So, let's take the lefty argument that Alan's minders have fed him to the next step. We're told that it won't be anything near 20k jobs.....ONLY 5-6000. Of course they're private sector jobs and that in itself makes them useless. You never know for sure how those private sector workers will vote, you must have government workers who know who butters their bread. And the best negative is they're TEMPORARY jobs...........................yeah, what a waste those are. Never mind that ALL construction jobs are effectively temporary, but hey, who needs that construction stuff, that implies growth, don't want any of that icky stuff, well, unless it's government agencies, then it's good, very good. Besides, those lower middle class construction guys don't kick big campaign contributions like the kings of temporary jobs...................the con men who backed Solyndra, Ener1, and the rest of the pixie dust energy schemes, some temporary jobs are more equal than others. And the worst thing about Keystone is it's funded with private sector money, while Pixie Dust Energy is spending taxpayer money, or more accurately, borrowed in the tax payer's name money..........just put it on the national Visa card! Campaign contributions, campaign contributions, campaign contributions......get that through your head dummies, that's what makes an economy prosper..............................well, at least for the autocrats and their buddies at the top.
Part of the reason for sending the oil to the gulf region is that's where the refineries that can handle that type of crude oil are. If the primary objective was to ship the stuff overseas, an east/west pipeline in Canada would make more sense, cheaper and shorter. Shipping via tanker would drive the dropped price too high to be competitive, pipeline is much cheaper. The next big lie you'll be hearing is about how we export refined product so obviously we don't really need the extra crude from Canada. Again, it's real world economics in the private sector where controlling costs and making rational spending decisions is important (totally foreign notion to those who live by government should rule all dictate). If the cost to lay in finished product shipped from a refinery in, let's say Houston, were more expensive than to ship it via tanker from a less costly to operate offshore refinery then bringing it in from offshore makes more sense for the marketer as well as the consumer. Very few people as a percentage of our population have ever spent much time working up the economics of pricing structures so all that's involved is foreign thought to them. And it's apparently not as interesting as watching some insipid show about Kim K.......whoever she is. So, they are easily misdirected by charges of greed against the evil oil companies when pricing goes up.................never spending a minute to think through the additional costs borne by the suppliers as a result of government interference.
We don't know if Keystone will lower the price of gasoline, that's determined by market conditions involving far more than a single decision. However, what Keystone does do is add to a North American supply stream that's far more reliable than most offshore sources. That benefit remains invisible UNTIL there's something that messes up that offshore supply. It also benefits our balance of trade as Canada is a reliable customer/trading partner for stuff we produce. But in the current political environment, it's all about power for certain politicians, not energy for the people.
It all goes to a recurring question that remains unanswered. Did this country grow to be the most successful the world has ever know when we had more or less government interference than we do now when it's in the early stages of decline?
