Obama Tar Baby Oil Sands

Sources in Washington predict politicians there will not be pleased at having
a massive supply of secure energy on their northern doorstep
slipping under Chinese ownership.
Under the greenish Obama administration,
"oil sands" is becoming a dirty word.
Canadian oil sands exports are increasingly encountering USA political resistance.

TAR BABY OBAMA TARS OIL SANDS

As the USA government ponders approving
TransCanada Corporation's Keystone pipeline,
the USA president took aim at Canada's oil sands.
Obama questioned how environmentally friendly the resource is.
Obama referred to the oil sands as "tar sands"...
Canada's Energy spokesman said
"We do have a safe resource --
the president just isn't educated about
the environmental measures taken in developing the oilsands.
Maybe we just need to tell him
it's oil sands, not tar sands."

Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China
by Jim Meyers, Newsmax, Jul 2, 2011
The Obama administration is foot-dragging on approving a pipeline to deliver abundant Canadian oil to the United States at the same time the Chinese are investing in a pipeline that could send that oil to China. The House Energy and Commerce Committee [USA Sec'y of Energy and USA Sec'y of Commerce are both Chinese] last week passed a bill requiring President Barack Obama to speed up a decision on approving the pipeline. The bill was introduced by Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry, who maintains that the Obama administration has been too slow in making a final decision, the Montreal Gazette reports.

The Canadian province of Alberta has the world’s third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and more than Russia or Iran. Daily production from oil sands is expected to rise from 1.5 million barrels today to 3.7 million in 2025. Delivering the oil will mean building two pipelines, one south to the refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast and the other west toward the Pacific, where it can be exported to China. If the United States doesn’t approve its pipeline promptly due to environmental concerns, "Canada might increasingly look to China, thinking America doesn’t want a big stake in what environmentalists call ‘dirty oil’ which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a report from The Associated Press. Sinopec, a Chinese-controlled company, has invested $5.5 billion in the planned pipeline to the Pacific coast. Sinopec has also paid $4.6 billion for a stake in Syncrude, Canada’s largest oil-sands project, and PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas company, bought a $1.7 billion stake in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.

According to Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, American government officials have expressed concerns about the Pacific pipeline delivering oil to China that might have otherwise gone to the United States. Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told Newsmax in an interview last week that the pipeline project could create 100,000 jobs and said: "Why is it that we’re not working with Canada, which will be producing more than 3 or 4 million barrels a day from oil sand, and we’ve stalled on the application to build a pipeline? “If we continue to say we may not be interested, Canada is going to turn around and build that pipeline not to the United States but instead to Vancouver, and they’re going to be selling it off to China.”

Environmentalist groups have urged Obama to reject the pipeline project. They assert that extracting oil from oil sands requires huge amounts of energy and water, increases emissions and threatens rivers and forests. But Michael A. Levi, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, maintains that environmentalists are exaggerating the dangers of oil sand extraction. "A lot of people have been convinced that this is the cutting edge of the climate change fight", he said. "In the end this is the equivalent to half a percent of U.S. Emissions."

And a report commissioned by the Obama administration suggests that the pipeline to Texas, along with a reduction in overall U.S. oil demand, "could essentially eliminate Middle East crude imports long term.” The State Department, which must approve the pipeline, has promised a decision by the end of the year, although Republicans wants it sooner. And Upton told Newsmax that the bill his committee passed last week "is expected on the House floor as early as next month." David Goldwyn, a former State Department energy official who left this year to work as a consultant, said he believes the pipeline will ultimately be approved, according to the AP. "I think it would be a huge waste of a great opportunity to provide supply security", he said. "We don’t often get the choice of where we can get our oil from. In this case we get to choose Canada. That’s an opportunity we shouldn’t miss."

And Russell Girling, CEO of TransCanada, the company that would build the pipeline, says opponents of the project are in fact set on targeting Canadian oil sands. "The real issue here is those opposed to the Canadian oil sands believe that by delaying or denying this permit somehow they will slow down the development of Canadian oil sands,” he told the Business News Network. "That’s an unrealistic expectation — the Canadian oil sands will get developed, irrespective of this pipeline.”

