We are staring into the face of $180-per-barrel oil. Under President Barack Obama, the Nation is not producing enough oil and is importing far too much of it from potential enemies. This is a reckless game engineered by the President, because oil is America’s economic lifeblood.
It recently become apparent that Obama either does not understand the danger the country is facing or, worse, is willing to ignore it because he has conspired with Arab oil exporters to give them dictatorial powers over America’s energy needs and economic future.
The United States is critically dependent on imported oil, consuming almost 10 million barrels of foreign crude every day. That is about three times more oil than the United States imported 25 years ago. With Obama’s restrictions on further oil exploration, especially offshore, the United States may import 18 million barrels per day by 2020.
Gang Green
“Gangrene” is a medical term used to describe the death of one part of the body. It happens when the blood supply is cut off to the affected area.
I witnessed gangrene overtake my dad’s legs after he underwent surgery on a bulging abdominal aorta at the Loma Linda University Medical Center many years ago.
I never studied medicine, but I have spent my lifetime studying economics. It isn’t a stretch to use the analogy that petroleum is the lifeblood to the U.S. economy.
Keystone Kops Or An Agent For Saudi Arabia?
Petroleum is essential for the United States. With so many hostile governments selling it to us, it would be easy to think that Canada would be America’s energy oasis. The two countries haven’t had so much as a skirmish in 200 years, and more than any other nation, Canada has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States. So close are the two peoples that I can’t tell the difference between being in Montana or Alberta.
Both Nations have Judeo-Christian values and common law borne from the Magna Carta. American and Canadian men fought and died together during the two world wars.
On the surface it seems like a pretty simple equation: Canada has 180 billion barrels of reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia, the kingpin petroleum producer and de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Canada has a democratically elected parliament. The House of Saud is a desert fiefdom run by a few dozen billionaire princes. Whereas Canada has combat troops stationed in Afghanistan killing Muslim militants, Saudi Arabia provides tens of millions of dollars to Islamic terrorists bent on killing Westerners.
Beyond this, Canada has been a rock-solid energy supplier to the United States. In fact, thousands of Americans work in the Canadian petroleum industry, and there are hundreds of U.S. corporations that have a large stake in further developing Canadian petroleum. Scores of Canadian corporations are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Conversely, Saudi Arabia has nationalized its oil properties, and it implemented two oil embargoes against the United States in the 1970s.
It only makes sense that the United States would sign on to buy more Canadian crude. But with Obama, common sense is not at all common.
TransCanada Corporation is seeking Presidential authorization to build its $7.5 billion Keystone XL pipeline. The line would transport tar sands crude oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska on its way to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
A number of groups, comprised mostly of environmentalists and liberals, have banded together to oppose its construction. Obama is leading the crusade against Canadian crude.
The President said last month: “Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.”
The President doesn’t seem concerned that 1,661-mile pipeline would deliver 700,000 barrels per day of crude from the oil sands to the United States.
The Hawaii Reporter recently ran this headline on an opinion piece: “Obama’s Catastrophic Pipeline Copout.”
David H. Wilkins, U.S. ambassador to Canada from 2005-2009, wrote:
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline offers nothing but promise: tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs, and a big step toward ensuring North American energy security. But in mid-November, promise gave way to politics when President Obama punted on the pipeline permitting decision, delaying it until after the 2012 election. The Wall Street Journal called the decision a “Keystone Cop-Out.”
I call it a catastrophic cop-out, one with certain economic and diplomatic consequences. The decision on the KXL permit was expected before the end of this year and elected officials in both Canada and the United States rightly called it a “no-brainer.”
The project would reduce dependency on petroleum from the Middle East, a region that is rife with civil war. And what of the economic recovery that Obama promised three years ago? You would have to have been in a coma to see that things are no better and that, overall, the U.S. economy might be in worse shape than when he took office.
This gets me back to why the United States should be begging to sign this pipeline deal. It is estimated that the project would create a minimum of 20,000 well-paying U.S. jobs. That economic bonus would span far beyond all those families that could again have a wage earner and would spill over to every part of the economy, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop shops.
In fact, the pipeline deal will add more than $20 billion to the U.S. economy. An extra $5.2 billion in State property taxes would be collected.
Crude Consequences
The United States will have to deal with the consequences of turning its back on Canadian crude. First and foremost, Ottawa is building closer trade ties with Beijing with a great deal of emphasis on a possible blueprint that would deliver Alberta’s oil sands to the West Coast, where it could be delivered via tankers.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Chinese President Hu Jintao about future Canadian oil exports to China.
Harper said: “This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access Asia markets for our energy products.”
Canada is counting on China to be a key investor in Alberta’s oil sands projects and a big buyer of crude which would flow through a proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline if Canada encounters further opposition from the Obama Administration. This will make the United States all the more dependent on Arab oil. You would think Obama would understand this. The truth might be that he understands it all too well.
Yours in good times and bad,
Interesting.
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