Biden Promises to Kancel Keystone Pipeline, Canada Objects

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, Biden To Shut Down Keystone Pipeline “On Day One”

Joe Biden has added one more thing to his growing list of “day one” objectives after taking office. (How much work are they planning on dumping on this guy’s plate? He’s not a spring chicken anymore. Just saying…) Despite not uttering a peep about this on the campaign trail and repeatedly promising the voters in Pennsylvania that he wasn’t going to totally eliminate fossil fuels, Biden plans to rescind the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday. The number of jobs this will furlough, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars already invested in the project that could now be simply wasted, staggers the imagination. Oh, and he’s managed to tick off the Canadian government as well. (CBC News)

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday.

A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president’s team with U.S. stakeholders.

The words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appear on a list of executive actions supposedly scheduled for Day 1 of Biden’s presidency.

So much for “moderate Joe Biden,” eh? People have been warning for some time now that Uncle Joe’s “moderate” reputation was nothing but a smokescreen at this point and he has fully sold his soul to the liberal, socialist wing of his party. You can expect plenty more hits to the energy sector to come, all in the name of “saving the planet.”

Fox, Biden’s reported plans to kill Keystone XL pipeline alarm Canadian officials

Jason Kenney, the 18th Premier of Alberta, said in a tweet that he is "deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing."
. . .
Richard Madan, correspondent for Canada’s premier newscast, CTV News, said in a tweet that Canadian officials view the expected cancellation as "a punch in the face to Canada."

Even under Obama, they at least kept up the pretense that opposing the Keystone Pipeline was not just environmental virtue signaling. 

Dakota Access Pipeline On, Again

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, Appellate Court Puts Dakota Access Pipeline Back In Business

Just when you thought the entire brouhaha over the Dakota Access Pipeline was finished, last month we learned that a court had ordered the project to be shut down yet again. The stated purpose was yet another environmental review, though the pipeline has already received a clean bill of health in multiple such studies in the past. That put the nation’s oil producers into what analysts described as “a holding pattern” where production from the Bakken shale region was slashed by half a million barrels per day and oil prices sank below the break-even point.

That situation appears to have been resolved this week. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that the plaintiffs in the case had not shown sufficient cause to grant the request. The three-judge appeals panel did, however, allow the new environmental review to move forward. The process is expected to take at least a year. (Associated Press)

A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed a judge’s order that shut down the Dakota Access pipeline pending a full environmental review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with pipeline owner Energy Transfer to keep the oil flowing, saying a lower-court judge “did not make the findings necessary for injunctive relief.”
But the appellate court declined to grant Energy Transfer’s motion to block the review, saying the company had “failed to make a strong showing of likely success.”
The appeals court said it expects the parties to “clarify their positions” in the lower court.

You can tell that all of this maneuvering has far more to do with politics than environmental concerns by the way the plaintiffs reacted to the ruling. The attorney for EarthJustice, the group representing several Native American tribes bringing the suit, described the court’s decision as containing “more to like than dislike.” He noted that the environmental review would move forward and there would be “a new permit during the next administration.”

The implication here is clear. The plaintiffs are anticipating a Biden victory in November and the departure of Donald Trump (a strong advocate for the pipeline) from the Oval Office. The Dakota Access pipeline was tied up in legal red tape for years under the Obama administration, with Joe Biden vigorously supporting his boss in blocking progress on the project. So they are no doubt anticipating a potential Biden administration taking up the battle once again and getting the EPA to shut down production. And they’re probably correct in that prediction.

But to be perfectly honest, they've almost given up pretending this about water or pollution, other than CO2. It's pretty much all about bringing down the economy.

Reason #5583 That Trump Was Elected

Trump to Call for U.S. ‘Dominance’ in Global Energy Production

Donald Trump will tout surging U.S. exports of oil and natural gas during a week of events aimed at highlighting the country’s growing energy dominance.

The president also plans to emphasize that after decades of relying on foreign energy supplies, the U.S. is on the brink of becoming a net exporter of oil, gas, coal and other energy resources.
. . .
With “Energy Week,” Trump is returning to familiar territory -- and to the coal, oil, and gas industries on which he’s already lavished attention. Trump’s first major policy speech on the campaign trail, delivered in the oil drilling hotbed of North Dakota in 2016, focused on his plans for unleashing domestic energy production. The issue has also been a major focus during Trump’s first five months in office, as he set in motion the reversal of an array of Obama-era policies that discourage both the production and consumption of fossil fuels.

