XL Pipeline

This is the Xl map, look how far that damn thing has to go to reach Port Arthur, I just can't help but wonder why TransCanada has decided that they want to pipe their toxic sludge all the way across our country instead of their own?

I love our land and it's beauty and I will never approve of doing something like this to her to line the pockets of America's Corporate Welfare Queens like Big Oil, The Koch Bros or The Cato Institute.

The truth of it is that Trans Canada will most likely reroute the pipeline around Nebraska to avoid the sand and the Ogallalla Aquifer and it will still end up in Texas. Rerouting is nothing new concerning midstream operations and a 250 mile reroute might sound huge, but with the magnitude of this project it is simply a drop in the hat. Many states have already approved the preliminary permits necessary.

If the above scenario falls through, the consensus seems to be a new route to the West coast to transport to Asia namely China. Unless America imposes a surcharge on the volume that passes through the pipeline, which is not industry standard, I don't see this as a sound decision. In either case the pipeline will cross environmentally sensitive areas (wetlands, habitat for protected species, forestland, etc.).

I would simply hope that the decision made is beneficial to our nation. Increasing our ability to rely on oil that is not shipped transcontinentally seems to make sense. Environmentally, I believe that we can implement more stringent regulations as far as unforeseen pressure drops, catholic protection to reduce corrosion, and more frequent inspections of the line in general.

Here's to hoping our elected leaders make decisions that are good for the whole instead of corporate lobbies, and individual interests.

Sorry don't buy it.

This govt is hell bent on making us a 3rd world
basket case. Google is in cahoots with the govt
and it's ecoidiocy. Besides accidents happen.
You would have us believe the oil companies
care nothing about the money literally
gushing out and lost.

Besides oil is a natural compound.
It isn't alien and is as organic as it gets.

Oil prices will increase because of
insufficient refinery capacity.
Combined with asinine epa regs.

If the canuks process the oil sand.
The resulting product will be a lot
more expensive because the canuks
ain't in the charity refining business.
Also I don't believe they have a refinery
like the ones on the gulf coast ready
to crack this product.
Oh they could build one sure.
And it would further add to the price.

My progeny would like to thank you
in advance for all the energy resources
that they now get to strip mine, hydrofrak,
and extract by any means possible.
Yeah they think we were suckers.
But since we spent their inheritance
it is the least they can do.

Your purported love of this pile of dirt called a country
would render it's people- the true wealth of a country-
destitute and subserviant to foreign powers.

The safest way to protect the land is to seal it
under a 3 foot concrete rebar cap.
With some useful parking stripes.

The truth of it is that Trans Canada will most likely reroute the pipeline around Nebraska to avoid the sand and the Ogallalla Aquifer and it will still end up in Texas. Rerouting is nothing new concerning midstream operations and a 250 mile reroute might sound huge, but with the magnitude of this project it is simply a drop in the hat. Many states have already approved the preliminary permits necessary.

If the above scenario falls through, the consensus seems to be a new route to the West coast to transport to Asia namely China. Unless America imposes a surcharge on the volume that passes through the pipeline, which is not industry standard, I don't see this as a sound decision. In either case the pipeline will cross environmentally sensitive areas (wetlands, habitat for protected species, forestland, etc.).

I would simply hope that the decision made is beneficial to our nation. Increasing our ability to rely on oil that is not shipped transcontinentally seems to make sense. Environmentally, I believe that we can implement more stringent regulations as far as unforeseen pressure drops, catholic protection to reduce corrosion, and more frequent inspections of the line in general.

Here's to hoping our elected leaders make decisions that are good for the whole instead of corporate lobbies, and individual interests. Originally Posted by nefarious

nefarius, what would your opinion be concerning nationalizing the nations energy needs? Or anyone's opinion for that matter…...

This is not a drug reference; it is in reference to a strain of plant but not the drug strain.

HEMP is the strain of the cannabis plant that has less than .3% (that’s point 3, 1/3 of 1 percent) of the drug (THC) found in the recreationally used drug. (2%-20% in the recreationally used substance). Only a headache would come from doing with this strain what folks typically do with the recreational variety.

