Obama in Oklahoma: Make southern Keystone 'a priority'

[jimrtex]

Assuming Obama is serious about this, rather than just spinning, color me confused. I mean if building the balance of the pipeline to where it need to go for it to make the slightest economic sense at all (to wit, to the Canadian border) is  a political football that is still up in the air, wouldn't that be like building a bridge that goes only half way across a river?  And who would be dumb enough to spend a lot of money building a pipeline, that may end up being a pipeline to nowhere, but with the private investors holding the bag, rather than the government at taxpayers' expense this time?

Can someone help me this this?  I am at a loss.

http://www.transcanada.com/5730.html

The Keystone Pipeline from Alberta to the Nebraska-Kansas line and then eastward to Illinois was completed a couple of years ago.  The Keystone XL pipeline will go directly from Alberta to Nebraska, and then southward to Cushing, OK, which is a major oil hub (it is where the basemark price of oil is set).  Google a satellite map of Cushing.   And then a new pipeline will continue to Port Arthur area, and perhaps Houston.

The portion from Kansas-Nebraska to Cushing was completed a year ago.  After Obama blocked Keystone XL from Canada.  Transcanada said they would go ahead and continue building the southern link.

When I saw your article, I thought, "didn't they say they were going to build the southern portion two months ago?"

[jimrtex]

I agree it's a stunt, but if it's only connecting OK to TX, convince me why I should care about it.

Who would be crazy enough to put money in it, if there is uncertainty as to whether the government will permit its crossing over Nebraska? Would you, unless you were very confident that Obama will be defeated in November?

There are already plans to reverse one pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf Coast.   It is really worth it to do a Google satellite view of Cushing, Oklahoma.

Transcanada already has built a pipeline from Canada to Cushing.  The reason that it has the current L shape is that Transcanada converted an existing east-west pipeline in Canada, and then dropped down through the eastern Dakotas and across Nebraska.  It took a while to get the permits from Canada, because the pipeline was intended to send oil to a foreign country, plus the oil is coming from tar sands.

But once the Canadians approved, it would look pretty foolish for the State Department to announce its opposition because it word auto workers in Ontario, undercut our friends the Saudis, and destroy the environment in Canada that its government doesn't care about.

So Obama needs a pretext.