Canada wanted to use the Keystone pipeline to export its oil to Asia. However, the citizens of British Columbia made it politically impossible to build a pipeline to the Pacific through their province. They didn’t want either the potential environmental risks, or encourage more tar sands oil extraction.
So the Keystone folks thought it’d be a good idea to take the easier route through the US. Trouble is, energy extraction technology moved way faster, and oil prices fell so far that the pipeline became way less profitable, rendering tar sands oil less competitive despite the huge sunk cap ex in place in Alberta.
Pipelines are safer than rail, no doubt. But it’s probably not wise to run this pipeline right over the largest aquifer in the US when we don’t need the oil, the jobs created are both small and transitory, and the Canadians “could” have built the pipeline through their own province had their own citizens not blocked this alternative. Besides, all the oil is intended for export in any event, so the benefits to the US would have been nominal in any event.
Canada wanted to use the Keystone pipeline to export its oil to Asia. However, the citizens of British Columbia made it politically impossible to build a pipeline to the Pacific through their province. They didn’t want either the potential environmental risks, or encourage more tar sands oil extraction.
So the Keystone folks thought it’d be a good idea to take the easier route through the US. Trouble is, energy extraction technology moved way faster, and oil prices fell so far that the pipeline became way less profitable, rendering tar sands oil less competitive despite the huge sunk cap ex in place in Alberta.
Pipelines are safer than rail, no doubt. But it’s probably not wise to run this pipeline right over the largest aquifer in the US when we don’t need the oil, the jobs created are both small and transitory, and the Canadians “could” have built the pipeline through their own province had their own citizens not blocked this alternative. Besides, all the oil is intended for export in any event, so the benefits to the US would have been nominal in any event.