Remember when Preznit Obama said "we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices?" Turns out we can. All we have to do is stay out of the way of domestic oil producers. It helps other industries too, for which oil is a feedstock: The Shale Revolution's Staggering Impact in Just One Word: Plastics

That boom in drilling has expanded the output of oil and gas in the U.S. more than 57% in the past decade, lowering prices for the primary ingredients Dow Chemical Co. uses to make tiny plastic pellets. Some of the pellets are exported to Brazil, where they are reshaped into the plastic pouches filled with puréed fruits and vegetables.

Tons more will be shipping soon as Dow completes $8 billion in new and expanded U.S. petrochemical facilities mostly along the Gulf of Mexico over the next year, part of the industry's largest transformation in a generation.

The scale of the sector's investment is staggering: $185 billion in new U.S. petrochemical projects are in construction or planning, according to the American Chemistry Council. Last year, expenditures on chemical plants alone accounted for half of all capital investment in U.S. manufacturing, up from less than 20% in 2009, according to the Census Bureau.

Integrated oil firms including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are racing to take advantage of the cheap byproducts of the oil and gas being unlocked by shale drilling. The companies are expanding petrochemical units that produce the materials eventually used to fashion car fenders, smartphones, shampoo bottles and other plastic stuff being bought more and more by the world's burgeoning middle classes.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. And as a bonus, the more oil we produce, the weaker Russia's hand in global affairs.

Wombat-socho chimes in with "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: All-American Catgirl".

When Environmentalists Go Bad

Fire near Dakota Access Pipeline site ruled arson

You wouldn’t know it from the coverage by the major media but there have been numerous acts of sabotage including arson directed at the Dakota Access Pipeline over the past year. The lastest one happened Thursday in Newell, Iowa. The Pilot Tribune reports it caused nearly $150,000 in damage:

A fire on a Dakota Access pipe-line site near Newell Thursday night has been ruled an arson.
About $70,000 damage was done to a contractor-owned skid loader that was set on fire, and $75,000 to pipeline equipment. The fire, in a field near 180th Avenue north of Highway 7, was reported around 9:20 p.m. Newell firefighters responded, sheriff’s officials were immediately called in to investigate.

Last year, a similar fire caused up to $2.5 million in damage. The Pilot Tribune reported last November:

Six different pieces of heavy equipment were set on fire at 640th Street, a short distance off Highway 7. Investigation is continuing – no arrests have been made yet, but local and FBI officials are looking into whether there may be ties to other Dakota Access arsons elsewhere in the state, Buena Vista County Sheriff Kory Elston said.
Four excavators valued at approximately $400,000 each were considered a total loss, and a $600,000 bulldozer and $400,000-$600,000 side boom were also damaged.

The incident was determined to be arson and the FBI was involved in the investigation, but no one was ever arrested or charged in the case. The November arson took place about 4 miles from the one that happened last week.

These are not the only incidents of arson connected to the pipeline project. Last October, fires were also set near Reasnor, Iowa, causing up to $2 million in damage. At the time, the company behind the pipeline offered a $100,000 reward for information on the arson. There had also been a previous arson incident in the same location in August.

In March of this year, the company that built the pipeline reported two incidents of sabotage in which someone used a blowtorch to burn a hole in a shut-off valve. One of the incidents happened in Iowa, the other in South Dakota.

There's a certain irony in using gasoline to start fires to protest carbon emissions.

And Here I Thought Oil Spills Were a Bad Thing!

But I guess they're good when they serve "The Narrative!" Dakota Access Pipeline sabotaged in two states

The company which built the Dakota Access Pipeline says there have been “recent coordinated physical attacks” on the completed pipeline which is ready to begin delivering oil this week. At least two attacks taken place within the past month. Last week, someone took a blowtorch to an above-ground section of the pipeline in South Dakota. From the Duluth News Tribune:

In South Dakota, authorities received a report on March 17 that someone burned a hole through an above-ground section of an oil pipeline at a valve site just south of Sioux Falls, according to Chief Deputy Chad Brown of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
A torch may have been used to create the hole, causing about $30,000 to $60,000 in damage, Brown said. No suspects had been identified, Brown said. The incident occurred between March 15 and March 17, Brown said.

Because most of the pipeline is buried, the above-ground shut-off valves are the most easily accessible portions of the pipeline. A very similar attack took place earlier this month in Iowa.
. . .
No suspects have been identified in the two known cases of sabotage, but it’s not much of a stretch to suggest the apparently coordinated attacks were carried out by people opposed to its construction. This isn’t the first act of sabotage against this pipeline. Last October, fires were set that destroyed construction equipment in Iowa.

So whatever happened to Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, who committed vandalism on camera at a DAP protest? As of Sept, Google News only shows an arrest warrant out for her. Surely the case must either have advanced further or have been dropped.

