Keystone XL Pipeline

After a 7 year review and only days after Canada requested that the approval process be placed on hold, President Obama rejected the XL pipeline for environmental reasons.  Of course, the best thing for the environment would have been to approve the pipeline.  How could that be?

First, the Canadian oil sands are going to be drilled and burned regardless of our decision.  Therefore, if it is going to be exploited, we should be looking to make it as clean as possible.  With the US rejecting it, Canada will instead have to build a pipeline to British Columbia and ship it to China.  China does not have a record of environmental friendliness; there is a reason so many Chinese are wearing dust masks in the smog-clogged cities.  As the US is shutting coal plants, China is building them at a rapid clip.  Gallon for gallon, the oil would produce a lot less pollution if the US refined and burned it than any other option.  Again, if it is going to be exploited, our best option from an environmentalist viewpoint is to route it to the cleanest option.

 

Second, as the oil sands are going to be used, someone is going to build a pipeline and profit from it.  Either it is going to British Columbia or to Houston.  If it goes to BC, the US gets little if any economic benefit from it.  On the other hand, if it goes to Houston, the United States will build the pipeline and get value-added benefit for transporting and processing it.  Refusing the project does not stop it, it only means the US economy will not benefit from it.

 

Third, there are already half a million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the United States.  Another two thousand miles is a miniscule increase in the overall network.  Moreover, the safety record of pipelines is much better than the alternative means of transport: trains or trucks.  Over the years, I've seen lots of stories about hazardous spills from overturned trucks and derailed trains but I can't recall any related to broken pipelines.

 

It took 7 years to come to the wrong factual decision.  However, it does satisfy the greens who are a major part of the Democrat base.  This was a political decision, not a practical or rational one.