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Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-to-argue-about-oil-some-more dept.

An anonymous reader writes: As expected, President Obama has vetoed a bill that would have given the green light for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. "By saying no to the legislation, Mr. Obama retains the authority to make a final judgment on the pipeline on his own timeline. The White House has said the president would decide whether to allow the pipeline when all of the environmental and regulatory reviews are complete. ... Since 2011, the proposed Keystone pipeline, which would deliver up to 800,000 barrels daily of heavy petroleum from the oil sands of Alberta to ports and refineries on the Gulf Coast, has emerged as a broader symbol of the partisan political clash over energy, climate change and the economy."

9 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. The Keystone Pipeline already exists by RingDev · · Score: 5, Informative

    This bill would move forward with the XL portion of the pipeline. The Keystone pipeline currently terminates at the refineries near Chicago, Il. The XL portion of the pipeline would extends the line to the Gulf Coast, allowing for the oil to be more easily re-sold on the world market as opposed to being land locked into the US market.

    The XL portion was never meant to reduce oil prices in the US, it was meant to increase profit margins by reducing costs to transport the oil and oil products to higher priced markets.

    Can we take down the environmentalism straw man yet?

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
    1. Re:The Keystone Pipeline already exists by puzzled_decoy · · Score: 5, Informative

      What?

      The Keystone pipeline has four phases, three of which are complete. The first three bring oil down to the Gulf Coast from Canada. XL has nothing to do with that.

      The XL potion brings oil from Canada through Montana and Nebraska before it connects to the rest of the pipe. It has an initial capacity of 700,000 barrels, and can be increased to 900,000. http://www.downstreamtoday.com...

      Also, there is massive shipping operations in Texas that allows the oil to easily be transported to coastal parts of the U.S.

      So I really don't know where you got that info, but maybe double check it next time...?

    2. Re:The Keystone Pipeline already exists by chill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Almost.

      The Keystone-Cushing extension (Phase II), running away480-kilometre (300 mi) from Steele City to storage and distribution facilities (tank farm) at Cushing, Oklahoma, completed in February 2011.

      The Gulf Coast Extension (Phase III), running 784-kilometre (487 mi) from Cushing to refineries at Port Arthur, Texas was completed in January 2014, and a lateral pipeline to refineries at Houston, Texas and a terminal will be completed in mid-2015.

      It is only the Phase IV leg, running from between Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska that wasn't approved. That part crosses the U.S.-Canadian border.

      Obama signed off on the rest (symbolically, I believe, as I don't think it required Federal approval), back in 2011.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    3. Re:The Keystone Pipeline already exists by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

      The KeystoneXL has nothing to do with energy policy. It does not move the meter one bit in regard to US energy. It is all about profits policy for a foreign corporation.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:The Keystone Pipeline already exists by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Informative
      You sound like a poster who knows a thing or two about the oil business. Since through three of your posts, and I haven't read down very far, there has been no mention of the quality of your tar sands crude, perhaps we should start there. It's not Brent sweet light crude, it's not West Texas Intermediate, shit, it's fucking bitumen. It's great for asphault, roofing shingles, and sealing your canoe per the First Canadians first use.

      The shit's dirty. If we needed fuel to escape orbit to avoid imminent planetary disaster, and we've squandered our other options, maybe, but damn, just on the outside chance the climate change scientists are correct in their hypothesis... right?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

  2. Re:Best money Tom Steyer ever spent by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Informative

    This, especially this. Pushing petroleum through pipelines instead of on his railroads would make him very sad, and nobody wants to make one of the biggest DNC contributors sad, now do they?

    Meanwhile the partisans will clog up Facebook and similar with variations of 'yay our Lord and Savior saved teh environmentz!' versus 'teh imperialz president OMG!'... ...while the fat cats laugh at the little people a little before they plan their next chess move (and lobbyists) in Washington DC.

    Meanwhile the world begins to do its best impression of Titanic-Meets-Iceberg ever.

    Fucking politics, gotta love it (eyeroll).

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  3. Re:Is this his first veto? by blue9steel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Libertarianism is a big tent, you might not want to paint with such a broad brush. The main stream position is that they support strong property rights and issues of that nature should be solved in court. Personally I think that's fantasy land since it would just mean rulings in favor of those who can afford the best lawyers (something I haven't heard a Libertarian answer to) Personally, and I'm registered Libertarian currently, my view is that one of the proper roles of government (yes, there are such a things unless you're an anarchist) is to ensure that externalities are re-internalized, though preferably in the least distorting way possible. (pigovian taxes generally being the most straightforward solution).

  4. Re:Best money Tom Steyer ever spent by bobbied · · Score: 4, Informative

    You *do* realize that the oil that would be flowing though the XL Pipe literally goes solid at room temperature? Environmental risk exists, but it's not like this stuff is going to get too far away from a leak before cooling.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  5. Re:Liberal? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

    but when Dan Quayle only accepted a different spelling of potato at a spelling bee, he was vilified

    That's not what happened. The kid actually spelled potato correctly and Dan Quayle 'corrected' him into spelling it wrong.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    And Quayle wasn't vilified. He was the butt of many jokes, but he deserved to be the butt of all those jokes for being so damned stupid. Recognizing someone's stupidity isn't the same as vilifying them.