Monday of this week the Obama administration threatened and eventually did decide to delay the decision on the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone Project has taken more than two and a half times longer than any of the other two lines coming from the Ft. McMurray oil sands.
Reading the news was particularly interesting because I was at Ft McMurray with a small group of legislators from various parts of the country when the announcement was made to delay the decision until after the 2012 election.
Since the United States government has not allowed the construction of any new oil refineries in over 30 years, any oil we buy from Canada's vast supply (third after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela ) has to be refined at existing facilities. Washington State takes more than two times the amount of any other state. But, even Rick Perry knows that any more would be refined on Texas.
All of us were amazed that this should be such a problem for the United States. If we want to be energy independent then we need to recognize the 100 year supply that our neighbor wants to sell to us. It is a national security issue as well. And, the jobs this new pipeline would produce can not go unnoticed in out economy.
We were treated well by the Canadian government. I was honored to sit at the head table by the Speaker of the Parliament. We toured the Capitol building and had a history of the British system delivered to us. On Tuesday we were flown by government plane to see the largest reclamation area in the world...that of the open pit oil sands far north of Alberta's Capitol city of Edmonton.
We also saw the biggest trucks in the world. I will insert a picture soon. We also saw the in situ sites. Oil sands too deep to mine are heated and extracted by heating underground. The oil makes it's way to the surface. That is a very quick description.
I imagine that the U.S. Looks exceptionally foolish in turning down this opportunity. It hasn't been lost on the Chinese. They are buying.
(using the IPad there are too many errors to correct. I can't get to a computer for a few days so please excuse the next few entries.)
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1 comment:
Thank you for your kind comments, Pam:
As a Canadian, who loves being a Canadian, I especially love and respect the American way of life. I feel we are fortunate to have neighbors such as yourselves.
As for the Keystone pipeline project and since the environment is very important, I think we should give more consideration to refining the product before shipping it away.
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