Obama questions Alberta's oilsands
Toronto Sun, Apr 7, 2011
President Barrack Obama has waded into the murky oilsands debate, suggesting the resource is potentially "destructive". As the U.S. government ponders approving Calgary-based TransCanada Corporation's Keystone pipeline, the U.S. president took aim at Alberta's oilsands Wednesday, saying there are many environmental questions that still need to be answered. Referring to the oilsands as "tarsands", Obama acknowledged Canada as a friendly exporter to the U.S. but questioned how environmentally friendly the resource is. "These tar sands, there are some environmental questions about how destructive they are, potentially, what are the dangers there, and we've got to examine all those questions", Obama said.

The proposed US $13 billion Keystone pipeline will extend 2,673 km from Hardisty, Alta., through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Obama's remarks came days after Liberal leader [Canada's Opposition Party] Michael Ignatieff came out swinging against the oilsands in the midst of the federal election, proposing a national cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions, the issue of Alberta's crude came under the spotlight again during a town hall meeting on energy in Pennsylvania.

Calgary oil and gas analyst Peter Linder said Obama has no choice but to accept Alberta's oil via the pricey pipeline. "The bottom line is that the U.S. really has no choice but to take this oil", he said, adding the president has stated his objective is to reduce importing oil from the Middle East. "So there is no way he can achieve that objective without reliance on oil from Canada, which means the oilsands -- we are the only friendly supply of oil to the USA".

He said Obama is walking a tightrope. "On the one hand, he has to appease the environmentalists, on the other hand he has to be reasonable and logical", Linder said. Alberta Energy spokesman Jay O'Neill said he doesn't forsee Obama's words as being harmful to the relationship between the two nations and that the president just isn't educated about the environmental measures taken in developing the oilsands. "I think our message has always been that we do have a safe and secure supply and we develop the resource responsibly," he said. "Those are key areas to people who want to know where their resource comes from. "We do have a safe resource -- maybe we just need to tell him it's oilsands, not tarsands." O'Neill added that about 20% of the U.S.'s crude comes from Alberta and the Keystone pipeline would carry an economical benefit, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

China dives into oil sands as USA balks
(energy source deemed 'too dirty' for Washington)
Canwest News, Sep 1, 2009
To lift a quip from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Arctic sovereignty policy and apply it to the American view of Alberta’s oil sands: Use it or lose it. The Chinese government pushed its shovel deep into Canada’s energy motherlode yesterday when it announced a $2-billion stake in a five-billion-barrel reserve of "dirty oil" that Americans increasingly find unworthy of fuelling their vehicles. The 60% claim by Petro-China in two projects owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., while small compared to the great gobs of capital pouring into oil sands expansion and extraction, are the global giant’s largest investment in Canadian energy yet. And China usually buys into products it aims to consume.

Sources in Washington predict politicians there will not be pleased at having a massive supply of secure energy on their northern doorstep slipping under Chinese ownership. Well, too bad. Under the greenish Obama administration, "oil sands" is becoming a dirty word as Americans take on the delusional swagger that they can be picky about which oil is good enough to buy in a recession when supply is temporarily ahead of demand. Canadian oil sands exports are increasingly encountering USA political resistance at federal, state and municipal levels as low-carbon fuel standards move through the legislative process to erect barricades against an energy source with an extraction problem. But it is delusional because there is no post-refining difference between conventional and non-conventional oil and banning it in one state or city merely moves it to another, with no corresponding reduction in carbon emissions.

Yet the difference between the American and Chinese views of oil sand imports suggests that Canada is nearing a moment of decision. It can be forever held captive to the whims of USA refineries, which import 60% of oil sand production or about 780,000 barrels a day. Or it can create a battle of demand between the two energy-consuming superpowers that will soon find there is not enough oil to satisfy their combined thirsts. That will require Canada, whose pipelines now head only north and south, to punch a hole in the Rockies and open up a crude flow to the West Coast, from where oil could head overseas [to China].

Environment Minister Jim Prentice is no fan of a single-buyer market for exported bitumen, which actually sells at a discount in the USA compared with Middle East oil despite coming from a friendly neighbour. He’d like competition injected into the system. "Doesn’t it help Canada’s exporters to have alternative market choices?" he noted in a recent interview. "We need transportation mechanisms to ship it to the West Coast. Refineries in the USA have limited capacity and we don’t have anywhere else to sell it. Having the capacity to ship it to the West Coast would keep everybody honest, so I think it’s good policy." That’s so obvious as to be rhetorical, but the cost and complications of a new westbound pipeline may be prohibitive for the private sector to go it alone.