Positives of HEMP:
-Grows like a "weed", meaning lower/ no need for chemicals to produce.
-Doesn't sap the ground of nutrients to the extent of a corn crop or cotton (can replace both of these crops except for corn on the cob, which I luv)
-Not another tree cut down to be bleached and made into paper.
-Grows in a 90 day cycle, so we can produce at least 2 cycles during growing season compared to one of our flex fuel (corn)
-Can be turned into fuel using the current refineries we have with little modification.
-Farmers back to work, no subsidies
-Countries with difficult growing climates, I am guessing will benefit from our research (IMO)
-No lose of jobs, increase of jobs
- No more Sheiks sitting on golden toilets with the American flag etched into the bottom of the bowl (I made that last part about the flag up. I have no definite info on this)

The majority of you will discount all of this as a hippy’s (which I am far from) wish to partake.

Fact of the matter, as any of you that do minimal research on this, will find it to be a legitimate answer to the world and our countries woes. Just see how it was used prior to Lobbyist involvement in every country (pre early 20th centry), the Entire world. Money( aka: oil companies, paper companies, car companies, alcohol companies) as always have down played and lobbied against this plant to the point that most only know what the recreational strain is about and that is info incorrectly is bunched in with the pharmaceutical drugs and sluffed off as a drug problem. Once labeled a problem no one considers it a solution.
Our politicians take the money from the lobbyist and have for decades and you have what we got here, failure to communicate. Well if not communication then for sure to stop us from getting the truth and the facts in an unbiased way.

Hope you enjoyed the read.

I am off to the oil fields to get paid 100k to look at a computer. Wondering what the supervisor gets, or maybe the Operations manager. I’ll tell you when I get that job but it is no wonder we are paying $3 for something that we can replace for less cost, more jobs, and an environmental foot print of a Nat.

Collegegirl,

You go girl! Finally we see that some among the college populace is learning something. I find her analysis interesting and refreshing. Comin to see ya soon.

JJ

now that Iran has backed down on their threats against the US Navy, I wonder if prices will go down. Probably not as the wall street speculators will find another reason to keep and/or raise prices.

Your left wing enviromentalist hippie talking points are all too familiar Nemmy. Along with your quotes and cute little pics. Reminds me of someone from the past who only had one review but spewed left wing bullshit. Explain to me what happened to the gulf oil spill? What happened to all the oil? Is it still doin damage or did the earth where it came from dispose of it naturally? How about global warming? Or climate change, which ever you prefer. It looks like the left wing scientists cooked the books. Evidence of that is still coming out. Don't forget the occupy movement that got nowhere. Welcome. back?

nefarius, what would your opinion be concerning nationalizing the nations energy needs? Or anyone's opinion for that matter…... Originally Posted by 1NEMESIS

Have the government that is incapable of doing anything efficiently take over the energy sector of the economy. Is that a serious question? It would end up as a total disaster.

This is not a drug reference; it is in reference to a strain of plant but not the drug strain.

HEMP is the strain of the cannabis plant that has less than .3% (that’s point 3, 1/3 of 1 percent) of the drug (THC) found in the recreationally used drug. (2%-20% in the recreationally used substance). Only a headache would come from doing with this strain what folks typically do with the recreational variety.

Positives of HEMP:
-Grows like a "weed", meaning lower/ no need for chemicals to produce.
-Doesn't sap the ground of nutrients to the extent of a corn crop or cotton (can replace both of these crops except for corn on the cob, which I luv)
-Not another tree cut down to be bleached and made into paper.
-Grows in a 90 day cycle, so we can produce at least 2 cycles during growing season compared to one of our flex fuel (corn)
-Can be turned into fuel using the current refineries we have with little modification.
-Farmers back to work, no subsidies
-Countries with difficult growing climates, I am guessing will benefit from our research (IMO)
-No lose of jobs, increase of jobs
- No more Sheiks sitting on golden toilets with the American flag etched into the bottom of the bowl (I made that last part about the flag up. I have no definite info on this)

The majority of you will discount all of this as a hippy’s (which I am far from) wish to partake.

Fact of the matter, as any of you that do minimal research on this, will find it to be a legitimate answer to the world and our countries woes. Just see how it was used prior to Lobbyist involvement in every country (pre early 20th centry), the Entire world. Money( aka: oil companies, paper companies, car companies, alcohol companies) as always have down played and lobbied against this plant to the point that most only know what the recreational strain is about and that is info incorrectly is bunched in with the pharmaceutical drugs and sluffed off as a drug problem. Once labeled a problem no one considers it a solution.
Our politicians take the money from the lobbyist and have for decades and you have what we got here, failure to communicate. Well if not communication then for sure to stop us from getting the truth and the facts in an unbiased way.

