Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline Permit
At least, that is what Politico (I know) is reporting.
They report that the State Department will announce the rejection of the current route’s permit at 3PM today, but will allow them to continue planning work to propose and alternate route. Keep in mind that Nebraska passed a bill requiring that any pipeline be routed away from the Sandhills area over the Ogalalla Aquifer, and that TransCanada agreed to it. The WH is pretty much carrying through on its message earlier that it would take more than 60 days to evaluate the data for the permit.
So if the WH does reject it, that is not a permanent condition.
Even though the reason why they are routing this pipeline through the US is because the Canadians don’t want it — especially for product that is expected to be shipped to China. Still, any delay is good news.
Tell us what you are hearing about this in the comments below.
Tags: Keystone Pipeline
First, it doesn’t matter where it’s shipped. Oil is fungible.
Second, while the pipeline could still be approved, the process will now have to restart at square one. That indicates the GOP wanted to play politics — “President Obama is against jobs!” — more than they wanted the actual pipeline.
In 2011, the US was for the first time in forever a net exporter of gas (plus diesel and jet fuel) AND these petroleum products ended up being the top export of the US. In this case, it *does* matter where it is shipped to, because we are exporting these refined products to the people who will pay the highest price. Which, even though our gas prices have been fairly high, is not us.
The other thing that matters about where it is shipped is that the Canadians have already drawn the line on how much risk they want to take in moving this very dirty crude around. Even though the Chinese largely financed the work to explore that route. Americans can be sold on living with a high environmental safety risk if you sell them the line on *energy security*.
They aren’t quite at square one — TransCanada and Nebraska have to come to terms on the alternate route, TransCanada needs to work at getting that route documented and they can refile the entire permit. So I’d expect this to be back sometime in 2013, unless other states force changes.
Dennis Kucinich was on MSNBC making a great point that his pipeline won’t be supplying any petroleum products for the midwest, so there is no benefit to citizens to have this pipeline.
It was also reported on Daily Kos that current Canadian oil pipelines flowing into the United States are only flowing at 50% capacity. Canada isn’t producing capacity for its current pipelines, let alone a new one.
So what do we have for an energy policy under President Obama?
1 – He forbids drilling for oil and gas off of the east and west coasts, but encouraged Brazil to drill off of its coast, so that we can become their best customers;
2 – He cancels the Keystone XL pipeline for environmental reasons, which doesn’t stop the tar sands from being used, but simply means that it will be people other than Americans who get the good jobs and make the profits; and
3 – He gets federal loan guarantees for unproven solar energy projects — Solyndra was only one of 11 such failures — which wind up going bankrupt.
This is what happens when you formulate an energy policy based on ideology instead of practical economics and business experience. As for me, I call that three strikes; he ought to be called, “out!”
Cassandra noted:
Yup! And that means jobs for American workers in the refineries and profits for American companies, both of which produce additional tax revenue. More, by being a net exporter, we are reducing our balance of trade deficit.
More, by being a net exporter, we are reducing our balance of trade deficit.
Even more, we know that the business of *energy security* is a scam. Because even though we are producing enough fuel products to make a dent in being free from other sources, we’ve decided that the free market is more important than *energy security*. Which is fine by me — but we now know that if we do additional drilling off of our coasts that it won’t be Americans putting that fuel in their tanks.
1 – He forbids drilling for oil and gas off of the east and west coasts, but encouraged Brazil to drill off of its coast, so that we can become their best customers;
Drilling for oil and gas off of mus of the east and west coasts has been the deal for a very long time — it isn’t new to President Obama. And it reflects the wishes of majorities of people near those coasts too.
2 – He cancels the Keystone XL pipeline for environmental reasons, which doesn’t stop the tar sands from being used, but simply means that it will be people other than Americans who get the good jobs and make the profits; and
He denied the permit for Keystone XL because they needed more than 60 days to review the changes needed to it. There *is* a new route through Nebraska, you know — one that the people of Nebraska passed a law to get. TransCanada will continue to work on their permit docs and resbumit later. The jobs thing is a canard, really. There is one pipeline from the tar sands into the middle of the country someplace and they also move this mess via truck and train. So people are employed and the oil does move here.
3 – He gets federal loan guarantees for unproven solar energy projects — Solyndra was only one of 11 such failures — which wind up going bankrupt.
Solyndra was quite proven. They just couldn’t compete with the Chinese who are subsidizing their alternative energy business. So in many ways Solyndra is a lesson in the failure of competing with firms that have the full backing of their home governments. Too many of the GOP want to keep the subsidies and supports intact for oil and coal companies and can’t see that renewables are the future. And there were not 11 failures.
So there are no outs here and as usual you aren’t even playing the same game as everyone else.