Speaker’s Line in the Tar Sand: ‘Guarantee’ Keystone Pipeline Will Be in Jobs Bill

If Boehner and the GOP want to build a pipeline to “create jobs,” then they need to hop aboard President Obama’s High Speed Rail initiative to create even more.

We have ignored the Canadian Tar Sands as a fuel source for many decades because they’re low-quality, low-yield, thick, grimy crud. Compared to traditional petroleum wells, they are a very expensive and inferior source of fuel.

But if traditional sources of petroleum are diminishing, we do have to adapt to utilizing this inferior fuel source. That means that we must also adapt our transporation infrastructure. Automotive and inefficient short-hop airline service will never again be as affordable as what we’ve enjoyed for the last 45~55 years.

The era of Cheap Oil is over.

We need to develop nationwide, intercity passenger rail service to cope with this reality.

Keystone Pipeline AND Regional Passenger Rail Service.

It’s a good compromise.
A win-win for everybody.
And it’s the right direction our nation needs to go.

The House has done its work – cow-towing to the Lying Oil Barons and the Idiotic Tea Party. If they had actually done their job RIGHT they would have sent the budget over WITHOUT the oil sands project in it. It MAY produce a lot of jobs, but more than likely they will go to Canadians, not US Citizens. The Oil sands are toxic and I too have heard they are low quality fuel.

Taking oil from shale and oil sands is four times more expensive than getting it from oil reservoirs. lt is also much more environmentally dangerous. The oil companies want this pipeline badly to reduce their shipping costs and bypass environmental regulations.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 16, 2011, 2:31 pm.

I’m still trying to find out why TransCanada doesn’t build a pipeline across Canada to any one of their dozen oil refineries. Why must they go straight through the USA to the Gulf? Why won’t Canada do for this project? Or, what does Canada know about this project that WE don’t?

Canada stated that if we don’t want the crude they will build the pipe line to the west coast and sell it to China. And we can keep on getting it from our friends in the middle east and central America. That sounds like a good idea. but this should be separate and the 1000 page bill needs to be voted down because just like the Dems massive bills no one knows all the bs in it. But I do give the repugs in the house credit for at least trying to pass a budget because the dems don’t know what the word budget means.

Canada stated that if we don’t want the crude they will build the pipe line to the west coast and sell it to China. And we can keep on getting it from our friends in the middle east and central America.
Posted by: singledad2 | December 16, 2011, 3:19 pm.

Hmmm. The way I understand it, it will STILL be sold on the world market even if it IS refined in the Gulf region. Whether it goes to China or Europe or Mars, the point is, it will NOT be earmarked for the USA alone. And no matter WHERE it is refined, the finished product will still end up in tanker ships. Again, Canada has over a dozen oil refineries within its own borders. There HAS to be some that are a lot closer to the tar sands fields than the Gulf Coast! It would be a lot cheaper to build a pipeline to them than it would to go through the USA. Something seems really fishy here……….

The republicans included the pipeline to screw the president. Nothing more. If it is approved with the pipeline…it is because th president wants the middle class to get the payroll tax cut but the reps. will once again think they have won. If he refuses…he will be called the person who is holding up jobs…forget the fact that republicans have turned down the infrastructure bill. If he goes along and passes this bill..he will be called weak. Either way the republicans will label him …..That is how the republicans work…for themselves…not for the country.

Keystone Pipeline AND Regional Passenger Rail Service.
It’s a good compromise.
A win-win for everybody.—right up to the point where something happens because approval was rushed through, we see the design wasn’t vetted properly and then we have another environmental disaster on our hands wiping out a major fresh water supply. Ya know, there is no free lunch. A major pipeline like this is a HUGE engineering project and it needs to be done RIGHT so we dont have disasters. Why approve it before it’s been properly vetted??? why? what possible benefit…..ahhh,except…to the stock prices of the oil company who gets the contract. Do tell me, at what point do republicans actually start to represent the US CITIZENS they are supposed to represent and not the oil companies who bought their votes????

..That is how the republicans work…for themselves…not for the country.—–clearly. well, they actually work for the oil companies. Why else would they push a pipeline that has not had proper review? why try to skip over the ‘is this a safe design” process???? because oil companies are always so responsible???? Please.

In a statement Monday, the State Department warned that congressional interference with the Keystone XL pipeline could backfire. The State Department has authority over the project because it crosses an international border. The statement said that if Congress imposes an arbitrary deadline for a permit decision, it could prevent the administration from meeting environmental laws that govern the approval process. In that case, officials say the department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit.’ …………………………Wouldn’t that be the Crowning Glory!

The joke about the State Department’s statement is that they imposed a new impact study recommendation at the tail end of the original environmental impact study asking for a Climate Change impact analysis which is nothing more than a desperate last minute effort to stall the project. I wonder how many Climate Change impact studies were done before committing to foreign oil from Brazil’s offshore oil rigs. The hypocrisy is just too rich.

The hypocrisy is just too rich; especially when you considered that the State Department originally approved the project stating that the risks were at acceptable levels. It was only after affluent Democrat donors objected the decision and threatened to cut off campaign funding that Obama and the State Department changed course.

this is nothing more than putting san francisco democrats ahead of the rest of the country.we need jobs and we need less expensive energy. when all democrats abandon their cars trains and planes i will listen. in the mean time this is same old pandering to the liberal base regardless of the cost to the silent majority. hows that occupy stuff going? about as well as arab spring.

Turn it down Harry , let the House Teapublicans take the heat for holding the American unemployed hostage to get their corporate welfare big oil pipeline pork/earmark passed. People are starting to pay attention , finally.

Posted by: don’tvote(r)
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Yes, absolutely! Block the Keystone pipeline! That will keep the unemployment rate nice and high.
The chances of the Republican nominee winning in 2012 will have doubled!