Posted on 01/27/2011 10:44:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The nation’s largest oil industry trade group today called on the Obama administration to give the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver tar sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to southeast Texas refineries.
Cindy Schild, the refining issues manager for the American Petroleum Institute, called the imminent decision “a matter of critical national interest.”
“Not only is this a chance for the White House to strengthen U.S. energy security and help plan for the nation’s energy future, but it is also an opportunity to take a specific, public and dramatic action in support of creating new U.S. jobs.”
The State Department is weighing whether more environmental studies are needed before approving the pipeline project planned by TransCanada Corp. The proposed 36-inch pipeline would start in Hardisty, Alberta and end roughly 2,000 miles later in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. Along the way, it would snake through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and eastern Texas.
In Canada, project backers view the pipeline as a chance to expand the market for the oil sands crude, by allowing the country to export as many as 1.1 million barrels per day to the U.S. Supporters in the United States say that the Canadian crude would replace oil now imported from less friendly territories.
But environmentalists have battled the plan, which they say encourages oil sands production in Canada that will damage Alberta’s boreal forest while generating far more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude. Lawmakers in Nebraska.. lined up against the pipeline, because its charted path would carry oil through the state’s Sand Hills and near the Ogallala Aquifer.
And even in the oil-friendly territory of east Texas, the project is igniting opposition from landowners who say TransCanada Corp., is using heavy-handed tactics to win easements to place the pipe....
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
EPA
Agency Revokes Permit for Major Coal Mining Project WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency revoked the permit for one of the nation’s largest mountaintop-removal coal mining projects on Thursday, saying the mine would have done unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities in West Virginia. It was the first time the agency had rescinded a valid clean water permit for a coal mine.
Arch Coal’s proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, which would have buried miles of Appalachian streams under millions of tons of residue, has been the subject of controversy and litigation since the first application was filed more than a decade ago. Opposition intensified after the Bush administration approved the mine’s construction in 2007, issuing a permit required under the Clean Water Act.
The boldness of the E.P.A.’s action was striking at a time when the agency faces an increasingly hostile Congress and well-financed business lobbies seeking to limit its regulatory reach. Agency officials said that the coal company was welcome to resubmit a less damaging mining plan, but that law and science demanded the veto of the existing plan.
...An official of Arch Coal, based in St. Louis, said the company would continue to challenge the federal action in court.
“We remain shocked and dismayed at E.P.A.’s continued onslaught with respect to this validly issued permit,” said Kim Link, the company’s spokeswoman. “Absent court intervention, E.P.A.’s final determination to veto the Spruce permit blocks an additional $250 million investment and 250 well-paying American jobs.”
“Furthermore, we believe this decision will have a chilling effect on future U.S. investment,” she added, “because every business possessing or requiring a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act will fear similar overreaching by the E.P.A. It’s a risk many businesses cannot afford to take.” ...
Does not Congress have more authority than the EPA? If not, the EPA must go. Once again, we look to import oil rather than drill for our own oil......which we have plenty of.
We can thank the Senate for voting to let the EPA make up it’s own regulations and rules without Congressional approval. (Last year)
What they really need to do is build several large refineries in North Dakota and in Montana. They can also connect a line to Alaska through Alberta, which would make Natural Gas sales and extremely high grade crude available to offset the low grade high sulfur Alberta Oil Sands volume.
Deep-Water Stalemate Pits Explorers Against Regulators
Meanwhile, due to the obsrtuction of the EPA/Obama administration, the Chinese are buying up oilsand leases
at an unprecedented rate. Soon, the pipeline will stand empty, if we don’t commit to buying that oil.
More powerful than a billion man army, they are doing what no army ever could.
Did you miss this? But environmentalists have battled the plan,
I won’t be surprised if this pipe never gets built. The _enviromentalists_ - funded from small portions of the scores of hundred billion dolllars in USA wealth transferred to foreign nations (OPEC and elsewhere), will be able to intradict this plan. They will use legislative forums, court rooms etc., which have been bought or influenced by the same money.
I do believe the Chinese are working on sending our Canadian oil to themselves with a new pipeline project.
Will have? WILL have?! Try "already has had." Most energy funds won't touch the US except for those who want to play the green credits game fully knowing they aren't ever going to make money on the projects themselves!
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