Obama delays oil pipeline plan, discards 20,000 jobs

Roughly 20,000 oil industry construction jobs are being thrown under Obama’s 2012 campaign bus, largely because the president needs to pump up his sagging support among the environmentalists.

The pitch came Thursday when President Barack Obama put his leadership behind a State Department plan to study alternative routes for the pipeline, which is intended to bring oil from Alberta in Canada to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast.

“We should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood,” said Obama’s afternoon statement.

The construction jobs, and the revenue from operating the Keystone XL pipeline, may now go to Canadian workers.

That’s because Canadian government officials are already planning to help build a competing pipeline from Alberta’s oil fields to new West Coast ports near Vancouver. The likely destination point is the port of Kitimat in British Columbia.

Below is clear evidence that you don't know what you are talking about. The State Department has even CHANGED their evaluation of the fault line area after being exposed that released FASLSE INFORMATION!

...It is sad that you and others can't see the facts...

"Some reports place the quakes on the proposed route while others place the 5.6 quake within in 15 to 20 miles from the route. Reports of stadiums shaking 50 miles away should put the distance versus damage scenario in perspective.

The State Department, Cardno Entrix, and TransCanada have all provided incorrect fault zone data which led to their incorrect fault zone conclusion in the Environmental Impact Statement. This recent earthquake along the proposed route should provide another wake up call that demonstrates the overall inadequate and dangerous assessment provided to us by the State Department.

The report, which was not included as reference material in the SDEIS, “Effects of Keystone XL Pipeline Leak into Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer,” shows that the proposed project does in fact cross an active fault zone. Water resources and environmental engineer Lawrence G. Dunbar, P.E. found that the USGS report that was cited for the DOS conclusion is not a reliable source for determining whether there are active faults along the proposed pipeline route. The USGS report even states that “it is very likely that the inventory presented in this report is incomplete.” Mr. Dunbar goes on to say that the “USGS report was not intended to be a complete compilation of active faults in Central and Eastern U.S., rather it was intended to be an initial start to a compilation of potential areas for significant earthquakes, a source of reference material for seismicity. As such, it should not have been used to conclude that the faults in southwestern Rusk County are not active and therefore would not pose any risk to the proposed pipeline.”

The information, documentation, and several other reports cited by Mr. Dunbar about fault activity in the Mount Enterprise Fault Zone raises serious questions about the potential for an increased risk of failure of the proposed pipeline that is to be routed through this fault zone area in the immediate vicinity of the outcrop area of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. This is a prime example of how the DOS’s preliminary determination that there are no significant new circumstances or information concerning the proposed project or its potential impacts not already considered in the draft EIS, is not only an inaccurate statement but demonstrates the lack of a thorough review by the DOS.

http://stoptarsands.org/earthquake-keystone-xl-pipeline-route-proves-state-department-wrong#more-564

Did you get the Fact that the quake was felt up to 50 miles away...in your own words: Indeed, Cushing, OK, the major pipeline center of the U.S. is TWENTY MILES NORTH OF SPARKS, OK -- the epicenter of the two recent quakes.

You must represent BIG OIL and BIG Government!

It is their oil, their country, they have the right to build it in their own country, no problem, it is a world market after all. What does the Chinese buying it have to do with anything??? Are you against free trade.

Look again at the piroposed pipeline route. That same line would have carried Bakken and Three Forks oil south. THere is so little pipeline capacity now (as has been the case for the past 4-5 years) that oil is being hauled out by rail from the 4th largest oil producing state--North Dakota. Development in the Bakken will continue either way, but it'd be nice to have better infrastructure to deliver it.

BTW, we currently get more oil from Canada than Saudi Arabia, but that could change.

SO who wins and who loses?

Islam wins, China wins, we lose.

Not just gasoline, but diesel, chemical plant feedstocks, and heavy ends. If you have the plants to use the non-fuel products close by (like many refinery complex areas do), it makes more sense to ship the crude than build a new complex.

Plans exist and are progressing for a 'topping facility' in North Dakota to distill diesel from Bakken Crude and sent the heavier fraction one way and the napthalenes another as precursors/feedstocks, while the diesel is used locally (Agriculture and the oil industry, esp. trucking will use a lot). While this will cut down on the shipped volumes, a pipeline would have been the best way to move the feedstocks.

So you would shut down other US refineries to build 500,000 BOD refinery up North?

The US does not have a shortage of refineries, but rather a shortage of feedstock to them.

A refinery produces more than gasoline. The chemical feedstock market is also on the Gulf Coast.

Also byproduct is quite a bit of sulfur. Also the refinery is going to produce petroleum coke or residual oil. There isn’t much market for those on the Canadian / North Dakota border. And those are not moving by pipeline.

Did you get the Fact that the quake was felt up to 50 miles away...in your own words: Indeed, Cushing, OK, the major pipeline center of the U.S. is TWENTY MILES NORTH OF SPARKS, OK -- the epicenter of the two recent quakes.

Yeah, I got it.

But did you get the fact that there are more than a dozen major pipelines -- and dozens of minor pipelines -- already crossing that fault zone...and none of them so much as sprung a leak!

Many were there in 1952 -- the last time that fault gave a quiver (and seismically, that's all it was).

And what the hell does the State Department know about pipelines and seismology anyway?

Moreover, there are already two pipelines crossing the Ogallala Aquifer -- from Wyoming to the Midwest, C18 and C19. I believe they go back about thirty years. Have they created an "environmental crisis" yet?

Sheesh! There is obviously no such thing as "environmental science" -- it's all lefty-driven "environmental alarmism".

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