[Alberta's Child]

The Northern Gateway pipeline was intended as an Asian alternative to relying on the US market, where fracking has lessened demand for foreign oil.

I'm not sure I agree with that.

I always thought the Northern Gateway pipeline was an alternative to Keystone XL. Despite all the clamoring here on FreeRepublic about how Keystone would help drive up the supply of oil in the U.S., the main purpose of that project is to increase the capacity of the pipeline system all the way down to the Gulf Coast -- for oil exports from North America.

[TurboZamboni]

Obama: More jobs in jobless benefits than Keystone

“President Obama said that he will delay his vacation and keep Congress in session until the passage of his desired payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension — two proposals that Obama said would create more jobs than the Keystone XL pipeline that his administration recently delayed.”

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-more-jobs-jobless-benefits-keystone/244871

[thackney]

the main purpose of that project is to increase the capacity of the pipeline system all the way down to the Gulf Coast -- for oil exports from North America.

False.

For starters, the Keystone XL is an expansion from Canada to Nebraska. The sections continuing south are moving oil without it. Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian Basin and others have already committed capacity to those pipelines.

Secondly, we are not going to export oil while importing oil from the same locations. We do export a very small amount of oil now, mostly to the closest refinery in Canada.

What it would do, is provide a lower cost and more secure supply for our refineries, compared to importing from OPEC.