Wednesday, February 22, 2012

#Keystone XL Pipeline Oil Would Subtract 3 Cents or Less From a Gallon of #Gasoline in the US

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I wouldn't want to meet the spirits of Pine Ridge if my actions threatened their aquifer, especially for no more than $.03 off a gallon of gas!

I think Chief Young Man Afraid of His Horse is somewhere laughing at the lies promoting the Keystone XL pipeline.

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Bloomberg's Biz Week says that there is evidence that much of the tar sands oil or post refinery output will be going overseas instead of staying in the US to ease gasoline prices.
Though the pro tar sands oil folk crow that refined products from the tar sands will cure the US gas shortage (though we don't really have a shortage, just a speculation spike) a "Biz Week" report says:
The gas price argument rests on the bump in supply the Keystone XL will bring to market. Keystone XL would deliver around 830,000 barrels a day. Not all of that would be used in the U.S., however: The pipeline delivers to a tariff-free zone, so there’s a financial incentive to export at least some of this oil. This is especially true because area refineries are primed to produce diesel, for which there’s less stateside demand. But let’s say two-thirds of the capacity—half a million barrels a day—of Keystone oil stays in the U.S. That’s a convenient estimate on which to gauge the impact of Keystone oil, because it’s the supply increase the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which provides independent data on energy markets, expected in a recent study of the expiration of offshore drilling bans. In 2008, it studied what 500,000 barrels more per day would save consumers at the pump 3¢ a gallon.
(Various text emphasis modeling above added by this blogger to keep each unique point clear.)

Wow, 3 cents a gallon.  What a deal!  (and that is based on speculation, which the author of the article admits is arbitrary, that two thirds of the oil & products stay in the US instead of heading off on Oil tankers or Supertankers to Asia ).

And the latest, increased, jobs numbers that Trans Canada says will be created are viewed with skepticism by BW.  See excerpt:

Clearly, the construction of the pipe, most of it below ground, will be a huge undertaking. The estimated number of people it will employ in the process, however, has fluctuated wildly, with TransCanada raising the number from 3,500, to 4,200, to 20,000 temporary positions and suggesting the line will employ several hundred on an on-going basis. The U.S. State Department, which made its own assessment because the pipeline crosses the U.S.-Canada border, estimates the line will create just 20 permanent jobs. One advantage of a pipeline, after all, is that it’s automated.