Commentary: Biden's energy decisions undermine US, benefit China

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THE XL PIPELINE SETBACKS REVEAL THE PERILS OF RUSHED AGENCY APPROVALS. WHEN THE APPROVEALS WERE NOT IN PLACE, CONSTRUCTION OF THE XL PIPELINE WAS STOPED APRIL, 2020.

IF THE FULL ENDANGERED SPECIES REVIEW HAD BEEN COMPLETED,THE XL PIPELINE COULD HAVE RESTARTED BUILDING. BUT THEY DID NOT GET THE REVIEW COMPLETED,SO THE PROJECT WAS SHUT DOWN APRIL 2020 UNDER TRUMP.

2020: IN MARCH, A FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT RULED THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAD NOT ADEQUATELY ASSESSED THE RISKS OF THE PROJECT AS REQUIRED BY NEPA, SUCH AS THREATS IT POSED TO LAKE OAHE, WHICH THE PIPELINE RUNS DIRECTLY UNDER.

JULY 08, 2020:On Monday, federal courts dealt major setbacks to the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

The Trump Administration is seeking to scale back the NEPA environmental review process altogether, through new regulations. But these regulations don’t alter the existing NEPA statute, so the Administration’s effort may ultimately backfire. Under the Trump Administration, certain agencies have started to forgo a full assessment of environmental effects—especially climate change effects—but the old rules haven’t been overturned yet. This can have high costs. For instance, federal courts recently found the Department of the Interior’s analysis of climate change and groundwater effects from federal oil and gas lease sales deficient, leading to lease sale delays and cancellations. Other projects that use the new regulations as an excuse to ignore NEPA requirements could face a similar fate.

The XL pipeline project is most likely dead, as the Gulf Coast refineries have reconfigured to process mostly the lighter crudes and not the product from the Tar Sand's of Canada.

What has changed with the XL pipeline is it is not needed as it once was.

The project would require fewer than 2,000 construction jobs over two years. And once built, the pipeline would employ about 35. If someone is a pipe welder, many jobs are available.

This is just one, and it is for 2 Year duration.. Welder - Borger Refinery Phillips 66 - Borger, TX 3.8 Technical certification for Welder (or higher) OR code certified with a minimum of 2 years of experience…$41 an hour . The ad did not say, but most likely they are paying Per Diem, which in Texas is between $98 to $189 a day, tax free.

The need for Canadian tar sands oil is not at the same as just a few years ago. Now with Light Sweet Crude Oil at the $56.76 range, more refineries are moving away from being able to process Canadian tar sands oil (Dilbit). It cost more to process.

Energy economists say that producing petroleum from Canadian tar sands could not turn a profit until the global oil price passes $65 a barrel.

This price requirement could cause the pipeline to be shutdown for periods of time which can cause other problems, such as with the integrity of the pipe.

If you are interested in the environmental reason, many are opposed because the product is Dilbit, which is much heavier than conventional crude, quickly sinks and is far harder to clean up. Five years after the spill of more than a million gallons in the Kalamazoo River from a pipeline rupture, thick deposits of dilbit still lie at the bottom, impossible to remove. The cleanup has already cost more than $1 billion.

To expand on what Jim said and clarify some facts about the energy industry.

1. The Canadian crude is crap and most refineries in the southern United States do not run it. BP in whiting runs some and Husky in Toledo and only a few others.

2. 20,000 jobs is huge exaggeration. More like 2000 and only on the United States to Canada piece. There is still plenty of pipeline jobs in the US.

3. There are plenty of oil wells and leases without expanding drilling on federal lands.

4. The stop on the Keystone construction ( because it is not an in service pipeline) only makes what we have in Texas and Oklahoma more valuable as well as the ports on the Texas coast. The Cushing to gulf coast pipeline is now very valuable.

5. Two dollar a gallon gas is not a good thing. It is a symptom of destroyed demand, mainly in the jet fuel market. Three refineries have closed permanently and will never come back, Marathon Martinez, Marathon in New Mexico and a Shell refinery in Louisiana. This is due to the pandemic and market forces not anything to do with executive actions.

Looks like our Liberal forum posters don't care if thousands are out of a job.

Aren't you the same two guys who believe in the Great Election Fraud Hoax? I think we can safely ignore your opinion.

Biased comments are plentiful. Regan did absolutely nothing for American labor. We suffered the worst loss of income for his last seven years. He started with the Air traffic controllers and it all went downhill from there for lower classes of Americans. Trump the TV celebrity that today’s Republicans are infatuated with followed in Regans footsteps by doing all he could for the very rich and absolutely nothing for lower classes of American Labor. In the next four years American labor may have a chance to make up for their losses that the Republicans insist on forcing on them.

