Energy topped the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual list of priorities for boosting the economy, as the group’s president urged approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and further exploitation of domestic oil, gas and coal resources.
Chamber President Tom Donohue called energy a “game changer” for the U.S. today in Washington in his annual State of American Business speech, which sets out priorities to boost the economy. For 2012 Donohue also suggested stopping an “avalanche” of energy and business regulations, reforming Social Security and Medicare, boost intellectual property protections and using other policies that can promote growth “without raising taxes or adding to the deficit.”
He said the nation could create more than 1 million jobs by 2018 developing oil, natural gas and coal — a claim promoted by the American Petroleum Institute (but decried by a top Democratic lawmaker). Pointing to the oil boom in North Dakota, where unemployment has fallen below 4 percent, he said the U.S. “is on the cusp of an energy boom that is already creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, revitalizing entire communities and reinvigorating American manufacturing.”
To tap those resources, the U.S. should “speed up permitting and end many of the restrictions that have put key areas off-limits,” he said, though he didn’t give examples. He said the nation should harness both conventional and alternative sources and expand efficiency and nuclear power.
He also urged the Obama administration to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar-sands oil from Alberta, Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast. Like other supporters, Donohue said its construction would create 20,000 jobs and more down the road, and the 1,700-mile pipeline would provide energy from a friendly neighbor.
“The project has passed every environmental test,” Donohue said, adding that some labor unions have been “screaming” in support of it. “There is no legitimate reason, none at all, to subject it to further delays.”.
Donohue’s remarks add to rising pressure from industry and Republican supporters on Obama to approve Keystone XL as a Feb. 21 deadline imposed by Congress for a decision approaches. The pipeline has posed a political dilemma to the administration, whose decision will surely anger some of Obama’s supporters: environmental groups and many Democratic fundraisers who oppose Keystone XL, or some labor groups that support it.
The State Department delayed a decision on the pipeline in November until early 2013, citing the need to study alternative routes taking the pipeline away from an critical aquifer in Nebraska. The decision also deferred the politically challenging decision until after the 2012 election.
Then Republicans, led by Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, put the deadline into the payroll tax cut extension bill. The State Department, which has authority because the pipeline would cross an international border, had warned that the arbitrary deadline wouldn’t provide enough time for the study, required by the law, perhaps dooming the project. Lugar has insisted the bill’s language waives the need for the study.
Opponents pan Donohue
Pipeline opponents contend the pipeline would create at most 6,000 temporary and few permanent jobs, while promoting dirty tar sands oil that poses a high pollution risk and could be exported by Gulf refiners. Opponents also cite a government analysis in saying the pipeline wouldn’t affect U.S. oil imports from Canada.
“That’s the Faustian Bargain the U.S. Chamber and TransCanada would foist on the American people,” Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said in a statement after Donohue’s speech. “And it’s the ugly truth that no well-funded industry campaign can hide.”
Some opponents sought to rebut Donohue’s support of Keystone XL the night before his speech.
Jeremy Symons with the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation advocacy group, accused Donohue and the Chamber of being “taken over by the biggest oil companies with the deepest pockets” for supporting the “Keystone XL scam.”
“It really has nothing to do with jobs and everything to do with our rights to protect our water and our lands,” Symons told reporters in a conference call yesterday.
Donohue told reporters after his speech he wasn’t surprised about what environmentalists were saying.
“They’re [the pipelines] safe, they’re environmentally friendly, and I’d rather have the oil here than have it go to Asia,” he said, seemingly alluding to a TransCanada executive’s suggestion the company might look to Asian markets if Keystone XL is rejected.
Ongoing debate
The back-and-forth over the speech adds to separate ongoing debate among stakeholders. API has launched a pro-Keystone XL television ad in six Midwestern states and the District of Columbia.
“It will indeed be an election issue,” API President Jack Gerard told reporters this month in warning of major consequences for Obama if the administration rejects Keystone XL.
Approving Keystone XL is “a straightforward decision to reduce imports from less stable regions, strengthen ties with Canada and help put some Americans back to work,” former Gov. John Engler, R-Mich., now president of the Business Round Table, a group of American CEOs, told reporters today at a briefing.
On Wednesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., pointed to Iran’s threats to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, a path for transporting one-fifth of the world’s oil, in arguing Keystone XL “will guarantee America has a secure energy source despite attempts to cut off supplies by hostile nations.” Lugar makes the same argument in a recent letter to Obama.
The NRDC has rejected that argument as flawed, saying that prices on imported oil are governed by global market forces.
“That’s not really what this debate is about,” Anthony Swift, staff attorney with NRDC, said in a recent interview.
Swift has said additional tar-sands capacity won’t come online quick enough to address any supply shock Iran creates. And pointing to a government study, he said the Keystone XL pipeline won’t affect U.S. imports from Canada through at least 2030.