Dakota Access Protesters Evicted, Leave Behind Scorched Earth

From Feb 22. Dakota Access Pipeline protesters burn structures as deadline looms

Some protesters have decided to end their time at the camp by burning down structures that were built on the site. From the Associated Press:

Some of the praying protesters said burning the structures — which appeared to include a yurt and a teepee — was part of the ceremony of leaving. As heavy rain turned to snow, some said they expected no trouble during the eviction, despite a heavy law enforcement presence.
“People are being very mindful, trying very hard to stay in prayer, to stay positive,” said Nestor Silva, 37, of California. “I am not aware of any plans for belligerence.”…
Dom Cross, an Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, said he planned to return home after living at the camp since September.
“There’s a lot of sadness right now. We have to leave our second home,” he said.

After months of showdowns with police, local law enforcement will finally clear the camp today. Authorities are being gracious to the exiting protesters. There will be buses provided to give them a ride to Bismark, ND. Each protester will be given food, a voucher for one night in a hotel and a bus ticket to take them anywhere in the United States. Fox News reports that authorities are even offering some kind of symbolic arrest aimed at giving the protesters something akin to an honorable way out of the protest. However, anyone who stays past today’s 2pm deadline and refuses the offer will be arrested and charged. One way or another, the camp will be cleared out today.

Once it is empty the work of cleaning up the mess left behind by up to 10,000 protesters will continue. The area where the camp is located is in a flood zone that washes into the local river. There is concern that abandoned cars, garbage and human waste could all wind up in the river if it is not removed before flooding takes place.

Now, that's some real environmentalism there.

Does anyone recall the origin of the standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge? I do.

In 2012, Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, were both convicted of two counts of arson on federal land, in relation to two fires they set in 2001 and 2006. In a mid-trial settlement agreement, the Hammonds agreed to not appeal the arson convictions in order to have other charges dismissed by the government. The Hammonds were also told the prosecutor would seek the mandatory minimum sentence of five years. Ultimately, Dwight Hammond was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and his son Steven was sentenced to a year and a day's imprisonment, which both men served. However, in 2015, the sentences were vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which then remanded re-sentencing. In October 2015, a judge re-sentenced the Hammonds to five years in prison (with credit for time served), ordering that they return to prison on January 4, 2016.

The Hammonds were charged under anti-terrorism laws for starting brush fires on their own land that inadvertently spread into the adjoining wildlife refuge, fires which they put out after a few acres of brush were burned, with no help from the government. The Bundy's seized on this incident as an example of how the Federal Government was oppressing ranchers.

I'll bet none of these protesters will be charged under that law. Instead they get free bus tickets home. None of them were shot to death.

From yesterday's news The Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp is no more

Many of the 200-300 protesters remaining at the Dakota Access Pipeline main camp, known as Oceti Sakowin, packed up and left yesterday. Some chose to burn down shelters they had built over the past several months on their way out. But a few holdouts remained today so police moved in and cleared the camp one final time. From the Seattle Times:

Police moved on the camp Thursday morning in dozens of armored personnel carriers, as a helicopter and fixed-wing airplane circled overhead. Police moved tent to tent and shack to shack with guns drawn, clearing out demonstrators. By 2:09 p.m. Central Time, it was over.
As many as 100 demonstrators were in the camp, according to activists, but authorities estimated 50.

Apparently 39 people were arrested today. Authorities had previously offered anyone who wanted to leave some food, a hotel voucher and a bus pass to anywhere in the country. Total cost of the cleanup of the site is starting at $800,000 though it’s believed that could go as high as $1.2 million by the time everything is done. Meanwhile, environmental groups such as 350.org which supported the protest are vowing to continue the fight. . .

I hear the Indians were getting pretty tired of the filthy hippies.

Reason #5403 We Elected Trump

People in red states were tired of obstruction for the sake of symbolic environmentalism:Trump To Give Green Light To Keystone, Dakota Access Pipelines

President Trump on Tuesday is expected to give the go-ahead for construction of two controversial oil pipelines, the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access, a White House official tells NPR's Tamara Keith.

The pipelines had been stopped during the Obama administration. The State Department rejected a permit for the Keystone pipeline from Canada, and President Obama ordered work halted on the Dakota pipeline after Native American groups and other activists protested its route near culturally sensitive sites in North Dakota.
. . .
In remarks to automakers on Tuesday morning, Trump proclaimed himself an environmentalist, but added, "It's out of control, and we're going to make a very short process, and we're going to either give you your permits or we're not going to give you your permits, but you're going to know very quickly."

Fracking Pays

Fracking has net financial benefit despite drawbacks, study finds

. . . a recent economic study on the controversial gas drilling method hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, says accounting for both the known downsides and benefits, it does more good than bad.

The study, published last month by the University of Chicago, also notes Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region does better than nearly all of the nation’s oil and gas fields.

