GeneT
Swamp Fox
Y'all might find this of some interest:
http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/home/523972-bill-introduced-to-bar-sales-of-e15
http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/home/523972-bill-introduced-to-bar-sales-of-e15
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.........Or build the pipeline from Canada, and drill for the oil we have under our country and offshore.
Some Refineries and dismantling the EPA would dramatically help the situation too!
Ken
Hmmm.......if that oil was for local consumption why don't they build the refinery in Canada and sell us the refined product? They would have the profit from both the crude and the higher value refined product?
I thought it has a something to do with shelf life if final product. Crude can sit in a tank for a long time. Refined cant be stock piled. I could be wrong though,
I thought it has to do with who owns the raw material and the plants capable of refining it. Refining capabilities are not interchangeable. Also thought we could not export crude and were an importer but we are able to export refined products and do.
Let me try again and then I am out of here.
Crude oil exports are restricted to: (1) crude oil derived from fields under the State waters of Alaska's Cook Inlet; (2) Alaskan North Slope crude oil; (3) certain domestically produced crude oil destined for Canada; (4) shipments to U.S. territories; and (5) California crude oil to Pacific Rim countries. Totals may not equal sum of components due to independent rounding.
http://www.eia.gov/ is the source of the information. Export of production of oil is restricted and or controlled and not fully the free market commodity you suggest.
I am not a oil chemist but based on my reading on the subject it comes in various forms often referred to as light sweet heavy etc. These are based on sulfur content and other things. refineries can not handle all forms of crude. One of the driving issues with pipelines is getting product to the proper refinery in the cheapest way.
Environmental issues complicate it even more. I can't find the epa source quickly but at this point there are something like 47 different blends approved to me a variety of air quality issues across the country. This further increases the issues related to matching product and production.
FWIW, I like "the Keystone pipeline" as a job source for the people building it(many are from my area of KY who are working in the Dakotas now) but not as an energy independent factor. I've never lived in a place that didn't have pipelines running every which way, so in my simple mind it seems like just another ditch to me?
For many of us the Keystone Pipeline issue is not a question of should it be built but where. Concerns about potential surface water contamination and more importantly to the major aquifer it would cross raised all sorts of concerns. The Alaskan pipeline history points out that you can carefully build a pipeline and reasonably protect and limit the impact of the pipeline. The major problem with it have been with what goes on at either end of pipeline and not over the length.
I have seen similar economic and job impact numbers supporting the pipeline construction. I can generally accept them. The concern for many of us is how long they will exist and how much infrastructure etc we commit for short term (less than ten years) gain. We know that many if not most of those jobs/people will move to the next project or return to their home state, while the impact of the pipeline and potential spills could remain indefinitely. I have always believed it could and would be built, where and how have been my concern.
The economic impact along the route of what passes through the pipeline (any pipeline) is minimal. On the input end lease holders are the major beneficiaries along with any real jobs created by them. At the other end it is the refiners like EXON, BP and the Koch brothers that get the big money and the jobs they create.
I am far less sanguine on what energy independence means and how to reach it. We keep worrying about imported oil and talk very little or if at all about refining capacity and who controls that. The quest for energy independence took ethanol from a more environmentally friendly component of the blend of chemicals sold as pure gasoline to E10 and now looming E15.
E15 is bad policy in my book, but we never wrote the energy policy part of the book in the first place.
Mika may have a point?Let me ask you this.....did supplying migrant labor to the US, Canada, Australia or Africa make Italy, Poland, Ireland or southern Germany more affluent in the late 1800's? Or, in today's world, is Haiti, Guatemala or Mexico really enriched by their people that have to leave to find work?
We rented a nearby farmhouse for 6 yrs before I built this one in 79-80. It had cheap NG heat(the gas bills were under $10 mo!) based on the contract the owner had with Columbia Gas Co. dated to the large pipeline that ran through the front yard-it was right in front of the house!!!-like ~75' from the front porch and ~ 24" diameter. It leaked & got a section replaced in the front yard while we lived there. That pipeline ran under/over 2 creeks on either side of that house on that ridge that comprised the 700+ acres of that farm. Like stated above, these pipelines run all over the USA & over & under everything around us. My native KS was full of them. Once in awhile a sort of spectacular flame would show when they broke, which gave me pause to think when we rented the house above, like what if... still they are a fact of life so why not build another that does promote commerce now? E15 thread, I think not?Again it is not a question if it should be built but where and how.
Where may well end up being over the aquifer instead of around it. The players involved in that decision are concerned about more than the most direct route and its implications. The region is littered with the results of changing 'pipelines' starting with wagon train trails, railroad routes, highways, super highways and air corridors. At least show us the decency of being involved in the decisions. If the companies that are providing the raw material ad you with the refined product screw up we live with the result.