Keystone XL Pipeline Veto

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Allan Gotlieb, Dean Of Diplomats, Sees Historic 'Cool' In Canada-U.S. Relations...

Canada and the U.S. remain each other's top trading partner, with $2 billion in goods and services swapped each day; there's military co-operation in the Middle East; federal departments deal directly with one another on scores of different initiatives; the governments are working on harmonizing industrial regulations across a range of sectors; and the historic reopening of U.S. relations with Cuba began in Canada, a fact Obama acknowledged and expressed gratitude for...

...He doesn't believe that more aggressive action on climate-change in Canada would have made a difference on the Keystone file, which he says has been dictated by political considerations in the U.S...

So as I say, we’ve not yet signed off on it. But we are inclined to do so and we are for several reasons . We’re either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the Gulf or dirty oil from Canada.”

The reason for vetoing it is stupid, it doesn't pose any significant risk to the environment compared to moving it down to the Gulf in tanker trucks or offshore drilling. If they were to bring up the issues with imminent domain it would be a more compelling argument but of course this administration will never argue against government power.

As we have noted before, when the president says “it bypasses the United States,” he leaves out a very important step. The crude oil would travel to the Gulf Coast, where it would be refined into products such as motor gasoline and diesel fuel (known as a distillate fuel in the trade). Current trends suggest that only about half of that refined product would be exported, and it could easily be lower.

A report released in February by IHS Energy, which consults for energy companies, concluded that “Canadian crude making its way to the USGC [Gulf Coast] will likely be refined there, and most of the refined products are likely to be consumed in the United States.” It added that “for Gulf refineries, heavy bitumen blends from the oil sands are an attractive substitute for declining offshore heavy crude supply from Latin America.” It concluded that 70% of the refined product would be consumed in the United States.

When Obama first started making the claim that the crude oil in the Keystone pipeline would bypass the United States, we strongly suggested he take the time to review the State Department report.