Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

Keystone Pipeline

/

Southern Leg Of Keystone Pipeline Opens

Oil shipments on Wednesday began to flow through Keystone XL’s southern leg.

TransCanada announced the start of oil deliveries to Gulf Coast refineries on Wednesday morning. The shipments run from Cushing, Okla. to Nederland, Texas.

While not as controversial as its northern leg, which is still under review by the State Department, the decision by the Obama administration to allow the flow of oil through the southern Keystone leg is stirring controversy.

Green groups like the Sierra Club blasted the administration for failing to adequately review the pipeline.

“Today’s announcement is a painful example of President Obama’s all of the above energy plan at work: polluted air and water, carbon pollution, and the ever present threat of poisoned drinking water for millions of Texas and Oklahoma families,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.

“The Sierra Club will fight hard to protect the families who are now at risk, and turn the Obama administration’s shortsighted dirty energy policy around,” added Brune, who is normally a fan of Obama’s climate agenda.

The environmental advocacy group 350.org’s Bill McKibben, also pointed the finger at Obama for falling out of line with his promises to battle climate change.

“Expediting KXL south was not the mark of a president who really ‘gets’ climate change,” McKibben said in a statement on Wednesday.

The administration still faces a decision on approving Keystone’s northern leg, which would carry crude from the oil sands in Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.

The northern leg require approval from the president because it crosses over the U.S. border with Canada.

Read more.

/

Keystone Pipeline Won’t Impact Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Keystone XL oil sands pipeline “will not have any impact” on greenhouse gas emissions, a report released by prominent energy industry consulting group IHS CERA said Thursday.

The report said that’s because Canada’s oil sands, which are more carbon-rich than conventional oil, will come out of the ground with or without Keystone.

“In the absence of Keystone XL, we would expect similar volumes of heavy Canadian oil sands to be produced. Industry would turn to alternative pipeline projects and rail for oil sands transportation,” the report said.

IHS CERA said it prepared the report in response to President Obama’s June statement that he’d oppose the controversial Canada-to-Texas pipeline if it “significantly exacerbates” carbon pollution.

The pipeline is currently under federal review at the State Department. The department said in a draft environmental review that Keystone wouldn’t substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions.

IHS CERA and the State Department arrived at similar conclusions.

Read more.

/

State Department Launches “Inquiry” into Keystone Report

The State Department’s internal watchdog has “initiated an inquiry” into whether the contractor Foggy Bottom used for a draft environmental analysis on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline had a conflict of interest.

The move is a response to allegations from several outside groups, Doug Welty, a spokesman with the State Department Office of Inspector General, told The Hill on Friday.

The development raises the possibility of another redo of the analysis assessing Keystone’s environmental impact.

Several green and left-leaning groups have claimed the consultancy State picked to conduct the draft environmental review had financial ties to Keystone builder TransCanada Corp. and the American Petroleum Institute, a Keystone supporter.

Bloomberg first reported news of the inquiry. Welty explained that an “inquiry” is more of a fact-finding mission than an investigation, which is reserved for criminal matters.

Read more.