Quote:
Originally Posted by seattlelou
Yes we refine more fuel than we require. We are also the worlds largest importer of oil and nowhere near energy independent.
So we import crude from dangerous places to refine it and export it?
Does that make any sense?
If we reduced exports, maybe we could reduce dependence, and we could certainly reduce pump prices.
At any rate, it's laughable to say that drilling more oil here or building this pipeline to supply the USA with more crude will reduce fuel costs for Americans, when the crude and the refined product will be exported to the highest bidder.
Yes, it will create a a few thousand temporary jobs for its construction, but that will be negated by the higher crude, refined fuel, and food prices for Americans. Add in the environmental externality costs, and the XL Pipeline is a bad idea, unless you are an oil company, or Canadian, as higher oil price is the main reason the Canadian loon is anywhere near parity with the dollar.
While world crude prices are benchmarked and traded in financial markets at WTI and Brent benchmarks, there are always price differences in local and regional markets. This is why prices vary across the country. There has long been an ample supply of WTI crude and refining capacity in and around Cushing, Ok and the Midwest which have kept prices depressed despite the efforts of oil companies to reduce refining capacity and jack the price as high as the local and regioanal markets will bear. This XL Pipeline will remove this glut and raise price. Simple as that.
The financial and tax accounting for the vertically-integrated oil companies is even more lolable, but my lunch-time is over.