Considering benefits like salaries, housing prices and other public welfare indicators, it showed communities that host hydraulic fracturing, a technique that saw a meteoric rise in popularity in 2008, see an economic gain of $1,300 to $1,900 per household, per year.

On the other hand, the researchers value the increased drag on a household’s quality of life by $1,000 to $1,600 per year.

“We wanted to understand what the local economic impacts are of fracking as a means to provide policymakers with information so they can better reach decisions for their local constituencies,” said co-author Christopher R. Knittel, Ph.D., director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

Dr. Knittel and his fellow researchers bill their work as the first comprehensive research on fracking’s economic implications for local communities.
. . .
Notably, median housing prices rose 6 percent, and salaries rose 8 percent in all gas- or oil-producing regions. In the Marcellus, which sweeps up and across Pennsylvania from the southwest to its northeastern corner, wages grew 8 percent. Housing prices grew 9 percent, the second highest of all shale fields.

Fracking in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, which saw the greatest economic benefit, raised housing prices 23 percent; wages, likewise, grew 29 percent.

Frack, baby frack.

Fracking to Make Way For Nuking?

Microwaves offer possibility of enhanced oil recovery without water:

Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, has revolutionized energy production in the United States and cornered OPEC. That cartel is currently attempting to restrict oil production and raise prices, but it faces the reality that American frackers can rapidly expand output. It’s a nightmare if you are a corrupt petro-dictator of any stripe, communist to jihadist.
Now the never-ending quest for new technologies has yielded a potentially revolutionary replacement or substitute for fracking: microwaving shale to extract oil and gas. James Watkins reports in Ozy.com:

As strange as it sounds, producers are experimenting with ways to zap previously unextractable oil resources with microwaves, which has the potential to kick-start an even bigger energy revolution than fracking — and appease environmentalists while they’re at it. This is potentially “a whole shift in the paradigm,” says Peter Kearl, co-founder and CTO of Qmast, a Colorado-based company pioneering the use of the microwave tech. Some marquee names are betting on the play: Oil giants BP and ConocoPhillips are pouring resources into developing similar extraction techniques, which can be far less water- and energy-intensive than fracking.
If producers can find a way to microwave oil shales in the Green River Formation, which sprawls across Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, the nation’s recoverable reserves could soar and energy independence could become more than an election slogan. Even with existing methods — strip-mining the shale and then cooking it, or injecting steam to cook the rock underground (hydraulic fracturing is useless here) — the formation contains enough oil to last the U.S. 165 years at current rates of consumption. Microwave extraction could goose those numbers even higher. After all, there are more than 4 trillion (with a “t”) barrels of oil in the Green River Formation.

Let’s take a deep breath. One formation, previously inaccessible, has a century and half’s worth of oil for America.

Sure, there is technology yet to be fully implemented, but the approach sounds promising, indeed:

Producers would microwave oil shale formations with a beam as powerful as 500 household microwave ovens, cooking the kerogen and releasing the oil. It also would turn the water found naturally in the deposits to steam, which would help push the oil to the wellbore. “Once you remove the oil and water,” Kearl continues, “the rock basically becomes transparent” to the microwave beam, which can then penetrate outward farther and farther, up to about 80 feet from the wellbore. It doesn’t sound like much, but a single microwave-stimulated well, which would be drilled in formations on average nearly 1,000 feet thick, could pump about 800,000 barrels. Qmast plans to have its first systems deployed in the field in 2017 and start producing by the end of that year.
So in another year, we may see production begin. And even greenies would have to concede this is promising:

Fracking can slurp up to 10 million gallons of water per operation — not good, especially in the arid West. “We don’t need water for our process,” Kearl says, “and we don’t have wastewater to dispose of afterward.” In fact, microwave extraction might produce water — one barrel of water for every three barrels of oil. In situ recovery using microwaves also avoids the massive environmental impact of mining and then processing the kerogen. What’s more, natural gas that often is flared off in conventional oil-well production could be used to power the generator that creates the microwaves.

I have no problem with fracking. It's been a godsend to America's oil and gas self sufficiency. But there's always room for better technology. How long until the left starts opposing it?

White House Stops Dakota Access Pipeline

White House (not the Army) halts Dakota Access Pipeline work yet again

Throwing yet another wrench into what has long since been settled law in the courts, the Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) issued another conflicting announcement this weekend in which they claimed that an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline to go under Lake Oahe would not be granted. This, of course, had the professional protesters in the area celebrating and the company building the project shaking their heads in disbelief. (CNN))

The Army will not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works announced Sunday.
Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a press release she based her decision on a need to explore alternate routes for the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing. It was announced on November 14, 2016 that her office was delaying the decision on the easement to allow for discussions with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation lies 0.5 miles south of the proposed crossing.

The pipeline is done, except for the final mine, which crosses the river.