The proposed Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway pipeline, which has been on ice for several years, is being thawed for reconsideration. That’s at least five years off and the project faces numerous environmental, aboriginal land claim and geographical hurdles, which is probably why they weren’t talking about it yesterday – although they weren’t ruling it out in the longer term either. But to understand China’s strategic investment interest, keep in mind that 2009 will likely go down as the first year when car sales in the Communist country beat the United States, making it the world’s largest car-buying nation. At the risk of stating the obvious, cars consume gasoline, gasoline comes from oil and the world’s largest deposits of oil, albeit locked in tar, straddle northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. If America doesn’t want to use it on environmental grounds, they’re only one pipeline away from losing it to someone else.

Uncle Remus, Wikipedia (Uncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881. A journalist in post-Reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia, Harris produced seven Uncle Remus books. Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore, collected from Southern United States blacks. Many of the stories are didactic, much like those of Aesop's fables and the stories of Jean de La Fontaine. Uncle Remus is a kindly old slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him....

What is Oil Sands?, Alberta Energy (...Historically, oil sand was incorrectly referred to as tar sand due to the now outdated and largely ineffective practice of using it for roofing and paving tar: oil sand will not harden suitably for these purposes. Though they appear to be visibly similar, tar and oil sands are different; while oil sand is a naturally occurring petrochemical, tar is a synthetically produced substance that is largely the last waste product of the destructive degradation of hydrocarbons. Furthermore, their uses are completely different; oil sand can be refined to make oil and ultimately fuel, while tar cannot and has historically been used to seal wood and rope against moisture....)

Obama dithering again on Keystone Canada USA oil pipeline, Calgary Herald, Jan 10, 2014
It looks like U.S. President Barack Obama has done it again. As per Prime Minister Stephen Harper's remarks earlier this week regarding the Keystone XL pipeline decision, Obama has punted. On Thursday, the president announced a broad review of USA energy infrastructure - a move apparently motivated by the increased pressure put on the country's aging infrastructure by changes in the energy mix, demand and climate change. It also has to do with the growing number of derailments involving shipments of oil by rail in the absence of pipeline infrastructure, one surmises. If there was any doubt about Obama's dithering on the Keystone XL project, Thursday's announcement suggests it's unlikely the pipeline will be approved until after the USA mid-term elections in November 2014. And now he has an excuse - the task force charged with examining the systems required for transmitting, delivering and transporting energy will deliver its first report to the White House no later than January 31, 2015. Given the dramatic changes in U.S. energy production since Obama took office - from increases in both natural gas and oil production, rising use of water for extraction and the growing reliance on rail to ship oil - it could be said such a review is long overdue. But from a market standpoint it introduces an element of uncertainty that could affect investment decisions made by companies involved in the energy complex: exploration and production, transportation and supporting services. The lack of pipeline infrastructure in the face of rising production has pushed companies to look for alternate means of transportation, with rail at the top of the list. And it's getting harder to ignore the almost monthly occurrence of a train derailment involving the shipment of oil, accompanied by a picture of a massive fireball... At some point, you would think, an understanding of physics, along with the risks of moving flammable material above ground, would result in some rational decisions being made regarding pipeline construction and approval; not only in the United States, but Canada as well... That's why, in the face of derailments involving aging railway lines and rail cars, the evidence is pointing to the need for increased pipeline construction, even as there has been a spate of rail terminal projects recently announced across the country. From TransCanada's perspective, that means an approval for Keystone XL is nothing more than common sense. "The long-term answer is still the (KXL) pipeline," TransCanada's chief executive, Russ Girling, said recently....

Chink Chu steps down as USA Secretary of Energy, The Hill, Feb 1, 2013
...Chu used the Department of Energy (DOE) perch to call for stronger action to fight climate change, including efforts to impose costs on carbon emissions that have stalled in Congress. The outgoing secretary has been especially enthusiastic about solar technologies that he likes to point out are marching toward cost competitiveness with fossil fuels. In 2011, Chu joked that addressing pressing energy and climate-change problems led to his “downward spiral from professor to administrator to government bureaucrat.”

