Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China

[Zatch]

The Obama administration is foot-dragging on approving a pipeline to deliver abundant Canadian oil to the United States at the same time the Chinese are investing in a pipeline that could send that oil to China.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week passed a bill requiring President Barack Obama to speed up a decision on approving the pipeline. The bill was introduced by Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry, who maintains that the Obama administration has been too slow in making a final decision, the Montreal Gazette reports.

The Canadian province of Alberta has the world’s third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and more than Russia or Iran. Daily production from oil sands is expected to rise from 1.5 million barrels today to 3.7 million in 2025.

Delivering the oil will mean building two pipelines, one south to the refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast and the other west toward the Pacific, where it can be exported to China.

If the United States doesn’t approve its pipeline promptly due to environmental concerns, “Canada might increasingly look to China, thinking America doesn’t want a big stake in what environmentalists call ‘dirty oil,’ which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a report from The Associated Press...

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/BarackObama-FredUpton-China-Oil/2011/07/02/id/402295

[eduardo89]

This is completely untrue. Canada has more than enough oil to satisfy ALL of thr US's demands and still have left over to supply china. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world, ahead of Iran, Russia and Mexico and behind only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Canada is already the largest source of petroleum for thr US and with capacity expansions and new pipelines the US could easily cut all dependence on non-North American oil within 10 years.

So while it is true that the US has been dragging it's feet on construction of a new pipeline from Canada to refineries in Texas, it's completely absurd to suggest that the US is losing Canada's oil to China. There more than enough to go around.

[libertarian4321]

Did it occur to the geniuses that wrote this article that even with no new American pipeline, it's easier to deliver oil to a refinery in Texas or California than to one in China?

[sailingaway]

I thought all their oil are belong to us under NAFTA (first dibs).... water too......

NAFTA is a truly amazing document.....

but maybe this oil pipeline the idiot in chief isn't approving is the first dibs....

This is just stupid. Pipelines aren't that bad, in the scale of problems environmentally. Petroleum, in the scheme of things, isn't that bad environmentally, except in water spills, and is a lot easier to clean up than solvents or most other things.. Not to mention it came from the ground to begin with....

Mind you, there might be eminent domain issues or something, which is a different issue.

[specialK]

The article is incorrect in saying the pipeline will go to Vancouver. The plan is that it will be built in Kitimat, which is near the Alaskan panhandle. As many groups on the West Coast of British Columbia are adamantly against this project, it is doubtful it will go through. First Nations wield a great deal of power here when it comes to what affects their lands and way of life and they are fighting it tooth and nail. Without their approval, the chances of this pipeline being built are indeed very slim.





61 First Nations ally to oppose Enbridge pipeline

Sixty-one First Nations groups across the B.C. interior have officially declared their opposition to Enbridge’s west coast pipeline plans.

“This is yet another legal and political nail in the coffin of this project,” Chief Jackie Thomas of the Saik’uz First Nation told a Vancouver press conference Thursday. “Our nations stand united as never before.”

The declaration was signed at a gathering of B.C. indigenous leaders in Williams Lake last week. Its signatories are First Nations groups culturally dependent on salmon runs in the Fraser River watershed.

They worry that a 1,170 km pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge from Alberta’s oil sands to the west coast could someday leak into fragile salmon ecosystems.

"There are a great many people, including First Nations and community members along the proposed route, who understand that this project can be built and operated safely," Enbridge responded on its Northern Gateway blog.

First Nations speakers were not clear whether opposition would involve standoffs or legal challenges. "All i have to say is watch us," said Chief Art Adolph of the Xaxli'p First Nation, a St'át'imc Nation community. "We will do what it takes to protect our lands, our salmon, our rivers

Thursday’s announcement may represent an escalation of First Nations opposition to the Northern Gateway project, which also includes plans to ship crude oil on supertankers to Asian markets.

In March, the Coastal First Nations – an alliance of nine west coast indigenous groups – declared a ban on tanker traffic in its waters.

A group of international wildlife photographers travelled to the Great Bear Rainforest region in early September, to raise awareness about Northern Gateway’s potential environmental impact.

Earlier this week, 15 federal Liberal and New Democratic Party MPs urged Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to enact an official ban on west coast tanker traffic.

“Ignoring Canada’s west coast energy bottleneck is the equivalent of announcing that we’re not interested in playing on the world stage. I don’t think that’s in Canada’s best interests at all,” Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel said in a speech Tuesday.

Others within Alberta’s oil sands industry have expressed recent doubts the project will ever be built. The vice-chairman of major producer Canadian Natural Resource Ltd reportedly said last week environmental and First Nations opposition mean oil sands crude is more likely to flow to the U.S. in coming years.

“For barrels to go off the West Coast to China, I think that is a very, very difficult file,” Murray Edwards said.

Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2010/12/02/First-Nations-Enbridge-oppose/#