Posted on 07/09/2013 4:23:11 PM PDT by raptor22
A n oil-laden train not unlike those rolling down American tracks derailed and exploded Saturday in a Canadian town, proving why pipelines are safer and environmentalist opposition to a pipeline from Canada is misguided.
At least 13 people were reported dead and 37 missing in the charred Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, 130 miles east of Montreal, after the accident created an inferno of burning crude. Some may never be found, likely vaporized by the sheer intensity of the blaze that burned for 36 hours.
Canada's oil boom, due largely to development of the oil sands in its western province of Alberta, confronts an inadequate oil transport infrastructure. Canada doesn't have nearly the pipeline network we do, and oil shipments by rail have soared 28,000% in the last five years.
The Canadian Railway Association recently estimated that as many as 140,000 carloads of crude are expected to rattle over the nation's tracks this year, up from just 500 in 2009.
Keystone Is The Key
The Canadian tragedy comes amid the controversy over the transport of Canadian crude through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to Gulf Coast refineries. Without Keystone, designed to carry 830,000 barrels a day of oil, shipments of Canadian crude by rail would rise an additional 42% by 2017, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Railways suffer spills 2.7 times more often than pipelines, according to the Washington-based Association of American Railroads. If that seems self-serving, the State Department, citing a 2012 study from the free-market Manhattan Institute, said trains spill 33 times more oil than pipelines.
The oil boom in the Bakken formation centered in North Dakota and the danger of rail shipments should increase concern south of the border as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
its my opinion that the keystone is being stalled as more of a payback to warren buffett. his BN trains will be making a killing hauling this oil, he did give Odumo some cover in his tax the rich mantra
interesting choice of words. as horrible as this is it doesn't happen every day. abd pipelines blow up too. still want to build the pipeline and screw the envirowhackos.
Your opinion is exactly what’s happening, and why Keystone will never be implemented.
Ohhhhhhh.. I thought it was because wind turbines and solar panels were working out so well. /s 0bama’s motive is at LEAST four-fold here; One, as you say.. Buffet. Two, ENSURING OUR DEPENDENCY on Middle Eastern oil (0bama is possibly a Saudi plot), Three, to drive another knife into conventional energy and Four, to appease his enviroMENTAList donors.
ten bucks says that Buffett made money on the accident - he is a wise man and probably had insurance.
It shows a more immediate need for an east west pipeline. That train runs oil to the largest refinery in Canada, located in Saint John, New Brunswick. Saint John also has an ice free deep water port that could be used to export oil to Europe.
IBD EDITORIAL PING
The town was 10 miles or so from the US/Canadian border.
I was told it was Alberta tar sands crude being shipped to Maine for export on a tanker.
Are you saying the oil was just “taking a short cut” across the US to get to New Brunswick?
100%.
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