US-China applaud Chinese-American next USA ambassador to China
Xinhuanet, Jul 27, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The US-China Business Council (USCBC), a leading bilateral business organization, said Wednesday that it welcomed the Senate final approval of Gary Locke to serve as next USA ambassador to China. The USA Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Commerce Secretary Locke as ambassador to China, making him the first Chinese-American ever take the post. "We look forward to working with him immediately in Beijing to develop improved business opportunities for American companies doing business with China," John Frisbie, USCBC president, said in a statement. "Ambassador Locke made USA-China commercial relations one of his top priorities as governor of Washington and as Secretary of Commerce; we know he will continue to do so in his new role," Frisbie added. The USCBC knows Locke as a leader who is focused on increasing exports and improving market access for American companies, and looks forward to working with him to ensure "we build a sustainable and beneficial commercial relationship with China," noted the statement. Figures from the USCBC showed that nearly half of the USA states are currently sending more than 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods and services to Chinese market every year.

Canada oil sands woos China (politicians in treason dealing nation's natural resources). National Post, Jun 11, 2011

An oil highway from Alberta to Texas, National Post, Apr 15, 2011
It might surprise many Americans to learn that their country's largest oil supplier is not located in the Middle East. It is actually Canada, which supplies the United States with more than two million barrels of the 11 million barrels of oil it imports each day. With a major spike in oil prices now retarding America's economic recovery - and a tide of populist frustration across the Middle East that could put groups implacably hostile to the West in control of that region's immense supplies of oil - Canada's vast petroleum deposits are more important to the future of U.S. energy security than ever before. But for the United States to fully take advantage of Canada's resources, a better supply network needs to be in place. The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project would move oil from Alberta to Texas with connections to a network of pipelines and refineries elsewhere in the United States. This pipeline has the potential to supply America with an additional 1.1 million barrels of oil every day - 1.1 million barrels that would not need to be imported from hostile regions in the Middle East and South America. Unfortunately, this project has been lingering under review by the U.S. State Department since 2008....The question is not whether Canadian oil sands should be used -they will be. The question is whether the USA will seize the opportunity to benefit from Canada's abundant supply, estimated by the U.S. Energy Information administration to be 175.2 billion barrels.

Canada has already made remarkable progress in reducing the environmental footprint from oil sands development. More than 80% of the water used to extract and refine the oil is recycled. The first tailing ponds (containing refuse from the extraction process) are being reclaimed as green land and replanted with hundreds of thousands of shrubs and trees. Moreover, from an environmental standpoint, pipelines are the safest way to carry crude oil and petroleum products. The Keystone XL pipeline will employ state-of-the-art monitoring systems using satellite technology to ensure the utmost safety during transportation. By partnering with Canada, the USA can ensure that strict environmental standards are being met from start to finish.

We should not ignore the economic implications of the Keystone XL pipeline. Building the pipeline will create over 20,000 new American jobs in construction and manufacturing in the short term, and more than 250,000 jobs in the long run, according to estimates by TransCanada. The pipeline would also generate needed revenue for states and local communities, including $585-million in taxes and more than $5-billion in property taxes over the projected 100-year operating life of the pipeline. These jobs and revenue are critically needed as America continues its economic recovery. The Keystone XL pipeline is a win-win for the United States and Canada. Canada will gain a stable market with steady demand, and the United States will improve its energy and economic security. We need to move forward.

Top Ten Crude Oil Imports to the USA in 2010 & Their Freedom Rating, National Post, Apr 9, 2011
Oil and Freedom Should Make Good Neighbours: USA President Barack Obama this week got an earful from Alberta politicians about sending mixed messages about the oil sands - the "tar sands" as Mr Obama called them. The president acknowledges taht Canada is a secure and safe supplier of oil, but as this survey of global political rights and civil liberties by Freedom House, the Washington-based think tank, points out, there may be far worse places from which the United States could import its oil.

