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stop relying on “terrorist” countries to keep our homes heated, cars
running and economy kicking.
“The United States consumes 15 million barrels of oil per day and
imports 11 million,” Russell K. Girling of the TransCanada Corporation,
which is to build the Keystone pipeline, wrote in The Hill. “Keystone XL
offers Americans the choice of receiving their oil from a friendly, secure
supplier in Canada, instead of importing crude from unstable, volatile
foreign nations such as Venezuela, Libya and other areas of the Middle
East.”
Despite popular belief, Keystone XL, which is to transport tar sands
from Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, Texas, will not be used domestically.
Refiners based in Port Arthur, where the oil will end up, are focused on
exporting oil to Europe and Latin America. The majority of the heavy tar
sands oil extracted in Alberta will never end up being burned in the United
States.
“To issue a presidential permit for the Keystone XL, the
administration must find that the pipeline serves the national interest,”
says Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International.
“An honest assessment shows that rather than serving U.S. interests,
Keystone XL serves only the interests of tar sands producers and shippers,
and a few Gulf Coast refiners aiming to export the oil.”
Additionally, Valero, which is to be one of Keystone XL’s main
customers, purchasing 76 percent of initial production, has detailed to its
investors that the crude it is to buy is mainly set for export. To top it off,
Port Arthur, where the dirty oil is to be refined, is in a Foreign Trade Zone,
where the company can operate without paying any U.S. taxes. Valero’s
contract is to last until 2030 and the company is to take around 100,000
barrels of tars sands per day.
Despite an outpouring of opposition to the proposed pipeline, which
culminated in over 1,200 arrests in late August and early September 2011
outside the White House and ongoing protests in Texas, the Obama
administration is slowly moving forward with the deal. President Obama’s
jobs advisers are lending support for the pipeline and he is also likely