One thing I'm amazed at is the consistency of conservatives revealing that they don't know a goddamn thing about the Keystone Pipeline, either about its purpose or even of its actual existence in the real world. They think it's "magic" and would give us tons of cheap fuel (it wouldn't, it was for tar sands, which are notoriously nasty, impractical stuff), think it was for the benefit of the United States (it's Canadian and the United States was mostly getting the ecological damage and left to dispose of the toxic slurry), that it's actually complete (only about 8% was ever even built but they seem to think it's all there and has just been "turned off"), etc.
They don't actually look into anything, they just repeat things they're told, like parakeets. Ah, the logical capacities of people who are taught about "Jesus" from infancy...
Facts, however, are a little more...
inconvenient.https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46689167
But others, including environmentalists who oppose the pipeline mainly because extracting oil from tar sands releases more greenhouse gases than other methods of harvesting oil, also argue the pipeline will do little or nothing to boost US energy security and will actually lead to higher oil prices in the Midwest.
“Rather than providing the US with more Canadian oil, Keystone XL will simply shift oil from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast, where much of it can be exported to international buyers – decreasing US energy supply and increasing the cost of oil in the American Midwest,” concludes a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy non-profit group, citing numerous TransCanada studies and the transcripts of Canadian federal hearings.
But it’s not just environmentalists who are howling in the wilderness.
“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,” Philip K. Verleger, president of PKVerleger LLC, a Colorado consulting firm that specializes in research on oil market economics, wrote in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune commentary last March.
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, he projects. At least $500 million of the added cost “would come from the Canadian market manipulation,” he wrote.
“Millions of Americans will spend 10 to 20 cents more per gallon for gasoline and diesel fuel as tribute to our ‘friendly’ neighbors to the north,” the highly respected Dr. Verleger wrote. “The Keystone XL pipeline will move production from Canadian oil sands to a deepwater port from where it can be exported.”
But that is not merely Verleger’s opinion. It’s based on findings of the economic consultants hired by TransCanada – contained in their analyses of the pipeline’s impact on Canadian oil producers and in official testimony before Canada's National Energy Board.
“Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally [the US Midwest], are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil,” concludes a 2009 analysis on behalf of TransCanada by Purvin & Gertz, Inc., an oil economics firm based in Houston. “Access to the [US Gulf Coast] via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in [the Midwest market] by removing this oversupply. This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to the equivalent cost of imported crude.”
Here's a hint: it it was actually that great a deal for the United States and would make us a lot of money, Democrats wouldn't shun it. They're money-hungry too, y'know. If it makes money they're not gonna pass it up for "green" anything. Biden, in fact,
expanded drilling permits. https://truthout.org/articles/biden-administration-is-approving-oil-and-gas-drilling-at-faster-rate-than-trump/ Conservative arguments are flat-out bullshit. I get it, conservatives are trained to hate the other team (even when they do shit conservatives would cheer for if one of their own did it) and rah-rah their own (no matter how lousy or incompetent a job they do -- they
completely ignore Trump's pathetic bending over for Putin). I get it. But I wish they'd quit being fucking stupid and think that the stereotypes of Dems in their heads bear any resemblance to the real thing. Dems aren't going to pass up good money-making deals for the U.S. just because of some ideology. The only difference is, Dems just don't take quite as many bribes from lobbyists, at least not quite as cheaply or easily. (And if anybody wants to argue
that with me, I have family members who are embedded deep with the Pickerings, I've got inside info on Republican payoff shit, and I'll turn you into fucking
paste.)
Also, they want to credit Trump with lower gas prices, ignoring the fact that those prices they keep touting were because America was on lockdown due to COVID and nobody was fucking
driving. Low demand means low prices... but you'd have to have some basic economic knowledge to know that, and "conservative treehouse" or whatever ain't gonna teach ya that stuff. And even if it did they'd ignore it because it wouldn't fit their confirmation bias.
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