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Keystone XL the 'safest pipeline ever'
Sun News Network ^ | 2011-12-02 | Mark Dunn

Posted on 12/02/2011 3:30:08 PM PST by Clive

OTTAWA -- Republicans turned up the heat on U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday to reverse his decision to delay what was described at a congressional hearing as the safest oil pipeline ever proposed.

A parade of witnesses appeared at a House sub-committee meeting on energy to defend the safety and economic benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline, and to warn of the consequences should it rupture.

And in between partisan sniping between Democrats and Republicans, pipeline junkies learned Alberta-based TransCanada Corp. has adopted 57 additional safety measures, including 21,000 censors linked to satellites to detect problems.

"This is the most technologically advanced and safest pipeline ever proposed," Rep. Ed Whitfield said, noting XL has a censor every 167 meters to monitor pressure, flow rates and to identify leaks.

Republicans introduced legislation in the Senate this week that would force the State Department to issue a permit within 60 days to kick start the project critics say Obama delayed until after next fall's election to keep his environmental base onside and money flowing to his re-election bid.

Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president of energy and oil pipelines, reminded lawmakers no other pipeline has gone through as many reviews and as much scrutiny since the oil giant applied for a construction permit 40 months ago.

The $7 billion pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of crude daily to the Gulf Coast, where specialized refineries process a similar product from Venezuela.

"This has been by far the most exhaustive and detailed review ever conducted of a crude oil pipeline in the U.S.," said Pourbaix.

Representatives from organized labour pitched their support and the need for the 20,000 shovel-ready jobs XL would produce and spinoff work.

Alternative energy producers and a representative from a Nebraska citizens group opposed to the pipeline asked the committee not to rush the project.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Canada; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: economy; global; oil; prices
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TransCanada had originally proposed several alternative routes and expressed a preference for a route that would detour around the Ogallala Aquifer tha is the subject of so much polical angst.

It was the United States, not TransCanada that chose the direct route. Its grounds appear to have been that it was shorter and so involved less real estate and that it crossed fewer rivers.

1 posted on 12/02/2011 3:30:11 PM PST by Clive
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To: exg; Alberta's Child; albertabound; AntiKev; backhoe; Byron_the_Aussie; Cannoneer No. 4; ...

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2 posted on 12/02/2011 3:30:45 PM PST by Clive
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To: Clive

Keystone XL = a very large can (24oz) of Beer?


3 posted on 12/02/2011 3:34:42 PM PST by TruthWillWin (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.)
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To: Clive

Keep the heat on Obama over this pipeline. Shove those words about “shovel ready jobs” down his lying throat.


4 posted on 12/02/2011 3:35:05 PM PST by Rooivalk
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To: Clive

21,000 CENSORS? What is it? A guvmint pipeline?


5 posted on 12/02/2011 3:35:37 PM PST by StAntKnee (I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up from this dream theatre of the absurd.)
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To: Clive

What the hell is wrong with Democrats? have they all lost their minds.

Can they really be this loyal to the POS in the White House.

20,000 jobs, Energy independence from the Middle east.
This is a Nationa Security decision in my mind.

What possible reason can they offer for not wanting this pipeline, other than to give more money to the alterniative energy producers who have already made many of them rich.

We need a Republican President bad, but we need a Repoublican House and Senate even more. A House and senate filled with Real Republicans, not the RINO’s that fill those slots now.


6 posted on 12/02/2011 3:36:30 PM PST by Venturer
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To: Clive
Keystone XL the 'safest pipeline ever'

"... and the Titanic is 'unsinkable'."

Personally, yes, keep up the pressure on ODrama. we want and need this for many good reasons.Just don't jinx it.

7 posted on 12/02/2011 3:39:05 PM PST by theDentist (fybo; qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
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To: Venturer

This whole sordid display is proof positive that BOZ is bent on destroying America from within..


