Who benefits from the Keystone pipeline?
Nov 14, 2014, 7:16 AM | Updated: 11:05 am
In this March 22, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama arrives at the TransCanada Stillwater Pipe Yard in Cushing, Okla. The GOP-controlled House and Senate will likely put pressure on the White House to approve TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline in 2015. If Congress manages to push through policy changes, such as lower taxes for medical device makers and lighter regulations for coal, it could lift stocks in the health and energy industries, market strategists say. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Despite the election, there are Democrats still trying to stop the Keystone XL pipeline – like Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee.
“This is about Canada shipping oil through America, endangering American lands to supply the Chinese with oil,” said Cohen.
He’s implying the U.S. gets nothing out of it. But Chris Tomlinson, who writes about the oil industry for the Houston Chronicle, says most of the oil running through the Keystone XL will end up being refined in Texas.
“In fact, in many ways, the refining company, (which) takes the crude, and then sells the gasoline and the diesel and the products, profits just as much as the company that takes it out of the ground,” explained Tomlinson.
And that money would stay in the U.S.
As for the environmental argument that we have to reduce the use of fossil fuels, Tomlinson said the pipeline has nothing to do with that.
“The only thing we’re talking about is shifting the way that we deliver it to the Gulf Coast,” he said. “Right now, it’s coming by rail, it’s coming by other pipelines. Keystone XL is just taking the oil off the railroads.”
But of course what everyone really wants to know is how it would affect the price of gas.
“TransCanada is going to deliver that oil to the Gulf Coast one way or another. If it’s shipped via the Keystone Pipeline, that’s much cheaper than hiring a rail car or a tanker. Therefore, the gasoline produced from that oil will be cheaper to the customer.”
Sounds like Canada’s going to get its pipeline.
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