'Sign the bloody order' on pipeline deal (Alberta Energy Minister tells Obama), National Post, Apr 8, 2011
USA President Barack Obama should stop sending mixed messages on oil sands and "sign the bloody order" approving the Keystone XL pipeline of TransCanada Corp., Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said Thursday. "Frankly, I wish he'd get on with action," Mr. Liepert said when asked to respond to remarks by Mr. Obama in Washington on Wednesday.... The remarks came on the heels of an editorial in The New York Times that urged the U.S. government to block the TransCanada Corp. project, designed to transport more than half a million barrels a day of primarily oil-sands crude to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast....Murray Smith, a former Alberta energy minister and provincial representative in Washington, said Mr. Obama is clearly being influenced by environmentalists but the internal politics swirling around his declared intention to seek a second term are also at work.... Both Mr. Smith and Mr. Liepert pointed out that oil-sands crude is preferable to crude from the Middle East and Africa, where USA troops are involved in wars and environmental practices are often lacking. "I think at the end of the day, common sense, rationality and the desire to protect American lives will override the rhetoric and The New York Times," Mr. Smith said. "Canadian crude trades at a discount to the oil they're buying now. Their gas prices would be cheaper if the Keystone XL is built and they were refining it on the coast." Mr. Liepert said there are thousands of USA jobs the pipeline will create....

Canada premier urges Obama to visit oilsands
by Jodie Sinnema, National Post, Apr 8, 2011
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says he’d like Barack Obama to visit Canada’s oilsands to help ease the USA president’s mind about environmental concerns surrounding the contentious Keystone XL pipeline. “All I can say to the president and any of the staff that were giving the president advice, I would suggest come and visit. Come see for yourself,” Stelmach said. “It gives us an opportunity to tell the Alberta story.”...But on Wednesday, Obama raised concerns about the industry and about the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to transport millions of barrels of oilsands crude from Canada to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast. “These tarsands, there are some environmental questions about how destructive they are, potentially, what are the dangers there, and we’ve got to examine all those questions,” Obama said, using the word favoured by environmentalists — “tarsands” — instead of “oilsands” to describe the energy source....

US advocates for Oil Sands tout security of supply, Globe & Mail, Oct 12, 2009
The Houston-based Consumer Energy Alliance has a grim message for those who propose to restrict USA access to Canada's oil sands production to cut greenhouse gas emissions: If the USA doesn't buy the Alberta crude, China will. As a result, such measures would not advance the global fight against climate change, it says. But the USA would be more dependent on Middle East oil, "Communist China" would be siphoning off secure North American crude supplies, and motorists would face higher prices, the alliance warns in a campaign aimed at supporting expansion of imports from the oil sands. As the USA moves to adopt climate change legislation and prepares for negotiations in Copenhagen toward a new global treaty, environmentalists have stepped up their attacks on Canada's oil sands as emblematic of the world's reliance on "dirty" fuels. With the U.S. Senate set to take up debate on climate change legislation this week, the American oil industry is fighting back, both directly and through proxy groups like the Consumer Energy Alliance. When Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington recently, the American Petroleum Institute took out ads in major newspapers, extolling the contribution that oil sands will make to USA energy security and noting that per-barrel emissions from the oil sands have dropped dramatically since 1990...

USA Obama Secretary of Commerce is Chinese, Wikipedia (...As the first Chinese-American to hold this post in a president's Cabinet, Locke has a distinctly American story. His grandfather emigrated from China to Washington state, initially finding employment as a servant, working in exchange for English lessons. Locke's father, also born in China, was a small business owner, operating a grocery store where Locke worked while receiving his education from Seattle's public school system. His strong work ethic and determination eventually took him to the highest office in the state of Washington....)

USA Obama Secretary of Energy is Chinese, Wikipedia (Chu, a Chinese American, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, with ancestry from Taicang, in Jiangsu province....Chu has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy and nuclear power, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming....Chu warns that global warming could wipe out California farms within the century. Chu has joined the Copenhagen Climate Council, an international collaboration between business and science, established to create momentum for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen...Chu has speculated that a global "glucose economy", a form of a low-carbon economy, could replace the current system. In the future, special varieties of high-glucose plants would be grown in the tropics, processed, and then the chemical would be shipped around like oil is today to other countries. The St. Petersburg Times [Russia] has stated that Chu's concept "shows vision on the scale needed to deal with global warming." Chu has also advocated making the roofs of buildings and the tops of roads around the world white or other light colors, which could possibly reflect a lot of sunlight back into space and significantly mitigate global warming. The effect would be, according to Chu, similar to taking every car in the world off the roads for about 11 years....)