Free Republic

January 31, 2014, 03:09 pm Keystone pipeline clears hurdle By Laura Barron-Lopez The controversial Keystone XL pipeline cleared a major hurdle on Friday as the State Department ruled the project wouldnÂ’t significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions. The finding puts the pipeline one step closer to approval, and sets up a new battle between environmental groups and oil companies over whether the project is in the national interest. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the project reiterates key parts of a draft analysis released early last year, finding that oil sands extraction would continue regardless of whether the pipeline is built....

The State Department released a report on Friday that could pave the way toward President Obama’s approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the project concludes that approval or denial of the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, is unlikely to prompt oil companies to change the rate of their extraction of carbon-heavy tar sands oil, a State Department official said. Either way, the tar sands oil, which produces significantly more planet-warming carbon pollution than standard methods of drilling, is coming out of the...

Fixated as we Americans are on Canada’s three most attention-getting exports — polar vortexes, Alberta clippers and the antics of Toronto’s addled mayor — we’ve somewhat overlooked a major feature of Canada’s current relations with the United States: extreme annoyance. Last week, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canada’s foreign minister calmly but pointedly complained that the United States owes Canada a response on the Keystone XL pipeline. “We can’t continue in this state of limbo,” he sort of complained, in what for a placid, imperturbable Canadian passes for an explosion of volcanic rage.

Among Washington's most important but rarely covered realities is the daily close coordination among Democratic politicians, executive branch bureaucrats and the left side of the non-profit activism community. Emails obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute exposed a slice of that coordination in the campaign to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The emails show, according to Fox News correspondent John Roberts, "senior policy officials at the EPA working closely with environmental groups in what appears to be an effort to kill the pipeline."...

There are new revelations in the fight to build the Keystone Pipeline. You remember Keystone? It's the project that would transport oil from Canada, south through several states, including Oklahoma, to refineries in Texas. It is guaranteed to create more than a few jobs and provide energy to North America. The Obama administration has fought it at every turn. They claim they are taking a deliberative approach, making sure all the environmental studies have been done, redone, examined, and reexamined. In other words, they have dragged their feet. We now know there is much more to this fight than Obama's...

Brushing aside pressure from Canada, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the United States will not be pushed into making a decision on the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. At a joint appearance with Canada's foreign affairs minister, John Baird, Kerry said he has not received a crucial environmental report on the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas. "My hope is that before long, that analysis will be available, and then my work begins," Kerry said, referring to a recommendation he is expected to make on whether the pipeline is in...

Brushing aside pressure from Canada, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the United States will not be pushed into making a decision on the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. At a joint appearance with Canada’s foreign affairs minister, John Baird, Kerry said he has not received a crucial environmental report on the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas. “My hope is that before long, that analysis will be available, and then my work begins,” Kerry said, referring to a recommendation he is expected to make on whether the pipeline is in...

Brushing aside pressure from Canada, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the United States will not be pushed into making a decision on the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. At a joint appearance with Canada's foreign affairs minister, John Baird, Kerry said he has not received a crucial environmental report on the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas. "My hope is that before long, that analysis will be available, and then my work begins," Kerry said, referring to a recommendation he is expected to make on whether the pipeline is in...

At the end of 2013, after serving five years, Barack Obama is a complete failure as President, by his own standards, as reflected in his own words. How many times has President Obama told us that he is “fighting for the middle class”? But real median family income has been in a continuous downward spiral since he became President, actually falling more since the recession ended in the summer of 2009 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research than during the recession. That has added up by now to the middle class losing a month’s pay a year under...

HOUSTON — TransCanada has begun moving oil into the Keystone XL pipeline’s southern leg, which runs from Oklahoma to the Texas coast, a company spokesman said Monday. “TransCanada is pleased to confirm that at approximately 10:04 am Central Time on Saturday, December 7, 2013, the company began to inject oil into the Gulf Coast Project pipeline as it moves closer to the start of commercial service,” TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said in an email. The pipeline owner will need to fill the newly constructed line before it can begin delivering oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast, including those in...