As NBC News was reporting yesterday, both Energy Transfer Partners (the owners of the project) and both of the state’s senators called foul and said that these delays and harassment would end once Obama leaves office.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, denounced the decision Sunday night as “a purely political action.”
“The White House’s directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency,” it said in a statement…
Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, said the decision”violates the rule of law and fails to resolve the issue. Instead, it passes the decision off to the next administration, which has already indicated it will approve the easement, and in the meantime perpetuates a difficult situation for North Dakotans.”

Just to be clear, this obviously wasn’t a move which was made in a vacuum by the CoE. This came straight from the White House with the backing of the Justice Department. It was over a month ago when the Army began making noises about “looking at an alternate route” in response to the protests. But keep in mind that the current route is the one which the Army already approved and it was that approval which formed the basis for the state Public Service Commission’s decision to provide final approval. That approval was twice challenged in court and upheld both times.

Rewarding thuggery only results in more. Jan. 20th can't come soon enough. This should be on the list of last minute Obama directives to overturn on Day 1 of the Trump era. He should go in reverse order. The more recent the Obama decree, the more quickly it should be revoked.

What Happened to Pea Coil?

U.S. Passes Saudis, Russia in Oil Reserves

The US holds more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia, the first time it has surpassed those held by the world’s biggest exporting nations, according to a new study.

Rystad Energy estimates recoverable oil in the US from existing fields, discoveries and yet undiscovered areas amounts to 264bn barrels. The figure surpasses Saudi Arabia’s 212bn and Russia’s 256bn in reserves.

The analysis of 60,000 fields worldwide, conducted over a three-year period by the Oslo-based group, shows total global oil reserves at 2.1tn barrels. This is 70 times the current production rate of about 30bn barrels of crude oil a year, Rystad Energy said on Monday.

Recoverable reserves — those barrels that are technologically and economically feasible to extract — are analysed by the energy industry to determine company valuations and the long-term health of an oil-producing nation’s economy.

Fracking happened, that what. Despite all the liberal opposition to it.

Judge Swats Down Interior Anti-Fracking Regs

Obama Public Land Fracking Rule Struck Down: “No Congressional Authority”

An attempt by the Obama administration to impose harsh regulations on fracking operations on public land has been thrown out by a Wyoming court, on the grounds that the Interior Department exceeded the bounds of its Congressional authority.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday night struck down an Obama administration regulation on the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas on public lands, a blow to President Obama’s muscular stand on the extraction of fossil fuels on government lands.
The rule, released by the Interior Department in March of last year and scheduled to take effect this Friday, was designed to increase the safety of fracking. It would have required companies to comply with federal safety standards in the construction of fracking wells, and to disclose the use of some chemicals in the fracking process.
Judge Scott W. Skavdahl of Federal District Court in Wyoming ruled that the Interior Department lacked the authority from Congress to issue the regulation, and also noted that fracking was already subject to other regulations under state and federal law. . .

Naturally the Obama administration plans to appeal. I guess President Obama is still attempting to fulfill his promise to make energy prices skyrocket, regardless of the impact on jobs or the economic well being of ordinary Americans.

Unfortunately, if courts slap down half of all executive power grabs, the power and reach of the Federal government still continues to grow, if at only half the rate the President would prefer.

Fracking Continues Despite Low Oil Prices

Innovation works: Shale producers prove the power of the market

We were told that while oil prices were high, shale oil could be produced at enough of a profit to drill, but too expensive to continue if the prices dropped.

But efficiency and technical innovation have overcome that bit of conventional wisdom as Shale Energy Insider reports:

US shale companies have increased the number of rigs in the field for the first time in nearly seven months when oil prices were trading around $70 per barrel, compared to under $60 per barrel in the current market.
The number of rigs rose in almost every main shale basin across the US according to data gathered by Baker Hughes.
Industry experts have suggested that as a result of last year’s price crash, shale exploration firms have cut their break even costs by anything up to $20 per barrel.
“As much as anything else, the rise this week is a testament to break-evens coming down just over the course of this year,” said James Williams, president of energy consultancy WTRG Economics.
“Shale is a lot more resilient than we thought it was, and it means we’re going to be able to keep producing shale oil at a lower cost than we thought we could.”

Adding rigs is the primary way to gauge whether or not it is economically profitable for energy companies to drill for and pump the oil According to one analyst, the companies have been able to streamline their operations to the point their breakeven costs have dropped by about $20 a barrel. That’s huge . . .

Frack, Baby, Frack!

Senate Passes Keystone Bill, Obama Threatens Veto

Senate votes to build Keystone, defying veto threat from Obama

The Senate on Thursday voted 62-36 to build the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, delivering Republicans the first legislative victory of their new majority.

