Keystone Be Darned: Canada Finds a Surprise Pipeline Route Bypassing Obama

Amazing. Obama throws away more jobs. Maybe he can blame it on Bush.

 

Perhaps, but the tar sand oil seems destined for Korea and South America. It is like pudding, everybody has a preferred flavor. Canada apparently doesn't favor the flavor of its own oil so to speak.

 

Agreed. With everything. While my lifestyle, and that of my employees, is funded by the oil industry this does not keep me from recognizing that oil is a major pollutant. Dealing with this pollution was what I did in a past career in fact but "saving the world" doesn't pay that well.

As with most things it is politics that is getting in the way of progress. I attended conferences where I brought up (during lunch, breakfast, dinner where you are sitting around a table with 8-10 folks all very knowledgeable in environmental contamination) the same comment mentioned here - That while CO2 is an issue, using the oceans as a garbage can for heavy metals such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants such as chlorinated hydrocarbons as the number one issue we are facing followed by increasing population and industrialization of that population.

Never, not once, ever, and I did this at numerous conferences did anyone at the table gainsay this point. All just nod in knowing agreement.

Yet, that is all we ever hear about is CO2. Politics and activism has clouded this issue so badly in some cases.

Now we hear about banning incandescent light-bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent and led. The idea is that the latter use less energy and so will reduce CO2 emissions.

This is happening in both North American and Europe.

In all these panels did no one stand up and say .... errrr, ummmm Its great that these others options use less energy but these other options contain mercury which will end up in our landfills, the mercury seeping into the groundwater.. and the groundwater making its way into rivers and rivers to oceans.

Now granted many of our new landfills have pretty good containment but many do not. Especially not the older ones which make up the majority. Even then when you get those once in decade storms where there is mass flooding all bets are off.

God forbid the countries like India and China adopt this policy. The cure for the problem is worse than the problem.

We can and will reduce CO2 emissions over time - hopefully sooner than later but cleaner technology development is advancing rapidly now.

CO2 is reduced naturally through chemical and biological processes and the equilibrium can be established rather quickly.

There is no similar short term solutions for poisoning the oceans.

Consider this. In a study I read some years ago China's was at (11) in terms of per/person utilization of resources. By comparison North Americans were at 36 and someone eating a bowl if rice a day some African village was at (1).

The study claimed that if China was to reach our level of industrialization world resource production would have to double. This is just China. China has roughly 1.3 Billion people but India also has 1.1 Billion and they are industrializing rapidly. Indonesia is another 6-700 million.

Currently there are roughly 1.4 Billion people on the planet living in industrialized nations. Current population of the earth is over 7 billion and they all want to have cell phones and cars.

The population of the Industrialized nations is stable or declining and they have strong environmental standards and legislation. The 5.6 Billion who is currently industrializing often have no such standards and even when they do they are far less rigorous and less often adhered to.

This is a pollution nightmare that is not "waiting to happen", it is happening as we speak and almost no one is talking about it. Those that do, and you do read the occasional article from time to time hidden away in middle of scientific publications or at the back page of newspapers, but this is drowned out by the "Global Warming" cacophony.

 

There are a lot of liberals that agree with the Keystone. There are many Democrats in congress that agree.

For a fellow that appears so smart at times, Obama is saying and doing some really stupid things. This is from someone that would almost rather shoot himself in the head rather than vote for this current crop of Republicans.

More Americans need to start voting "NO" to the two major parties and vote independent. This is the only path to change. We do not need another Democratic or Republican President or member of Congress. What we need is an "independent" WH and congress.

 

Yeah, I fully agree with this. Too many people focus on the 'cause of the week' and forget the rest of the world around them. I laughed and almost cried when Jon Stewart did a segment showing that when those Malaysian flights went down, and they were searching the oceans, everyone seemed so surprised at how much garbage is in the oceans. People have blinders on when it suits the justification for their comfortable standard of living.

Even at my work we are converting my building to 'LEED' status, which is a bunch of crap about spending a whole bunch of money to save 'energy'. It's a cash grab on the other side of the fence, and we all get stuck on the post in the middle.

 

So many who know very little about the oil business, pipelines, NAFTA or tax free zones think that Keystone is a panacea. It isn't.

 

Neither is it the apocalypse. What it will do is generate some economic benefit in North America while reducing harm to the environment.

What's not to like ?

 

I will bet you a dollar to a donut that NO Native American ever came up with the term First Nation person. Give me a friggin break.

 

The pipeline companies who build it will fund it whether it is in Canada or the US.

Did you think taxpayers would have to fund it/