Hope you enjoyed the read.

I am off to the oil fields to get paid 100k to look at a computer. Wondering what the supervisor gets, or maybe the Operations manager. I’ll tell you when I get that job but it is no wonder we are paying $3 for something that we can replace for less cost, more jobs, and an environmental foot print of a Nat. Originally Posted by SA_Mike Hancho

Yes I did, thank you. I had been aware of several applications for Hemp but not this one.

IMHO,

My case against the Keystone XL pipeline is multifaceted, so I'll do each separately:

1. Transcanada is out for Transcanada and Canadian interests period. There is little to no economic or diplomatic benefit to having this pipeline routed through our country.

2. Jobs, really? As I have documented in an earlier post, minimal. Due to the very nature of the XL construction, any economic impact on any one community would be fleeting and unsustainable.

3. Canadian pipelines here in the US are not near capacity and the only buyer for Canadian oil in those pipelines is the US. The refineries for this Canadian crude are in the Midwest and the XL will divert that crude to the Gulf Coast where it will be exported to the world market and China. Many of these refineries are in Foreign Trade Zones where US taxes will be avoided and I understand that our own Valero has told it's investors that this is what they will do.

"Keystone XL is an export pipeline. The Port Arthur, Texas, refiners at the end of its route are focused on expanding exports to Europe, and Latin America. Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.

Valero, the key customer for crude oil from Keystone XL, has explicitly detailed an export strategy to its investors. Because Valero’s Port Arthur refinery is in a Foreign Trade Zone, the company can carry out its strategy tax-free.

In a shrinking U.S. market, Keystone XL is not needed. Since the project was announced, the oil industry acknowledges that higher fuel economy standards and slow economic growth mean declining U.S. oil demand, even as domestic production is booming. Oil from Keystone XL will therefore displace American crude from new, “unconventional” domestic fields in Texas or North Dakota."

http://priceofoil.org/2011/08/31/rep...ne-xl-exposed/


4. Environmental disaster. This crude that XL will carry is called "tar sands oil" and it is the most poisonous crude on the market. It requires much more energy to refine and it pollutes the water supply.


"Oil sands extraction uses significant amounts of water (2-4.5 barrels per barrel of oil produced), which ends up in toxic tailings lagoons that have never been successfully reclaimed. An analysis using industry data estimated that these lagoons already leak over a billion gallons of contaminated water into the environment each year."


http://dirtyoilsands.org/thedirt/article/quick_facts

5. The XL pipeline is a proposal that is promoted and advocated for by the Republican Party and I seriously doubt that they can make sound decisions considering what I've seen of their debates. Newt Gingrich is now leading the primary into Florida, YES, THAT NEWT!!! WOW! They can't even register for their own primaries:

"Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman have all failed to qualify for the ballot in at least one upcoming GOP primary. In other states, they have failed to file full slates of delegates with state or party officials,"

6. I'll go with T. Boone Pickens:

“America is in a hole and it's getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil."

Sep. 24, 2008 - T. Boone Pickens

now that Iran has backed down on their threats against the US Navy, I wonder if prices will go down. Probably not as the wall street speculators will find another reason to keep and/or raise prices. Originally Posted by satexasguy

No it won't drop, Wall Street doesn't care about main street or this country. The only "people" they worry about are THE CORPORATE WELFARE QUEENS.

Have the government that is incapable of doing anything efficiently take over the energy sector of the economy. Is that a serious question? It would end up as a total disaster. Originally Posted by Laz

I can see that you've bit into the narrative wholeheartedly. The narrative goes like this:

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." -
-- Ronald Reagan

So the Republican Party then wants to reduce our government to a non-entity allowing CORPORATE AMERICA and their WELFARE QUEENS to commit fraud, murder and thievery.

While CORPORATE AMERICA is sodomizing the country and the American People, the republicans(and some Dems too) fill govt. agencies with fools and complete losers(good job Brownie!!-Katrina), kill all funding(read USPS) fill them with bureaucracy and when they fail, proclaim loudly; "See!! Government is the problem!". This has been occurring for 40 yrs and with the help of FOX News, Rush et al we are where we are now.

We are on the preface of a paradigm shift away from that ideology and are now moving to a government responsible to the people. The absolute implosion of the republican party is not an accident, this is the result of that movement and the technology that allows no stupidity or deception to occur any longer. Congressional records, video and other media can be accessed easily to find the correct numbers and voting records and I do this on a regular basis and so are many websites and bloggers, it is easy.