Nine Democrats joined with Republicans in voting to approve the $8 billion project, five votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a promised veto from President Obama.

The nine Democrats who voted to approve Keystone were Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Tom Carper (Del.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.)
. . .
The bill now heads to the House, where Republicans are determined to act quickly to force Obama into taking what they believe will be a politically unpopular stand against a project that would carry oil sands from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Wait, I thought the House had already passed a Keystone Pipeline Bill this session?

While the House voted to build the pipeline earlier this year, the Senate added several amendments to the legislation during three weeks of work, the byproduct of McConnell’s promise to give individual members more input on the floor.

Aides said House Republicans have not decided whether to pass the Senate bill as is or seek a conference committee, where a final version would be negotiated between the chambers.

You mean they allowed Senators to actually vote amendments to the bill? When did that start happening?  Oh, right. .  .

 Obama has repeatedly warned Congress not to short-circuit the federal review of the pipeline and seems poised to issue the third veto of his presidency when the legislation hits his desk.

"If, in fact, the legislation that passed the House also passes the Senate, then the president won't sign it," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday.

The State Department, who must rule on the Keystone Pipeline, has already twice given it's approval to the Keystone, only to have it sent back to Obama with understood instructions do find something wrong with it, to burnish his environmentalist credentials.

"We are hoping the president, upon reflection, will sign agree to sign onto a bill that his State Department says could creates 42,000 jobs," McConnell said.

As Instapundit says, make him wear out that veto pen on jobs bills, cuts in the federal work force, and other popular legislation.

UPDATE: This would also be a good time to read this article by Jonah Goldberg:

Why Obama and the Saudis Like Low Gas Prices

. . . By artificially keeping oil prices low, the Saudis get to deal a powerful blow to the energy revolution in the U.S. (They also get to deliver a severe economic blow to their enemies the Iranians, which is nice.) In exchange, Obama gets an unearned political windfall and can claim vindication for his ineffectual economic policies.

Obama is paying back the Saudis by permanently taking the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve’s billions of barrels of oil off the table for all time. By doing so, he also puts the entire Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System (TAPS) on a starvation diet. North Slope oil production is half of what it once was, and if it falls below 350,000 barrels per day, the TAPS itself will start to become economically and technically unfeasible. In other words, Saudi Arabia’s short-term economic hit is an investment in future dependence on Saudi oil.

Of course, there need not be a conspiracy, just a convergence of economic and political interests. But the fact remains that Obama could never have gotten away with restricting energy development in ANWR before an election or when gas prices were high. This is Obama’s window, and it appears the Saudis are holding it open for him for as long as he needs.

White House Confirms Keystone Veto Threat

White House finally issues formal veto threat on Keystone bill

Today, the White House made it explicit:

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 3, which would immediately authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of the Keystone XL pipeline and related cross-border facilities and declare that the Secretary of State’s January 2014 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement satisfies the National Environmental Policy Act and any other provisions of law requiring Federal consultation or review with respect to the Keystone XL pipeline or its related facilities.
H.R. 3 seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether cross-border pipelines serve the national interest by authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline project prior to the completion of the Presidential Permitting process. In doing so, it would cut short consideration of important issues relevant to the national interest. The bill also would authorize the project despite uncertainty due to ongoing litigation in Nebraska.
Because H.R. 3 conflicts with longstanding Executive branch procedures regarding the authority of the President and prevents the thorough consideration of complex issues that could bear on U.S. national interests (including serious security, safety, environmental, and other ramifications), if presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill.

. . .On Keystone, though, the White House has more problems, not the least of which is dishonesty. The State Department has had six years to consider Keystone, which makes the claim that Congress would “cut short consideration of important issues” a laughable lie. The US fought the second world war in less than four years in comparison, and put a man on the Moon in almost the same amount of time that the Obama administration has stalled out on a pipeline. Citing the legal challenge is more nonsense; an approval would have no impact on the court. These applications do not sit around waiting around for the resolution of all possible legal challenges.

The State Department keeps giving the administration go ahead reports on the Keystone Pipeline, and Tom Steyer President Obama keeps sending in back with them to orders to get it right.

Around the World with the Wombat

A quick survey of Wombat-socho's "Live at Five: 12.01.14" for any exciting news.

Nope. none. . . . OK, just kidding:

Obama To Meddle Further In Ferguson Mess: Cabinet meeting will review DoD programs that provide military equipment to police - I haven't said much about Ferguson, mostly because I'm so disgusted with the behavior of almost everyone involved. I was 14 when the Watts Riots broke out in Los Angeles. It's quite clear that as a nation we have made enormous progress in providing minorities with equal rights under the law, but that has done little or nothing to ease racial tensions, and in fact has probably made the situation worse. But you have to admit, Ferguson makes a pretty good case for why small town cops might need MRAPs.

