President Obama is threatening to veto the Keystone XL pipeline despite several positive State Department environmental assessments, passage of Keystone bills by the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, and important facts such as these:
1. The U.S. uses a lot more oil than it produces and will continue doing so for many years. The latest U.S. Energy Administration Information data shows that the U.S. consumed almost 7 trillion barrels of crude oil in 2013. To meet this demand, it imported almost 3 trillion barrels from 40 different countries. U.S. consumption exceeds domestic production because crude oil is not only refined to produce of petroleum products such as heating oils, gasoline, diesel and jet fuels, it is also a component in everyday products such as plastic (www.eia.gov).
2. Most of the oil the U.S. imports is not from “stable” sources. Only 5 of the 40 countries the U.S. purchased oil from in 2013 are classified as “stable” by Freedom House and the World Bank (Richard Bruce, UCD – October 27, 2014). These 5 countries accounted for only 34% of U.S. oil imports in 2013, while the remaining 66% came from 35 countries that are not politically stable, may be subject to serious economic declines, and/or are not peace-oriented.
Obama’s negative position on Keystone is, in part, due to his false belief that this project will only benefit Canada. The fact is that, in addition to creating U.S. construction jobs, 20-25 per cent of the oil moving through the pipeline will come from the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota and Montana.
Canada is the largest “stable” supplier of oil to the U.S., accounting for one-third of U.S. crude oil imports. Furthermore, we have been a reliable and generous friend and ally for over 200 years. Obama should not veto Keystone.