Mr. Jones, in the mist of all you posted ...did I see where you are admitting that the SWAMP set Trump up? If not, do you believe he was set up, or do you believe he was an agent of Russia, like most of your associates professes he was?

To export Canadian Heavy Crude to China will take a new pipeline cutting through a national park in British Columbia. The opposition to that is heavier than the opposition to KXL. Then you have to build a new deep water port at Kitamat or Prince Rupert. Then the Chinese have to reconfigure their refineries. All of this, as Jim mentioned, takes north of $70/bbl to be economically feasible. Oil is forecasted to average $55/bbl as far as the eye can see. Bottom line: It ain’t going to China.

I’ve said this here before and I’ll say it again. I disagree with Biden’s decision on KXL because it is bad policy making. It is a continuation of the Obama Administration’s bad habit of ad hoc authorization (or not) of projects based on political winds. Permitting for projects should be based on a clear but strict set of environmental criteria. You meet them or you don’t and once a permit is issued, a deal is a deal. But the practice of going back and forth on authorizations creates such a huge risk for long wavelength projects that it makes companies afraid to invest in US energy projects.

I'm hearing that tomorrow's fake trial of the "JUNTA" who is running our country now, and who works for Red China will put on, will have an old feeble minded Senator who is a Trump Hater as the JUDGE of the Sham Event! It seems that Supreme Court Chief Judge Roberts refused to be part of the SHAM EVENT because it is unconstitutional! These people never cease to amaze me.

Just when I think they have sunk as low as they can get, they prove me wrong! The "JUNTA" in charge now is also allowing thousands and thousands of illegals in this country without sending any back! Instead they are giving the "Catch & Released" individuals a ticket to anywhere they wanna go to here, with the understanding they will show up 100 years from now for a court date, can you believe that?

To solve that problem we need the same amount of AFRICANS refugees out of Nigeria, Sudan, or Kenya, to seek asylum here a year,....in the same numbers as they are killing African-Americans babies by ABORTION, and watch how fast they close that stuff down! It is all a play to destroy this country! The "JUNTA is not loyal to Americans! The "JUNTA" is working for CHINA, just as Beijing JOE is!

Canada has a glut of bitumen ,with no one wanting to buy it.

For the one's that want to build the XL Pipeline, what are we, the USA, going to do with the bitumen .

If the bitumen were to reach the Gulf Cost, what Refineries would want it? With fracking ,we not longer have a shortage of oil. Unless the price of the bitumen was sold at a huge discount , no refinery would even think of buying it. Plus the fact that most refineries can not run it because they are not configured to do so.

If the XL pipeline is ever placed into service and then shutdown because not enough demand for bitumen , the pipeline stands a chance of being attacked by bacteria at a accelerated rate. Sulphate-reducing bacteria can colonize sludge that collects at the bottom of a pipe, eventually corroding the metal. This can cause a pipe to have to be replaced in a very short time.

The following is also true in Texas.

“We do not need 800,000 barrels a day of anybody’s crude oil to come to Cushing, Oklahoma and sit there,” said Mickey Thompson, former head of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association.

But Thompson says the Pipeline would bring millions of gallons of Canadian oil to Cushing, OK , driving down demand and prices for Oklahoma oil, ultimately hurting oil prices and jobs far more than what would be caused by stopping the Pipeline. “The loss of job argument holds no water in Oklahoma,” said Thompson. The same thing is true in Texas.

Let Canada build the refineries that they need to process their bitumen.. Let Canada take care of their own bitumen problem. If we want to refine bitumen, we have plenty in the USA.

Canada has converted one refinery to process bitumen, but they are not sure that will make a profit. Bitumen is not what refineries are wanting to use, when better crude can be purchased and does not come with the problems that bitumen does.

The North West Redwater Sturgeon Refinery is now refining Alberta bitumen. The refinery switched to bitumen feedstock in April at a final cost of almost $10 billion.

The province will be the main customer, providing the facility with bitumen it receives in lieu of royalties. The government will pay an estimated $26 billion in tolls to the refinery over the next three decades to refine that bitumen into diesel. The hope is the market for that fuel will provide enough profit to cover the cost of construction, and provide a return to the province.

Brian Livingston, an executive fellow with the School of Public Policy in Calgary released a report that questioned the profitability of the refinery, and he says even with it now being operational, there are still risks.

I am listening to the bird shot style arguments of David Schoen representing former President Trump

Mr Schoen made his name “ he represented the Ku Klux Klan in successfully challenging a law that forbade them from marching while wearing hoods and without paying a fee.” I would say that’s appropriate

He was to represent Jeffrey Epstein also and as I listen to him, I clearly see why Epstein killed himself

That being said, is it just me or is there some pattern emerging among his clients?