Hundreds Turn Out For Traficant Memorial Service Did they all wear the ceremonial orange jumpsuit and hairpieces? He rolled a farm tractor over on himself. Ugh.

Obamacare Small Business Site Opens To Weak Interest  - I guess this will have to pass as the almost daily Obamacare Shadenfreude. A quote:

The Post also reported that insurers are having trouble accessing their accounts on the site and are not appearing in the system's master lists of professionals available to advise small businesses. The paper reported, citing confidential federal documents, that parts of the online marketplace are still being tested. CMS spokesman Aaron Albright claimed that the sections of the site needed to explore and select health plans has been "thoroughly tested."

Another repeat of last year's computer debacle? This was the section of the law that the Preznit decided to delay a year? It doesn't seem like they took the extra time to bother to get it right.

Asian Crude Plunges As OPEC Refuses To Cut Production: WTI $64.60, Brent $68.31 - As I have said previously, I don't really mind OPEC and Russia trying to keep prices so low it keeps some shale from being profitable. Think of it as a strategic reserve we don't have to pay the federal government to maintain. And their plan may be working: Falling Oil Prices Just Put Two Major U.S. Shale Basins in the Red

"I'll take a case"

Girl Scout Cookie Online Sales Okayed - Samoas and Tagalongs without the guilt trip? That'll never work.

PNC Reveals Cost Of “Twelve Days Of Christmas” Gifts In Today’s Economy  - Only 27k ish, because those nasty Republicans held the minimum wage down (5 maids a-milking). Seems like a bargain.

Roku? Chromecast? Fire TV? Which Streaming Stick Is Right For You? - Been thinking about it but basic cable seems to keep us content 90% of the time.

Study: Social Media Misused By Researchers

In a paper published in the current issue of Science, computer scientists Derek Ruths and Jürgen Pfeffer of Carnegie Mellon outline a number of problems with academia's current usage of social media data to study human behavior.

These days, "thousands of research papers each year are now based on data gleaned from social media," so there are far-reaching implications to the poor methodology detailed by the researchers, Ruths told McGill University.

"Many of these papers are used to inform and justify decisions and investments among the public and in industry and government," he said.

Melanie Brown (Mel B)

I'm shocked, shocked to see science misused to fit government and business, aren't you?

Mel B (Scary Spice): “I Do Have A Big Ego, And I’m In Love With Myself” - I know you're also surpised to hear that a good looking, rich, talented woman would have a healthy ego. Doesn't she know she's supposed to be more self effacing?

Scarlet Johansson Weds In Secret Ceremony - Oh man, does this mean I'm out of the running? I'm always the last person to find out.

Snooki got married too. - Dodged a bullet there, I guess.

Bale tells Clooney to ‘stop whining’ - Always appropriate.

Iraq Graft Probe Finds 50,000 “Ghost Troops” So they learned a trick or two about governance from Washington DC?

Nigeria's Economy Challenged as U.S. Oil Exports Dry Up - Frack, baby frack. It's not that I hate the Nigerians, I just like us better.

Boko Haram Attacks Nigerian State Capital - But we should still help them make an example out of these guys.

Wombat-socho has the father of all Rule 5 posts, "Rule 5 Sunday: Ton O’ Luv" ready at The Other McCain.

Saudis Attempt to Kill Shale Oil

OPEC Policy Ensures U.S. Shale Crash, Russian Tycoon Says

OPEC policy on crude production will ensure a crash in the U.S. shale industry, a Russian oil tycoon said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept output targets unchanged at a meeting in Vienna today even after this year’s slump in the oil price caused by surging supply from U.S shale fields.

American producers risk becoming victims of their own success. At today’s prices of just over $70 a barrel, drilling is close to becoming unprofitable for some explorers, Leonid Fedun, vice president and board member at OAO Lukoil (LKOD), said in an interview in London.

Cut baby, cut. Sell us your oil cheap to try to get the price below the point at which shale is economical. All that will happen is that you'll run out faster, and our oil will still be available in the ground. I can't wait for day the world becomes less dependent on the Arab oil producing states.

House Passes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

House approves Keystone XL pipeline as Senate vote awaits

The House passed legislation Friday that would green-light the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, as attention now shifts to an upcoming Senate vote next week.

The bill from Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., passed 252-161, with all Republicans supporting — except one who voted present — and 31 Democrats joining them. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., have floated the same bill in the upper chamber, which is scheduled for a Tuesday vote.

President Obama, however, hinted Friday that he would veto the bill if it reached his desk. He reiterated that he would not let legislation circumvent the review process at the State Department, which has had the application for a cross-border permit needed to build the pipeline's northern leg for more than six years.

