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 a deceptive attempt to 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.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet Gardner
This is an article that every american voter should read.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
Wow - fabulous article! What gets me is that when the BC conservatives read it, they'll either ignore it or they're throw insults or Fox-approved talking points that address none of the solid points you bring up.
3 - Jet Gardner
I expect nothing less from them, that's why I included so many right-wing sites as references.
They live in a bubble Glenn, it's a lot like a roach motel... facts got in, but they don't come out.
I hope this article met your expectations?
4 - Jet Gardner
Without a doubt the most important 2 paragraphs are the final 2 on page 6, everything else is just proof of them.
5 - Igor
Excellent article, Jet. Thanks for publishing it.
Incidentally, republicans are lying when they say that the pipeline itself will be built with american steel: the pipe has already been ordered from China, and it will be a new ultra-thinwall tube, even more susceptible to rupture and spillage than existing pipe.
But one of Hillary's campaign workers is now an executive at Transcanada, so I think there's some Old Boy influence going on there.
The only independent employment study was done at Cornell and says there's only about 500-2000 temporary jobs involved, and that there might even be a negative influence on US employment. I carefully read the Perryman report that Pipeline proponents commissioned, but it uses a proprietary model to estimate employment, so there's no way to check it.
6 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Igor, of course that's not counting jobs lost at bypassed refineries. I pretty much mentioned the steel thing in the article, but thanks for elaborating for me. I had to shorten it or it'd be 12 pages long.
Thanks for the encouragement.
If this keeps Up, I may start writing on a regular basis after my fingers heal.
7 - Holy ^%$*&
I don't know how this story got past me, but I sure got an eye opener with this one. Liked the You Tube of the Indians standing up to the tanker truck!
Good job of reporting Jet
8 - Jet Gardner
I wanted to mention the Lakotas but the article was too long, so I added the YouTube instead.
Some fiesty ladies aren't they?
9 - Jet Gardner
That link to the Lakota Tribe is on page 4-last sentence by the way...
10 - Jet Gardner
My sincere thanks to Clavos who edited this in such a fair-minded way.
11 - Jet Gardner
The $50,000 fee they're trying to collect in the video is what would've been charged in fines for driving overweight trucks over South Dakota Highways. Considering that the two-lane roads the indians are trying to maintain, they deserve the fee for all the trucks that have already damaged their roads.
12 - Igor
Jet, I really appreciate the research and writing you put into this article. Keep it up!
Blogcritics needs more of such well-researched and well-written articles to wash away the bad taste of really inferior articles we've been subjected to lately.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Wasn't it just a few years ago that it was the Left calling for less dependence on foreign oil, and the Right explaining that petroleum was a fungible resource, that it all went straight into a global pool, and that there was no guarantee that oil drilled in North America would stay in North America?
Funny old world.
14 - Jet Gardner
Imagine that Doc, Imagine that
15 - Jet Gardner
Wow, this was only published last night and it's already fallen off the home page! I wonder how that happened?
16 - Clavos
@#13:
It was only months ago, Doc, not years (as recently as last summer, I think).
And Jet: While I certainly appreciate the props, it wasn't hard for me to be fair, I basically agree with you in re the pipeline; I think the better path to end the dependency on oil as a source of energy would be for Obama to tax it up to $6 or even $8-9 a gallon (I paid $10 last summer in Tuscany), which would both strongly inhibit consumption, and make alternative technologies more competitive; not to mention bring in significant additional revenue to pay off that debt Obama is incurring.
But it ain't gonna happen; the pols (on both sides) are far more driven by getting reelected than by actually solving problems.
17 - Jet Gardner
"IT'S THE BIG ONE 'LIZBETH!!!! I agree with Clavos... god help me
18 - Jim Masterson
Just one more reason not to vote for Romney with his head up his ass. Time to invest in gasoline futures in 50 gallon drums out in my back yard eh?
19 - Jet Gardner
I have a feeling that if I tried that on my balcony my landlord would have a fit... alas
20 - Jet Gardner
I just watched the youtube again and was astonished that they're trying to force the landowner Mike Hathorn in Texas to be responsible for any injuries that happen near or on the pipeline instead of them, so he'll actually have to buy more insurance if someone EVEN ONE OR THEIR OWN WORKERS gets hurt walking the damned thing.
Page 4-mid page Last third of the video. the last two guys are people who could be your grandfather and just as trustworthy
21 - Jet Gardner
Check out the last sentence of the report I just found!
... An independent analysis conducted by the University of Nebraska concluded that Keystone XL over a 50-year period is expected to experience 91 significant spills (greater than 50 barrels). In fact, the University of Nebraska study found Keystone XL could spill as much as 6.9 million gallons of raw tar sands crude oil at the Yellowstone River crossing. In just its first year of operation, the first Keystone pipeline operated by TransCanada has spilled 35 times in the United States and Canada in 2010. This spill frequency is 100 times higher than forecast by TransCanada.
22 - Jet Gardner
Hey Doc, I passed a gas station here in Ohio today at $3.49 a gallon, how's California? I'm not being a smartass, I want to compare to the midwest oversupply here.
23 - Dr Dreadful
Still $4.29 at the gas station down the street, Jet, which has consistently been the cheapest in the area.
It should be noted that I'm in San Diego, which has the priciest gas in the state, but there isn't that much variation up and down California from what I've been told.
24 - Jet Gardner
I just talked to my sister in oregon and she's at $4.07
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Over here in the Philippines it's about $5.50 per gallon, give or take a few pisos. And somehow the jeepney and tricycle drivers make a living inching along in the traffic here charging about $.40 per passenger.