This story was last updated at 2:42 p.m.
Remind us again how the Keystone (Cop) Tar-Baby project is good for USA based Steel Worker Jobs …
From the Cornell Study
KXL will require over 800,000 tons of carbon steel pipe.23 TransCanada has contracted with an Indian multi-national company, the Mumbai-based Welspun Corp Limited, and a Russian company, Evraz, to manufacture steel pipe for KXL.24. In fact, a significant portion of the $1.7 billion already invested in KXL by TransCanada has likely been used towards the manufacture and import of the pipe. Clearly, this is an investment that is for the most part generating economic activity and job creation outside of the US. TransCanada’s claims that US manufacturing would reap considerable benefits from the project need to be viewed in the light of these data.
Pipe dreams? Jobs gained, jobs lost by the construction of Keystone xl
CORNELL UNIVERSITY GLOBAL LABOR INSTITUTE
“it is unfortunate that the numbers generated by TransCanada, the industry, and the Perryman study have been subject to so little scrutiny, because they clearly inflate the projections for the numbers of direct, indirect, and long-term induced jobs that KXL might expect to create. What is being offered by the proponents is advocacy to build support for KXL, rather than serious research aimed to inform public debate and responsible decision making. By repeating inflated job numbers, the supporters of KXL approval are doing an injustice to the American public in that expectations are raised for jobs that simply cannot be met. These numbers—hundreds of thousands of jobs—then get packaged as if KXL were a major jobs program capable of registering some kind of significant impact on unemployment levels and the overall economy. This is plainly untrue.”
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_Reportpdf.pdf#page=6
Tell us again, SLOWLY … how does THIS is a USA job builder?
http://www.siemens.ca
Siemens – Answers for Canada
Our technology provides Canadian customers with unique customized solutions. Whether they’re processing 130 million tonnes of oil sand, operating a state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing facility or keeping Canadians on the move, Siemens helps to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.
Industry Sector – Snapshot: Canadian success stories in industry
Our technology provides Canadian customers with unique customized solutions. Whether they’re processing 130 million tonnes of oil sand, operating a state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing facility or keeping Canadians on the move, Siemens helps to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.
http://www.siemens.ca/web/portal/en/NewsEvents/Documents/Siemens-Answers-for-Canada-brochure-English.pdf
The Alberta Tar Sand (Keystone Pipeline) project has always been a stealth nuclear power plant project. One player, Energy Alberta (Bruce Power) has shelved their nuclear power generation project. Others, such as SaskPower International, TCE, Cameco, and/or Areva remain ‘in the game’.
Bruce Power officially pulls the plug on nuclear power in Alberta
By Markham Hislop | December 13, 2011
BEACON NEWS GROUP CANADA – Calgary Beacon 2011
Nuclear power has been taken off the table after four years of consideration by Bruce Power, an Ontario-based company that operates provides one-quarter of that province’s electricity.
Bruce Power has announced it will no longer advance the option for a new nuclear plant in Alberta that has been under consideration by the company since 2007.
Waiting on you Obama……………. Are you going to do what’s right?
Produce more oil and gas? That’s unthinkable! More jobs? Why? We don’t want to have low gas prices. If it’s not “Green” it shouldn’t be done. No matter how much the public has to pay in taxes and higher prices. Obama is the champion of the middle class he says. What about the rest of America? And as he punishes the middle class with high gas and food prices, how much more can they stand? I think America needs a different kind of champion. This one is hurting us too much.
Since Canada Tar has ALREADY pushed Texas Crude Oil BELOW the world price. How will MORE Canada Tar do anything good for Texas jobs. Texas Oil would benefit from a short ride arround the Gulf of Mexico.
Keystone Tar HAMMERS Texas Jobs, Texans and Texas
More Obama thieving
FuelFix – Posted on November 24, 2011 at 7:00 am by Bloomberg
Oil abundance in Canada provokes anxiety
The Nymex contracts bundle Canada’s oil with West Texas crude. As more Canadian and North Dakota oil has landed in Cushing, the influx has pushed the WTI price lower than it would have been without the new supply.
According to libs, we shouldn’t do KXL because 1) it might not produce as many jobs as it claims (“only” 6,000), 2) it means more oil imports (even if it’s from our closest ally), 3) there’s no investment involved from the government (cannot claim these were jobs “created or saved” from bailouts), 4) most of the jobs are temporary (so let’s cancel Christmas since most of those jobs are temporary too), 5) and no lib who believes government is king would EVER listen to capitalists (though they provide 95% of the jobs).
AREVA plans MOX (Plutonium) fueled Nuclear Reactors in Canada to provide the required energy and power to mine this TAR. Plutonium is one of the most toxic elements on earth. MOX decreases nuclear reactor stability and greatly magnifies the economic costs of a nuclear meltdown. This in addition to the increased death toll and nuclear wasteland created. AREVA (Euronext: CEI) is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris.
