Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer:
“Until this pipeline is constructed, the US will continue to import millions of barrels of conflict oil from the Middle East and Venezuela and other foreign countries who do not share democratic values Canadians and Americans are privileged to have, This project is too important to the US economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed.”
Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada’s president for energy and oil pipelines to Congress last December:
“Keystone will bring many benefits to the United States, but I believe the most important role that Keystone will play is to bring energy security to the United States during what has been recently some very unsettling times overseas,”
When asked by Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts if he could get assurances, “…so that this country realizes all of the energy security benefits your company and others have promised?” Pourbaix replied, “No, I can't do that,”
First and foremost, let’s point out that the Republican Party and its partners U.S. Oil and Canadian Oil are attempting to meld Canada (the country to our north) and Canadian Oil Companies into one entity, in an attempt to deceptively convince the American voter that any fight against greedy Canadian and U.S. Oil companies is a fight against Canada-our “greatest ally to the north.”
Mitt Romney:
"How in the world can you have a president who doesn't understand the importance of getting energy from our next-door neighbor?"
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah):
"This is ridiculous. With price of gas soaring, the President blasts anyone who criticizes his lack of an energy strategy, but then he's lobbying to stop a common-sense amendment allowing Keystone XL pipeline to move forward. The President should stop lobbying against it and get behind this critical job-creating pipeline. People in Utah are a lot smarter than that - they know that more American energy provides much needed jobs, will help lower the price at the pump, and stops a dangerous dependency on foreign oil."
Let’s examine the most glaring deception in those and other Republican statements. The GOP insists the pipeline will:
A. Reduce the U.S.’s dependency on foreign oil. That means that the oil from Canada will be used in the United States in order to reduce our oil imports.
B. U.S. manufacturing jobs would be dramatically increased in the building of, and producing of the materials to construct the pipeline.
Both lies.
Proof: Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Oregon) introduced a measure that would insure that the heavy tar sands oil and natural gas pumped through the pipeline had to by law stay in the U.S. and that no foreign materials could be used to build it meaning only American iron and steel could be used, and that only American companies and American workers would be involved in its construction and maintanance, thus guaranteeing those promised American jobs… It was soundly defeated by Republicans by a 34-64 vote? If Hatch’s statement were true; why the objections and defeat of such a reasonable guarantee?
Of course the assumption is that the price of Canadian crude would stay at current levels or go lower… wrong.
From a report submitted to TransCanada by Purvin and Gertz Inc.
"Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally, are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil," and goes on to report, “Access to the via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in by removing this oversupply. This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to the equivalent cost of imported crude,” and then goes on to say, "Not only will this directly benefit these shippers, it will also provide a benefit to all heavy crude producers by increasing the price they receive for their crude, as well as providing significant pipeline capacity to an alternative market."
Remember that phrase “alternative market.”
In effect that would raise the price of Canadian crude to the equivalent of Middle East/OPEC crude. After all, when the 830.000 barrels a day of that crude passes through the XL pipeline, the price of it will be based on the world market, not the over-supplied local Midwest and Canadian western market.
Where is the midwestern oversupply coming from? 546,000 barrels a day are being pumped in North Dakota alone! The only states pumping more are Alaska and Texas, with ND surpassing even California. That crude will eventually be heading to the gulf coast and most likely be exported… via the XL pipeline. At the current rate of increase North Dakota could surpass even Alaskan production.
In a HIS CERA report it was reported that:
"If a minority of the barrels were sold at the Gulf Coast at a Gulf Coast price, that would have the effect of raising the price not only in the Midwest and Ontario but in Western Canada,"
TransCanada officials not only don’t dispute this, but also admitted the same during hearings before the U.S. Congress last May and December. It should be noted that many of the refineries in the gulf are in what most American taxpayers don’t know are “foreign trade zones” where the oil can and will be exported internationally without paying a dime in U.S. taxes. With the Republican-driven defeat of the stipulation that the crude stays in the U.S., that “alternative market” would be China and India along with cornering European and Asian countries.
Retired Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson:
"So seven shippers or seven producers are, in your view, pursuing this strategy in order to increase the Ontario prices. [The pipeline] will not reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil." It would "…set back our renewable energy efforts for at least two decades,"
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.):
"At a moment when tensions are rising in the Middle East, millions of Americans are struggling to find work and millions more are struggling with the rising cost of gas, Democrat opposition to this legislation shows how deeply out of touch they are with the concerns of middle-class Americans,"
What about concerns of midwestern U.S. citizens? Aside from the temporary and then years-in-the-future jobs created to build the pipeline, what about the jobs in midwestern refineries that will be lost when the pipeline bypasses them and sends that heavy tar sands crude directly to the Gulf of Mexico? What will happen to gas prices at the pump in the American midwest when gasoline is no longer coming from those very same local refineries and instead must be shipped back north from the gulf?
A good question for your local Republican supporter is if the necessary and completely without objection bill was so sure to be passed with no deceptions, why attach it to an unrelated and crucial $109 billion transportation bill, instead of letting it stand on its own?
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican"
"By personally lobbying against the Keystone pipeline, it means the president of the United States is lobbying for sending North American energy to China and lobbying against American jobs,"
What he’s not saying is that TransCanada is trying to strong arm the project through the U.S. Congress by threatening to export that crude to China themselves by other means if the project isn’t approved, and politics and President Obama have nothing to do with that decision.
