Day 1: Pipe And Drill
https://issuesinsights.com/2024/11/25/day-1-pipe-and-drill/
Donald Trump has said that on the first day of his second term, he wants to “frack, frack, frack, and drill, drill, drill.” He needs to keep that promise – as well as reopen construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which the Biden administration blocked, just as the Obama White House did before Trump reversed the policy in 2017.
“Put us to work right now,” a laid-off worker who had been building the pipeline when it was shut down said earlier this year. “And you will see not only the fuel prices go down, but you will see the price of everything else go down with it.”
Showing that everyday Americans are more sensible about energy matters than at least half of our political ruling class, another worker said “we should be able to sustain ourselves and not depend on other nations raising their price and then affect us. That shouldn’t even be in the question.”
Those comments were made in March. November changed their outlook.
“It’s a breath of fresh air. We’re running on cloud nine,” said another former Keystone Pipeline worker.
“It will make a big difference as far as your energy cost, your food cost, your gas that you put in your cars. It is actually going to be the primary start of bringing everything … down for the American people that we have suffered so much in the last administration.”
The partially completed Keystone XL project is an extension of the existing Keystone Pipeline System. It would connect oil sands in Alberta, Canada, where the world’s third-largest oil reserve is found, to refineries in Texas and Louisiana. It would add about 1,200 miles to the existing 180,000 miles of oil pipeline that already crosses the U.S., a relative blip.
Yet “all of this mileage put together has not generated 1% of the controversy as a pipeline that would add a mere 1% to the total — the Keystone XL Pipeline,” says Craig Pirrong, a University of Houston professor and director for the Global Energy Management Institute at the school’s Bauer College of Business.
Activists have treated the Keystone XL as if it were a weapon of mass environmental destruction. But it will only change the mode of transportation. If it’s ever completed, the XL extension will pump 830,000 barrels of crude a day that is currently moved via rail (which is not emissions-free and like pipelines can have spills, too), saving $8 million a day in transportation costs, says Pirrong. That means lower prices for gasoline, other fuels and products made from oil.
While “a straightforward economic analysis of Keystone demonstrates that its benefits will not be as great as its advocates say,” says Pirrong, “they will be material.” Meanwhile, “the environmental effects are likely modest and outweighed by the economic benefits.”
An additional bonus would be another defeat for environmental extremists. If their losses continue to add up, maybe they’ll finally drop their childish and churlish behavior and become productive members of society.
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