This, of course, is absolute bullshit, as the State Department has approved the Keystone XL not once, but twice, and each time the screechers in the environmental lobby funded by billionaire Tom Streyer have found some excuse to get the Preznit to send it back to State for another look for flaws.

"My position hasn’t changed, that this is a process that is supposed to be followed,” Obama said during a press conference in Burma, dashing some speculation that he could OK the legislation as an olive branch to the incoming Republican-led Senate.

Of course, the Republican controlled House has had the ability to pass such a law for a couple of years, only to have it die in Dirty Harry Reid's Democratic Senate.  Now it's a different story, and with Bloody Mary Landrieu (D- Louisiana) seeking to win a runoff election for her seat in the Senate the bill should gain a simple majority easily, but maybe not the 60 votes to survive a filibuster.  My advice to Sen. McConnell? Go nuclear, early and often, until the democrats say "uncle."

The Keystone XL pipeline is broadly popular with the American public. with support of about 65% of those polled, and forcing allowing the Senate Democrats to filibuster the bill or Obama to veto it would not help their party in the 2016 election. The 2014 midterms produced a consensus of the nation that they wanted the Republicans to lead; leaving the Democrats as the party of "no."

Canada Blows Off Obama, Keystone Pipeline

Canada decides to send the oil to China after all.

Claiming it could no longer abide the Obama administration's five-year refusal to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline designed to bring 830,000 barrels a day of much-needed Alberta shale oil to U.S. refineries, the Canadian government recently approved plans for a huge new pipeline and port project to ship that oil to Asia instead.

When completed, the $7.9 billion Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, approved by Canada’s federal government on June 17, will consist of an environmentally safe, 730-mile oil pipeline. It will be capable of moving 600,000 barrels a day of Alberta oil to the pacific coast town of Kitimat, British Columbia, where a new state-of-the-art super tanker port facility will be built to ship the oil to thirsty Asian ports.

It was initially hoped that recent discoveries of massive new Canadian oil and gas reserves could benefit both Canada and the United States by building a safe and reliable pipeline to bring the oil to U.S. refineries in Louisiana and Texas. Building the proposed 1,179-mile Keystone pipeline promised, not just a huge new supply of reliable, clean, and affordable oil to U.S. markets, but the creation of up to 20,000 high-paying construction jobs. An additional 22,000 jobs economists predicted would have resulted from the broader economic stimulus the project would have generated.

Rather than purchasing crude from a friendly and allied neighbor, the United States will most likely need to continue its reliance upon hostile sources like Venezuela. Energy analysts had hoped that construction of Keystone could have replaced almost half of the current U.S. daily crude purchases from that volatile, anti-American dictatorship, depriving Venezuela of the resources it relies upon to stay in power and fund its Cuban allies.

Refusal to approve Keystone has forced suppliers to deliver their flammable crude via thousands of trucks and railcars traveling on America’s highways and railroads, rather than in a pipeline.

So the oil will get produced, processed and burned, in a different, and dirtier way than it would be in the US, with less jobs for US workers.

Mission accomplished, Team Obama!

State Dept: Sorry, Keystone Pipeline Even Safer Than We First Said

U.S. corrects Keystone study estimate of rail deaths, other errors

The State Department on Friday corrected several errors it made in a key study evaluating the impact of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, including a understatement of how many people could be killed on railroad tracks if the project were rejected and oil traffic by rail increased.

The department said, however, these corrections had "no impact" on the integrity of the conclusions of the January report, which played down potential environmental consequences of TransCanada Corp's Canada-to-Texas project.

The January report determined that blocking the controversial pipeline could increase oil train traffic and lead to an additional 49 injuries and six deaths per year, mostly by using historical injury and fatality statistics for railways.

That finding was a small element of a broader examination of how building the pipeline could impact climate change, endangered species, quality of life and other issues.
But the report mistakenly used a forecast for three months of expected accidents rather than full-year figures, officials said. The correct estimate of deaths should be roughly four times as large - between 18 and 30 fatalities per year.

That's a pretty serious error, and a fairly stupid one as well. You wonder what kind of review process the State Department has to check it's publications for factual errors.

Officials also revised a footnoted reference to how much electricity would be needed to power pumping stations along the route of the pipeline that would link Canada's oil sands region to Texas refineries.

Running at something less than full capacity, the pumping stations would not require as much electricity - and so tax power plants less - than originally reported.

That should really end the discussion.  Do we build the pipeline or kill 18-30 more people each year? Seems like a pretty obvious choice to me.

But opposition to the pipeline is not for the sake of safety, it's simply unreasoning antagonism to fossil fuels, development of any sort, and a desire to push their Utopian schemes onto the rest of us.  Remember, they don't really care about the environment, they just hate people.