Speaking of strong-arming, and deceptive practices the company still needs 2150 property right of ways in five states. It’s a well-covered secret that the proposal for the pipeline route hasn’t even been completed and verified. This is because many American landowners are resisting pressure from the company to grant easements through their land, even though they already may have one or more pipelines currently on it. Why? TransCanada had adopted a strategy of making low offers for the easements and telling the owners that if they don’t take them, they’ll have to hire cost-prohibitive lawyers to prevent being forced to accept them anyway.
Roberta Colkin city council member – Gallatin, Tex:
"Most of the landowners already have pipelines on their land, so they aren't against pipelines, but they're upset about being bullied by TransCanada."
David Daniel, Winnsboro, Texas:
"TransCanada said this is our final offer; otherwise we'll take you to court."
while voicing his concerns about being pressured into taking only $14,000 for the pipeline right of way across 20 acres of his property, especially a pipeline that could potentially leak affecting his ground water. Concerns rose recently because of the 2010 pipeline spill of over 800,000 gallons of tar sands crude into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River from the Enbridge pipeline.
Of particular concern is an attempt to traverse and/or get around environmental concerns involving avoiding the Ogallala Aquifer-an important water source for eight states and also the Nebraska Sandhills region, where TransCanada has already spent $500,000 in 2011 alone and another $1.3 million in lobbying Washington senators and representatives.
A prime example of politicians being influenced by the big oil companies was when South Dakota suspiciously began routing trucks through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the excuse that it’d save Canadian Oil companies money in shipping costs, it raised more than a few eyebrows and drivers were questioned.
Chase Iron Eyes:
"One of the drivers responded that they did not know they were crossing Indian land, only that they were following company directives regarding their assigned routes and that their Canadian Corporation had received this particular route information as a result of a partnership with the State of South Dakota, whose elected officials have always supported the Keystone XL pipeline."
Why? If vehicles had used other state routes through South Dakota, they would have been fined or charged fees of up to $50,000 each at Interstate Highway weigh stations.
Philip K. Verleger, president of PKVerleger LLC, a Colorado consulting firm specializing in research on oil market economics:
“The firms involved have asked the US State Department to approve this project, even as they’ve told Canadian government officials how the pipeline can be used to add at least $4 billion to the US fuel bill, US farmers who spent $12.4 billion on fuel in 2009 could see those costs rise to $15 billion or higher if the pipeline goes through. At least $500 million of the added cost “would come from the Canadian market manipulation, The Keystone XL pipeline will move production from Canadian oil sands to a deepwater port from where it can be exported.”
One of the alternative routes entailed shipping the heavy tar sands crude through Maine, but a more friendlier route would need to be directly through Republican controlled Midwestern “red states” even though the increased gas prices would effect the very farmers that support them, blinded by politics instead of common sense. After all GOP-leaning farmers would be easier to convince than the blue states along the eastern coast.
Newt Gingrich:
Obama’s refusal to cooperate, "…weakens America's national security and kills thousands of well-paying American jobs."
Considering the daunting number of years needed to complete the project and even find an eventual route for it, an instant fix of the American economy and job creation are very unlikely and the Repubicans know it, despite their deceptive claim of a “quick fix” if the American people would only believe them at the election booth. In fact the only thing instant will be a huge additional profit to Canadian and U.S. oil companies the very moment that crude begins flowing. Only a few thousand local jobs will be involved in the construction, and will end when it is completed. The jobs increase will come in Canada manning pumping stations etc, but what few midwestern refineries that remain open after their supply has been bypassed to the Gulf, are already staffed.
Over the past five years, exports from the US Gulf Coast have soared as refiners sitting in tax-free zones near Port Arthur, Texas, have shifted production away from gasoline and toward higher-margin diesel. Since 2007, overall US exports of diesel and other products have jumped 134 percent, the US Energy Information Administration reports. Of US exports, two-thirds is shipped abroad from Gulf Coast refineries – now more than 2 million barrels a day and up from just a quarter of today's level a decade ago.
That trend was captured in testimony Sept. 17, 2009, before Canada’s National Energy Board. Seven Canadian companies were willing to pay higher pipeline tariff costs for using the Keystone XL pipeline, the testimony showed, <b>in order to bypass Midwest refineries</b> by sending 500,000 barrels per day, the lion’s share of the pipeline’s capacity, to Gulf refineries.
Even if jobs are created, which will only last until the pipeline is completed, they’ll benefit only the middle red states where republican interests lie. Where the country is hurting the most will see no benefits, and higher gas prices at the pumps as local refineries are shut down due to the oil being shipped to Texas and the gulf coast refineries. By the time the pipeline is built and the truths in this article come to fruition, it will be too late to do anything about it and the Oil Company sponsored members of the House and Senate know it.
“Until this pipeline is constructed, the US will continue to import millions of barrels of conflict oil from the Middle East and Venezuela and other foreign countries who do not share democratic values Canadians and Americans are privileged to have,” Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer. “This project,” he continued, “is too important to the US economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed.”
Still believe him?
Don’t let multi-billion dollar Canadian and U.S. oil companies fool you into equating TransCanada with Canada itself. It is these very oil companies that are draining cash from both of our countries working families lean budgets with their already obsene profits and now they want more... and they want the American Tax Payer to not only foot the bill, pay their higher prices at the pump, but to thank them for it too.
Republican presidential candidates are quick to criticize President Obama for high gas prices. What they don’t tell you is that pump prices rise mostly from speculators on Wall Street buying gasoline up, taking it off the market, creating a supply/demand shortage, then selling it a huge profit on the crisis that they themselves created in the first place.
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