8 posted on 12/02/2011 3:45:41 PM PST by Shady (The undeniable truth of the Obama Administration...The numbers do not lie.)
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To: Clive

Reroute it to avoid the aquifer and Nebraska.


9 posted on 12/02/2011 3:53:47 PM PST by Ingtar (Newt (four more for Obama) & Mitt (Obamacare) - what wonderful choices!)
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To: Clive
The Envirofreaks could not care less about the pipeline and know it can't hurt the aquifer. They simply don't want any oil sand development. They don't care about American energy independence. They hate America, Americans and human beings in general.

Somehow in those weird things they call brains, they'd rather see the oil go to China if oil sand development continues without the U.S. pipeline. These people are not sane.

10 posted on 12/02/2011 3:59:31 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: Clive
"...since the oil giant applied for a construction permit 40 months ago..."

40 Months.

This.
Is.
Insane.

11 posted on 12/02/2011 4:01:14 PM PST by rlmorel ("A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Winston Churchill)
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To: Clive
"... that would detour around the Ogallala Aquifer..."

Seriously, though...does anyone even think if they DID make that detour, that the opponents would smile broadly and say "Oh, well then...we are fine with it!"

If the pipe goes over a creek where the Obsidian Striped Borer Beetle lives, that would be the next obstacle. Detour around that...

It will never end. These people are determined to ruin us.

12 posted on 12/02/2011 4:04:58 PM PST by rlmorel ("A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Winston Churchill)
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To: Bernard Marx

EXACTLY. Well said.


13 posted on 12/02/2011 4:05:34 PM PST by rlmorel ("A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Winston Churchill)
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To: Shady

Bamster is paying off his college loans by blocking a pipeline that would lessen Arab political clout. The Saudis do not want anything that would reduce the price of oil. Those palaces are expensive.


14 posted on 12/02/2011 4:07:31 PM PST by Ronin (If we were serious about using the death penalty as a deterrent, we would bring back public hangings)
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To: StAntKnee

21,000 CENSORS?

Methinks that would have the opposite effect of 21,000 sensors.


15 posted on 12/02/2011 4:08:28 PM PST by Onelifetogive (I tweet, too... @Onelifetogive)
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To: Bernard Marx

Oil sands exploitation will continue and the oil will go to China. Bank on it.


16 posted on 12/02/2011 4:11:36 PM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, or the jobs that go with it.)
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To: Clive
Either way it is scientifically irrelevant since the Ogallala is hundreds of feet below ground, and over-lain by an impervious layer of calcified clay. Keystone XL is a pure, 100% political exercise in psychopathic power.
17 posted on 12/02/2011 4:33:12 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Clive

“The $7 billion pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of crude daily to the Gulf Coast, where specialized refineries process a similar product from Venezuela.”

I support the pipeline, but I have to wonder.
Maybe, just maybe, it would make more sense to build a refinery closer to the source?
Short pipeline, new refinery, for the WIN.

Gulf Coast is prone to shutdown due to severe weather, it might make sense to put a refinery or two quite a bit further inland.

NE U.S. still uses a lot of heating oil, a nearby refinery might cut transport cost.

Of course the NIMBY’s and eco-nuts have prevented any new refinery being built for decades.
Maybe the pipe line would be less offensive to them than a new refinery?

Of course we all know the real eco-nut goal is to destroy our way of life by denying us any new source of oil/energy.


18 posted on 12/02/2011 5:01:25 PM PST by Loyal Sedition
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To: Former Proud Canadian
I'm sure you're right and it drives me crazy! As long as the wingnuts control our political and economic decisions this country is headed for disaster.
19 posted on 12/02/2011 5:09:59 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: Loyal Sedition
"... it would make more sense to build a refinery closer to the source?"

I think there is at least one refinery in Kansas already gearing up to take advantage of this line.

20 posted on 12/02/2011 5:21:20 PM PST by Dust in the Wind (U S Troops Rock)
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