Some shrill hack (Caribou Barbie maybe?) once shouted "Drill baby drill!" and thus the birth of the new republican meme that we can drill our way out of foreign oil dependence. Well, the truth is we can't, this meme was created by republicans and BIG OIL to simply give the oil industry additional leases to increase their stock value.

In fact, oil companies have 86 billion barrels of offshore oil untapped. BIG OIL wants the moratorium lifted on drilling in new leases because oil company stocks are valued in large part based on how much proved reserves they have. Just having more promising leases on hand would be worth billions of dollars.

Even if we were to open those leases and we started to drill, then we would have to produce enough oil to offset the market and drive prices down which is impossible. Even then, OPEC would then respond and drive the prices back to what they find acceptable and profitable. We currently produce 5 million barrels of oil a day, but we consume 20 million barrels of oil a day, so just to bridge our gap we would have to produce 15 million barrels.

The only way forward IMHO, is to nationalize our oil and use the power of our government and the innovation of our private sector to produce the oil necessary for our consumption.

Anyone wanting to access this information let me know and I will provide the links.

Yes I did, thank you. I had been aware of several applications for Hemp but not this one. Originally Posted by 1NEMESIS

1NEMESIS I am glad that I have provided you with a bit of new information, although my comments were not really meant for you or to bolster any of your liberal media facts. You did not state any bolstering but I took it as an inference and have thus have "run with it". Thanks.

If you were wondering I am a conservative, capitalist that simply has an alternative to all of this that the inept Government and Greedy corporations have banished to line the proverbial pocket.

For MY post what you(1Nemesis) have done is point out that even you(1Nemesis) did not have this information. As you(1Nemesis) taut alternatives that a Government can provide for this country you do not point out the obvious Government lead cover-ups and leaching of the people’s hard earned pay, all the while your beloved government body is taking the ever so hated corporate money to fill their personal pockets and agendas. That money is what you are supporting under the current guise of Hope and Change. In reality it is more like control to conquer!! To think that the government has the ability, the desire, the talent, the where with all to manage picking their own noses much less organize our energy is absurd.

Back to my alternative Hemp, that if I do say so myself is An “ANSWER” not another problem.

My biggest concern for all here is that you (1Nemesis) are the only one that weighed in on it. I have found the majority of this board to be educated, worldly and sensible in their views. But most do not know of the value that hemp has played in the whole world for centuries.

As I stated in my original post the issue is that Hemp has been wrongly bunched in with a “drug problem” and most would not even consider it as an alternative due to this incorrect label. It was then easy for lobbyist from industry leaders in the early 1900's to gain political support and to literally wipe history clean of the facts about the plant.

We as a people are the only ones to change what has been going on in politics. Stopping government greed, cover ups, misinformation and allowing/ encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit which in turn will help to turn the tide in Mega Corporations strangle holds. That hold is allowed by our government due to the huge checks they, mega corps., write to our elected officials. It is for this reason this divers community doesn't know of the facts concerning HEMP.

As for the pipeline it will fill many a pockets thru every state of both good and bad participants. Price will not change for us normal folks and Canada will make the money. "Greenies" will not allow for more refineries so we will be backed up and not be able to process it anyway.


Note #1: No politician wants to see corporations go away. Obama has a billion dollar “war chest”. I am guessing a few (tongue in cheek) big corporations have given money to him. Especially those he “Bailed Out”. He did not save that type of money from his job as a counselor in Chi-Town. These checks were not written for his hope and change but for favors. (GM was very thankful I am sure, makes me think we are going to see a VW, or peoples car, roll of the Detroit line soon) 2 years into his Presidency he has stopped taking care of his people and is campaigning. Unacceptable for anyone in our government yet some people will go and vote for this man and all the others again.

Pipeline, no pipeline, we are bantering over the wrong thing. We need restructuring of the government which makes rules on behalf of use and we need to hold them accountable.

Note #2: I have not seen one thing concerning pretty women!! Hi, Ladies I hope to see all of you before it is over!!!! Even if I have to spend $5 a gallon for gas !!

Hope everyone that reads this will learn something no matter your political orientation. Me thinks my time will be better spent writing a review or better yet researching another lovely to have a fantasy with.

Sincerely

Your, SA_Mike Hancho ( I have approved this message)

This I can agree with.