That’s A Lot Of Quid Pro Quo Going Up In Smoke

14 Replies to “That’s A Lot Of Quid Pro Quo Going Up In Smoke”

1. I like to point out to “environmentalists” who try to ban oil tankers into Vancouver Harbour that 3000 ships go in and out every year and each one is carrying large amounts of bunker oil.
   They hate that.

2. Governments make poor decisions and very often buckle to the environmental lobbies thus leading to bad decisions and unintended consequences.
   Now if the Keystone XL pipeline was up and running and approved 5+ years ago, this would not even be an issue. If line reversal of line 9 was approved we would have cheaper energy costs and would minimize the movement of oil via trains.
   A recent ice storm caused havoc in Toronto with 1/4+ million locations had no power and many had no power for around a week. Wacko environmentalists made it virtually impossible to trim trees and/or cut them down in their advanced age and/or deceased state — so every storm that comes through results in extensive power outages due to branches & trees falling on power lines. Very often it is lack of thought to the consequences of extreme “environmentalist” laws & by-laws.
   To add insult to injury a not-too-bright premier dynamited clean coal generating plants (that had the latest in pollution control systems) in favour of windmills that typically run at 3% capacity. Yes $20 billion spent on windmills, where money could have been spent on updating infrastructure and/or burying main feeder lines in the cities instead of having them exposed to falling trees. $20 billion could have gone a very long way to implement upgrades.
   To add even more insult to injury, several of the destroyed coal generating plants were to be replaced with gas powered plants placed in the middle of heavily populated areas — during the licensing portion the government ignored the local people and moved forward — when faced with an election loss, they cancelled the power plants in the last week of the election at a cost of $1.1 billion to the taxpayers.
   Oh yes the consequences, increased power costs resulting in industry fleeing ontario thus destroying the economy of ontario which was based on manufacturing. Yes those unintended consequences rear their ugly head again.
   It was political interference in the government owned power companies that resulted in retarded decisions being made with expensive consequences and much worse service. Government interference in the bringing of energy to the market place resulted in reliance of an unsafer technology. If they ban oil delivery via railways, things will just get moved by truck or barges down rivers with higher costs.
   Luddites.

3. You gotta know Buffet has been pumping tons of cash into these foundations which fund the nutters who protest the pipelines. Only in a true dystopian society do pseudo-anarchists willingly work for the interests of corporatist oligarchs.

4. “You gotta know Buffet has been pumping tons of cash into these foundations”
   I’ll dollars to donuts that so have the “oil” companies, big margin spread and all that. Supplies and transport companies are all laughing all the way to the bank

5. I tried to do the same thing last time I was on the Queen Charlotte Islands, pointing out that a “no tankers in our waters” sign was nicely framed by the fishing fleet and fuel sales in the background. No one I talked to saw anything wrong with saying “but that’s different”.
   It’s a sign of our times. Someone else must change what they do, but it can’t be allowed to change the cost or availability of what I need.

6. Sorry, that last was in response to Bruce.

7. Another interesting little item:
   Crude oil leaving Texas ports destined for US east coast refineries often does so
   at a premium as high as six dollars a barrel thanks to shortages of tankers which
   must qualify under the Jones Act to carry between US ports.
   Sure gives well connected American politicians,moribund shipyard owners, and other
   assorted rent seeking hangers on good reasons to keep smiling.

8. Sgt;
   Some of your concerns might be real as there are always those who seem to get by living off the avails.
   In the case of tanker shortages within the restrictions of the Jones Act it is, I suspect, more an issue that these tankers had a more limited use prior to shale oil. Most international carriers are flagged in foreign countries to limit liability and taxes. It is only recent that USA oil production has increased to the point that it was able to compete with foreign suppliers.
   The Lower Keystone pipeline has been operational for some weeks now and has a capacity of 800,000 bpd from Cushing to Texas. It is even suggested that this oil could be competitive with the converted Energy East proposal to ship western Canadian crude to Halifax.
   Bottom line: WTI crude price is often much cheaper than international Brent price and I am sure that Gulf shippers are trying to get more of a Brent price. It is still a free market after all. For Canadian producers the nice aspect is that as Lower Keystone draws Cushing reserves down the differential between Canadian crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) should shrink.
   One of my rationales for suspecting an international conspiracy against Canada building pipelines to the West Coast and for converting the Trans Canada gas line to crude is the non support of environmentalists for Keystone. Being able to ship oil to international markets would yield higher crude prices just not on exports but to North American consumers as well. Higher crude price = higher retail gas prices = lower consumption. Lack of discussion of this aspect of the environmental equation suggests to me that the enviro movement is funded and directed by those with different objectives.
   If Canada is truly a nation prepared to ‘step forward’ in 2014 I hope that PMSH starts to discuss the reality of those forces prepared to prevent expansion of Canadian oil production. This industry has the potential of delivering enormous wealth to Canada. That wealth can secure Canadian claims to the Artic and can secure an independent foreign policy. Those most threatened by this are OPEC, Russia and the USA. The government of Canada and Canadians had better wake up.

9. Man, that’s going to leave a carbon mark.

10. Government in our age has no rationality left.
    Its a predators market, run by Crony capitalists,Pac’s, Environmentalists,with socialists getting the pay off’s.

11. And the more than 15biilion bbls that have been transported between Alaska and the lower 48 , plus the 300000 bbls per day that run thru Sumas. The clueless public fed by a clueless press. I noticed several articles on kinder Morgan quote the expansion as 890000 bbls per annum

12. Cal2:
    Isn’t that the absolute reality! As a rule the public doesn’t really want the facts. How the Kinder Morgan proposal could not be approved expeditiously is beyond me. Excellent track record and existing right of way.
    A point never brought forward is the amount of crude brought into Port Angles, thru the Straight of Juan de Fuca, to feed refineries there. Don’t know those volumes off hand but the refineries are substantial.
    It is all more than a joke. A few years back Shell pulled out of the Pacific Northwest and started tinkering all their refinery production in Washington State to California. Cheaper to do that than run a refinery in California and meet requirements for upgrades there. Eventually they moved that production back to Washington. USA jobbers also used to buy refined gasoline from SE Asia and bring it into Washington as well. This disrupted markets all the way back into Canada as this cheaper gas undersold Canadian and domestic USA production. There is a refined product pipeline running from Billings, Montana to Spokane, Washington which suffered from foreign imports.
    The bottom line with refineries is they have to operate at 105% to achieve competitive efficiencies. IMO that is why Black’s idea of a 500,000 bpd refinery in Rupert was a non starter. The storage requirement for the refined product would be huge. Besides that prospective importers from SE Asia already have their own refineries which operate cheaper than a Canadian one would. It also ignores market realities that importers adjust their production to met demand and that is easier to do with crude. It was a absolute non starter from the get go.

13. Yes, a break in a pipeline will pollute the immediate environment. However – unlike a train – it won’t explode in a cataclysmic and potentially murderous conflagration.
    But hey! Respecting Gaia* is far more important than saving human lives.
    * Though Gaia is truly a petulant deity. She rewards our adulation by trapping us in Antarctic pack ice or wiping us out in the tens of thousands with an impromptu tsunami here and there.

14. we used to say , if you cant do it , teach it. now its if you dont understand it , report it.
    the Peter Principle for reporters seems to begin at hiring , “people rise to their highest level of incompetence”