Proposed Trans-US oil pipieline - a disaster waiting to happen!

[scooterbug44]

Energy efficiency was part of TARP - up to $17 billion worth of tax credits for solar, alt fuel vehicles etc. But people have to take advantage of it.

One of Obama's campaign promises was to reduce our oil consumption by 35% by 2030. These are the ways he has gone about it so far:

- G-20 leaders have agreed to Obama's plan to phase out $300 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, including tax breaks and government assistance for coal and oil. The administration contends most of those subsidies go to foreign oil producers, so sending that money overseas impedes investment in energy sources, particularly renewable fuels, at home.

- On May 26, 2009, the administration announced it was increasing the Renewable Fuel Standard, an existing mandate that requires gasoline to be blended with ethanol or diesel with biodiesel, from 9 billion gallons of blended fuel to 36 billion gallons in by 2022.

- The stimulus package was chock-full of incentives for renewable energy production, including $2.5 billion for "applied research, development, demonstration and deployment activities" that alternative energy companies will be able to tap into.

- A cap-and-trade bill would require that new buildings be 30 percent more energy efficient in 2012 and 50 percent more efficient in 2016. Those standards will increase 5 percent every three years. That means that by 2030, new buildings will be 75 percent more efficient than they are today.

- The Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are in the process of drafting new rules that would increase fuel efficiency by an average of 5 percent a year. By 2016, cars and trucks will be 40 percent more efficient than today's vehicles, according to Obama's proposal .

Obama also promised to require that 10% of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2012. One of the provisions of the House cap and trade bill mandated a minimum of 6%.

The plan to weatherize houses has been a flop (only 80,000 done so far), but hopefully they got the kinks worked out and can start making progress there.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/subjects/energy/

Of course, on the other hand you have people fighting any attempts to save oil and energy - like the new light bulbs - saves you hundreds in electrical bills and uses 75% less energy and people biatch about the shape of the bulb.

 

[30ashopper]

The company claims the project would "create more than 15,000 high-wage manufacturing jobs and construction jobs in 2011-2012 across the U.S". Perryman Group estimates the direct construction spending would add $9.6 billion to U.S. GDP and produce substantial new tax revenues for local, state, and federal government. There is the additional huge benefit that, at the current geographic oil price differential, the marginal barrel transported would provide a combined gain in economic surplus to producers and consumers of more than $20. Note we're talking about a project that could deliver an additional 500,000 barrels each day to Gulf Coast refiners, or up to $3.6 billion in annual value added that we're currently missing

Diminished price variances, 15,000 high paying jobs, GDP growth, millions in tax revenue for states.. at a zero cost to the American taxpayer.. and Obama sits idle.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/04/keystone_gulf_c.html

 

[scooterbug44]

What the oil companies promise and what we actually get are 2 very different things.
These are the same folks that told us deepwater drilling was completely safe months before the BP spill.

The pipeline is a potential environmental disaster.

 

[30ashopper]

What the oil companies promise and what we actually get are 2 very different things.
These are the same folks that told us deepwater drilling was completely safe months before the BP spill.

The pipeline is a potential environmental disaster.

The gentleman who wrote that article is a widely respected economist and a democrat. But hey, your right, he doesn't know what the heck he's talking about and neither does the company that would build the pipeline. I should just put my faith in The One, he'll take care of us, not to worry. Change you can believe in!

 

[scooterbug44]

And he based his opinions on the position paper of the oil company. The link was in the article because he quoted them word for word.

I am not arguing with his conclusion, but I am saying that the data he based it upon is heavily biased. All of the numbers in his article are from the oil company's proposal, not an independent source.

Maybe, just once, you could look at the merits of the argument and NOT just dismiss it because of the supposed political affiliations.

The whole reason I started this thread is because I did not approve of what the current administration was considering and wanted to call more public attention to the issue.

We will never fix the problems this country has until we start realistically discussing the issues instead of the GD party talking points.

 

[30ashopper]

You immediately questioned the validity of the data because the numbers came from an oil company. I'd suggest you take your own advice and give people the benefit of the doubt or at least, try to find something that shows they are wrong before you knee-jerk assume the data is entirely flawed.

 

[ksyoshikawa]

Thank you Scooter for starting this thread. Any additional pipelines are a bad idea for many reasons. BTW 30ashopper what does Osama bin Ladin have to do with a Trans-US pipeline?

 

[30ashopper]

Thank you Scooter for starting this thread. Any additional pipelines are a bad idea for many reasons. BTW 30ashopper what does Osama bin Ladin have to do with a Trans-US pipeline?

Obama and his fellow democrats have had their thumbs on the approval of the project since the spring of 2010 via the EPA. The company is ready to go, but the project is completely stalled as they wait for the feds to give the ok.

 

[30ashopper]

The oil sands of this Canadian province are so big that they will be able to serve both of the world's largest economies as production expands in the coming years. But that will mean building at least two pipelines, one south to the Texas Gulf Coast and another west toward the Pacific, and that in turn means fresh environmental battles on top of those already raging over the costly and energy-intensive method of extracting oil from sand.

Most believe that both will eventually be built. But if the U.S. doesn't approve its pipeline promptly, Canada might increasingly look to China, thinking America doesn't want a big stake share in what environmentalists call "dirty oil," which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Alberta has the world's third largest oil reserves, more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to nearly triple to 3.7 million in 2025. Overall, Alberta has more oil than Russia or Iran. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more.

Alberta is one of the few places where oil companies can invest, as the majority of the world's oil reserves are controlled by national governments. Only 22 percent of the total world reserves are accessible to private sector investment, 52 percent of which is in Alberta's oil sands, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Canada's only major oil export market is the U.S. But with the product of oil sands and pipeline delivery to the U.S. under perennial clouds of environmental objections, and with Asian demand growing, this country wants to diversify its market, and China is eager to oblige.

Sinopec, a Chinese state-controlled oil company, has a stake in a $5.5 billion plan drawn up by the Alberta-based Enbridge company to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast province of British Columbia. Alberta Finance Minister Lloyd Snelgrove met this month with Sinopec and CNOOC, China's other big oil company, and China's largest banks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110626/ap_on_bi_ge/cn_canada_oil_rush

Looks like the Canadians are planning on shipping the oil to China instead.

 

[scooterbug44]

Hope they use some sturdy tankers - it's nasty stuff!