At the last update, I think we were somewhere in “earlyish 2014″ territory (who can even keep up?) for the time frame in which the northern extension of the Keystone pipeline will be either approved or denied by President Obama, but by determinedly delaying on what should have/could have been a simple and bygone decision of his first term, the issue is now a ticking time bomb of highly publicized, faux-environmentalist outrageous outrage. I suppose that the dollars the president has been fundraising from well-monied, self-fancied “green” Democratic donors may have made the delay, delay, delay tactic worth it in...

An eyewitness noted when thirteen railroad tanker cars carrying propane and crude oil across Alberta, Canada exploded after derailing early on October 20th, "the fireball was so big, it shot across both lanes of the Yellowhead (Highway)... there's fire on both sides." Only two Canadian National Railway workers were injured and no deaths have been reported in this latest "pipeline on rails" calamity, but the horrific accident comes just 3 months after a similar oil train disaster in a populated area took 47 lives in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. It is too early to determine the cause of the latest accident, although...

Billionaire Warren Buffett tossed lifelines to a handful of blue-chip companies during the financial crisis. Five years later the payoff on those deals is becoming clear: $10 billion and counting. Mr. Buffett approached that figure after he collected another hefty payment last week, bringing to nearly 40% the pretax income on his crisis-era investments, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

CALGARY • An anti-Keystone XL pipeline commercial funded by President Barack Obama supporter and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer confirms what many Canadians have long suspected — American anti-oil activists have gone mad. The commercial was intended to be aired Tuesday evening on WRC-TV, an affiliate of NBC in Washington, D.C., to coincide with the president’s appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The commercial is so offensive the station refused to air it. While intended as a parody, it insults TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling, whose company is proposing Keystone XL; it’s a low blow to Canada; and it...

Full title: ‘Keystone oil will travel through America not to America’: Billionaire steps up anti-Keystone campaign with US$1M ad blitzThe author of the piece is with Bloomberg so it can not be posted on FR. However, the title says it all. Financial guru and billionaire Tom Steyer has re-invented himself as an anti-Keystone campaigner. He is sponsoring ads in a four-part, US$1 million advertising campaign to convince viewers the Keystone XL pipeline will hurt the economy and communities and should be blocked. Coincidentally (or not so) he is one of Obama's biggest campaign supporters and fund raiser. His activities aren't...

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told U.S. President Barack Obama that he's ready to work on joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector in an effort to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The CBC, citing unnamed sources, said Mr. Harper wrote to Mr. Obama in late August, signaling he is ready to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and prepared to work with the White House to address concerns raised about Keystone and its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. A spokesman for Mr....

It’s crunch time in the fight over constructing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. Both sides believe a decision by President Obama could come by the end of the year, making the next few months critical for lobbying and messaging efforts. Opponents plan a burst of demonstrations and other events across the country to rally environmental pressure on Obama to reject the Alberta-to-the-Gulf-Coast pipeline. Supporters are also campaigning, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) promoting its message that Keystone’s construction will create jobs, with rallies in more than a dozen “priority states” in the coming months, API spokeswoman Sabrina Fang...

When it comes to the facts and how they are portrayed in Washington, it is a subjective thing. On any given issue, the facts are manipulated so they will appear to support a particular argument. We may want to deny it, but both sides of the political spectrum do this. So, when President Obama doubled down against the Keystone Pipeline in Chattanooga, TN yesterday, it was no surprise that he chose his own facts to support his argument that the pipeline was not a jobs plan. Hat tip to Texas Fred. Fox News - President Obama doubled down Tuesday on...

Sometimes, I think it must be awfully nice to live in the progressive liberal fantasy world. Just imagine how much easier it would be - every decision you make is dependent wholly upon your feelings. Decision making isn't based upon reasoning, logical deductions, research, or facts. Nope. Just believe something is good and bad and willfully continue to place your fingers over your ears while shouting a Mother Earth mantra in the face of all those hate facts coming your way. However, as an adult, I need to live in the real world and make informed decisions that impact not...

TransCanada Corp. stands by its forecast that its controversial Keystone XL pipeline project will be a major job creator after U.S. president Barack Obama derided the claim in a weekend interview. In the session with the New York Times, Mr. Obama said the pipeline project would create no more than 2,000 direct jobs over a two-year construction period, a figure he said was a “blip” compared to the economy’s need. Mr. Obama also suggested Canada could do more to reduced greenhouse gas emissions that could result from the pipeline, and thereby help win its approval. In a statement issued late...