Written by John Glassco   

Obama is being blamed for screwing up our opportunity to nail the Keystone pipeline route, once and for all. Dammit - the Canadians will build their own pipeline to the west coast and sell tar sands oil to the Chinese. The flaw with this thinking is the assumption that the tar sands oil to be carried by this pipeline is “ours” to begin with, and that consuming this oil will somehow reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

This notion is based on the other assumption that Canadians are not really foreigners. Canadians are considered only about half foreign compared with the Chinese and the Saudis who are about twice foreign... when compared to, say the French. Even if we accept this assumption, this oil is not going exclusively to the US market anyway. The sale of this oil will have a limited effect on the price of our gas. This oil is not destined for domestic consumption. This oil is heading out into the vast world market through the conduit favored by big oil ever since the beginning of oil - the tanker. This Mediterranean invention is the best combination of transportation, flexibility and storage bringing oil supplies to the hungry world market, better even than the magnificent Keystone pipeline.

The pipeline merely terminates in our biggest national refinery in Texas. A branch includes access to our greatest national shipping channel known as the Gulf of Mexico. If this tar sands oil was truly destined to assist the USA’s embarrassing supply problem, it would go to the location of our closest already operating refinery and distribution system in Montana or Illinois, a much easier permit to get. America's only role being promoted for us by the gas holes in congress is to aid and abet big oil in the marketing of its latest sensation to the world.

This sad story is simply a case of the oil industry wanting to quietly use its muscle and influence to get what it wants, the cheapest overland route from the tar sands to the ocean. They would like the permit please, before we the people wise up to the fact that this oil is considerably dirtier than conventional crude. The republicans among us seem to want us to hurry up and ignore the other known environmental risks associated with lengthy pipelines, all before the route is even finalized. This reality, the knowledge of the risk, is likely only to get more bothersome with time. The permitting process will probably never be easier and cheaper than it is now, at least until the election. The oil industry is currently blessed with a divided congress, a president known as obedient and the hopeless cry “drill baby drill” still ringing in the muddled ears of many weak minded voters.

The major proponents of the pipeline are obviously American, and they would prefer not having to build a refinery on foreign (actually half-foreign) soil somewhere on the Canadian coast. They would rather use our existing refineries. They are already exasperated that this vast supply of tar sands oil happens to be up in Canada instead of here somewhere. Anyway, I can guarantee you that the project backers are nor worried over the environmental cleanliness of this tar sands oil. The Canadians will choose to take care of this issue or ignore it as part of the deal. I am certain too that the optional sharp bend in this pipeline route east to ND and THEN south marks the territory that includes the crude coming from the rapidly developing North Dakota large pool. It also needs access to a port.

The relentless whining over our dependency on foreign oil is misplaced. We love to blame our troubles on foreigners. The real problem is our dependence on oil.