Posted on 02/19/2015 11:08:19 AM PST by raptor22
Energy: Three million gallons of Bakken crude burning in rural West Virginia after an oil train derails in a snowstorm ought to underscore the environmental safety of replacing rail cars with the Keystone XL pipeline.
One of the reasons President Obama says he'll veto the Keystone pipeline bill that, as a result of last November's GOP electoral gusher, has found its way to his desk is that it will only carry Canadian crude to foreign markets and is not worth jeopardizing the environment.
Two things are wrong with that argument.
The first is that Keystone XL will also bring Bakken crude to the American market, accelerating the oil boom from fracking in the shale formation centered on North Dakota. This will make North America energy independent and the rest of the world less dependent on Middle Eastern oil, a matter of no small significance.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Go for it; build a 3XL pipeline.....
Warren Buffett owns a good piece of them thar railroads and that beast has to be fed.
Obama doesn’t get the fact that we are “refiners”....
And Buffett already gave Obama a BJ....
No, no, you don’t understand - pollution from a leak in a pipeline is SO much worse than the equal amount lost in a train derailment.
Especially when the persons with an interest in rail transport of crude oil contribute more in political payoffs than the persons who have an interest in pipelines.
Stop pandering to special interests, and sign it! Finish the pipeline!
If the DC crowd were serious about passing Keystone, they'd be doing it today. Any politician voting against it would be voting for massive deadly polluted ground transportation of oil.
1. I wonder what oil from North Dakota was doing in West Virginia.
2.The Keystine XL pipeline is is supposed to go from Alberta to Nebraska, where it will connect on to pipelines that go to Illinois and Texas. How is this going to help West Virginia?
KEYSTONE PIPELINE PING
Think of all the carbon that was released by the burning oil.
It must have sped up global warming by a few years ///puke
Yea, I think I’ll sit on the beach tomorrow. /s
The oil was on the train because it was being transported to a refinery, possible destinations include South Jersey, and refineries in the SE. Moving that oil to Texas will allow it to be put on ships there and floated to refineries on the US east coast.
I await correction from those more knowledgeable.
Our country is criss crossed by thousands of miles of pipelines, many decades old. How many pipeline disasters do we have compared to rail accidents? The XL Pipeline will cross mainly farmland and rural areas while rail lines inevitably travel through populated areas. The environmental concerns about the pipeline are overblown
(a) The derailment in West Virginia is an EXAMPLE (get it?) of the dangers of rail transport.
(B) If we don’t build Keystone XL, North Dakota oil will have to be shipped by dangerous rail.
(C) Therefore, it might be a good idea to build Keystone AND as many other pipelines as we need, even to carry oil to West Virginia.
Now, there, that’s not too many dots to connect, is it?
KEYSTONE PIPELINE PING
The same Greenies who would derail a train to prove how dangerous it is to ship oil by rail would not hesitate to blow up a pipeline to prove how dangerous it is to pipe oil.
Utter nonsense, of course. The Keystone Pipeline won't go anywhere near Virginia, which is where the crude oil was headed.
What it does underscore is the apparent problem keeping railcars on the tracks.
At least it wasn't Hydroflouric acid, or anhydrous ammonia, or any one of a number of far nastier substances shipped by rail.
There is currently a trend shifting toward more durable railcars, or modified ones which can better resist the effects of wrecking the train, but the bottom line is that the cargo isn't a problem if the train just stays on the tracks.
One last thing--cleanup will be easier after the crude burns off than it would be if the fire was put out (and less dangerous, too).
Buffett holds a chunk of BNSF.
Going to a refinery in Virginia. Just passing through.
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