Nuclear provider targets oilsands
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=d7b2d109-e710-40f2-9ab9-8d8913cfae99
By The Calgary Herald February 26, 2008
Speaking in Calgary, Areva CEO Armand Laferrere said:
“You need to diversify,” he said on the sidelines of the Canadian Energy Research Institute’s natural gas conference.
“nuclear, being competitive and being entirely greenhouse gas free, seems to me to be an obvious part of it.”
Otherwise, the article continues:
oilsands projects would either be forced to shut down or switch to alternative fuels to generate the heat needed to produce steam.
spolczer@theherald.canwest.com
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
One aspect of long term benefits or job creation from this project that’s frequently overlooked is the amount of property taxes it will pay for the duration of its operation. Montana says the 281 mile leg through that state will pay $63 million in property taxes per year. What does that mean for Montanans? Well the average household income there is $35,000/yr. So $63 million could create jobs to support 1800 average households if that’s what they want to spend that money on.
Plus 100,000 bpd of Montana and N Dakota oil will access the line. Jobs will be created in those states to produce that oil.
And the close to half a million bbl per day coming from Alberta will require investment as well: typically $80,000 for each bbl per day of capacity. How does that impact the US? You can bid on the contracts. You can work in Alberta (90,000 people from the US live in Calgary already and most are there to help with our oil industry). You could also invest in Canadian oilsands companies. Most easily by buying shares in the ones listed on the NYSE. Or you can buy shares in US companies that operate in Canada. You can also buy shares in TransCananda Pipelines (20% of shares are held in the US already).
When you import oil from Venezuela or Saudi Arabia it’s produced and/or owned by state controlled companies and delivered in foreign flagged and crewed vessels. Every $$ you spend is lost to you. But Keystone XL allows you to access oil from a stable, secure ally while participating in the jobs, profits and tax revenues. NAFTA allows you to get equal access to our oil as Canadian customers and producers have. Your investments are secured by the same property rights as we have in a country where rule of law prevails.
Canada has tried to make the access seamless. It’s perplexing to run into an obstructionist administration. Surprising as well. But it’s been a learning process and although the US has been a long term premium market, Canada needs to spread its eggs into a few more baskets so we can’t be held over a barrel by one customer.
Good points Albertan. And even if the pipe is being manufactured elsewhere in the world (likely because the unions have driven up costs so high in the U.S. that it isn’t competitive) they aren’t going to fly a bunch of guys in to construct it. Welders will be making huge dollars, as well as crane operators, riggers, etc. And yes, with a stable supply of oil to the Gulf Coast companies will have the assurance that they can invest in their assets their and that will create many more jobs.
Thanks cokerguy. I hope this project gets the goahead and we can move forward together in mutual prosperity. We will need a project of this size every 3 to 4 years to match production that’s rising at 150,000 bpd each year.
The resource is large. So are the opportunities. Are there challenges to oilsands production? Yes but those present opportunities as well. For example Suncor will spend a billion $$$ over the next couple of years developing and implementing tailings ponds reduction initiatives. If I was an environmentalist know it all I could snag me a chunk of that. Water use reduction is a priority as well. Over the last 30 years water use per barrel has dropped 90%. But we can do better. If the detractors had any bright ideas instead of just complaints they could literally clean up. Any takers? And anyone who is a whiz at land reclamation could work restoring the land after mining. But topping present reclamation efforts that have seen Wood Bison reintroduced could be tough. Overall the oilsands operators have done very well and owe apologies to no one. Could do better though and like I said improvements offer opportunities for people to act rather than just complain. And make good money as well.
Why is anyone waiting on Obama? The hold-up is in Nebraska.
Republicans say, “I think the route problem in Nebraska is solved.” They should think again because today there was a news story that said a route has been proposed and it will be submitted for approval in a few weeks.
So the ‘route problem in Nebraska’ is not solved, and until it is that section cannot be built. And the route has yet to be submitted for approval? What’s taking so long?
Call the Republicans in Nebraska and tell them to work faster on this deal. The sooner they decide to let the line be built the sooner the dirt will start to fly.
Apparently there are those that think the steel for this project is coming from india because Unions have driven up the price of steel made in the US. Well, I guess that shows why you should never speak about a subject you know nothing about.
The pipe for this is coming mostly from India because the mills there make the type of pipe that is needed for this project. According to the general contractor for the project there is no one steel mill in the world that can make all the pipe needed for the line so it will have to come from several companies that make this type of product which is difficult to find here.
Most steel made in the US is of the speciality type. There is nothing special about this grade of steel except that there are few mills in the US which produce it anymore.
By the way…. Recently the price of steel from India has risen to a price that in some cases is higher than steel from US mills. Could it be the high price of labor in India that is causing this?