http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33434.htm
Enriching Big Oil and Coal
U.S. Energy Independence is a Sham
By Joshua Frank
December 25, 2012 "Counterpunch" -- Whether it is the hucksters
pushing for the Keystone XL pipeline to cut across the Heartland, or
the coal barons who are ramping up their exploits in Powder River
Basin, a familiar refrain can be heard echoing throughout their
propaganda: America must produce its own energy and stop relying on
"terrorist" countries to keep our homes heated, cars running and
economy kicking.
"The United States consumes 15 million barrels of oil per day and
imports 11 million," Russell K. Girling of the TransCanada
Corporation, which is to build the Keystone pipeline, wrote in The
Hill. "Keystone XL offers Americans the choice of receiving their oil
from a friendly, secure supplier in Canada, instead of importing
crude from unstable, volatile foreign nations such as Venezuela,
Libya and other areas of the Middle East."
Despite popular belief, Keystone XL, which is to transport tar sands
from Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, Texas, will not be used
domestically. Refiners based in Port Arthur, where the oil will end
up, are focused on exporting oil to Europe and Latin America. The
majority of the heavy tar sands oil extracted in Alberta will never
end up being burned in the United States.
"To issue a presidential permit for the Keystone XL, the
administration must find that the pipeline serves the national
interest," says Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change
International. "An honest assessment shows that rather than serving
U.S. interests, Keystone XL serves only the interests of tar sands
producers and shippers, and a few Gulf Coast refiners aiming to
export the oil."
Additionally, Valero, which is to be one of Keystone XL's main
customers, purchasing 76 percent of initial production, has detailed
to its investors that the crude it is to buy is mainly set for
export. To top it off, Port Arthur, where the dirty oil is to be
refined, is in a Foreign Trade Zone, where the company can operate
without paying any U.S. taxes. Valero's contract is to last until
2030 and the company is to take around 100,000 barrels of tars sands
per day.
Despite an outpouring of opposition to the proposed pipeline, which
culminated in over 1,200 arrests in late August and early September
2011 outside the White House and ongoing protests in Texas, the Obama
administration is slowly moving forward with the deal. President
Obama's jobs advisers are lending support for the pipeline and he is
also likely getting pressure from within his own party to give the
project a green light.
In 2008 Paul Elliot, who now serves as TransCanada's chief Washington
lobbyist for Keystone XL, served as a national campaign manager for
Hillary Clinton's presidential race. Additionally, as was discovered
by anti-Tar Sands activists from Nebraska as they prepared for
hearings on the matter at the State Department, the hearings were
being held by a company called Cardno Entrix. It turns out that
Cardno Entrix is contracted to run the environmental-review for the
Keystone XL pipeline, but lists TransCanada as one of its major
clients on its website.
"The pipeline company recommended the firm they wanted to review
them, a firm that listed the pipeline company as one of their major
clients," writes Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein. "Perhaps-just
perhaps-that explains why the review found that Keystone XL would
have 'limited adverse environmental impacts,' a finding somewhat at
odds with the conclusion of 20 of the nation's top scientists who
wrote the president this summer to say it would be an environmental
disaster."
It appears that TransCanada is doing all it can to impact the Obama
administration's decision on the matter by hiring a former Democratic
campaign manager, and has certainly pushed Obama's State Department
to hire a company with close ties to the very company it is supposed
to independently review. Additionally, some have criticized the job
numbers for the project. In 2010, TransCanada said that, "During
construction, Keystone XL would create 13,000 jobs and further
produce 118,000 spin-off jobs." But a report from Cornell University
says these numbers are inflated, writing that the project will create
no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary construction jobs for two years
based on the data TransCanada has given the State Department.
Not only will hundreds of thousands of jobs not be created, and not
only will tax revenue not help the country get back on track, the
majority of the oil from the tar sands will end up not even being
used in the United States. Debunking these myths are just one part of
the fight for a clean energy future.
And it is not just the tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline facts
that need to be straightened out; the coal industry is currently on a
major PR push to pressure the public into believing that locally
produced coal is a crucial part of the U.S.'s energy independence.
The U.S. is the fourth largest coal exporter in the world and
companies are working hard to increase production and shipments.
"America's abundant coal reserves - and our continued use of coal to
generate electricity - also promote greater U.S. energy security,"
said American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a front group
that is made up of over 40 coal industry companies. "The reason is
simple: The coal we rely upon is found right here at home, and we
have a more than 200-year supply based upon today's rate of usage."
While it may be true that the U.S. has some of the world's largest
reserves, along with Canada a total of 29 percent of the globe's
recoverable coal, major companies like Peabody and Arch Coal are
looking more and more at oversees markets and mines to turn a profit.
They know the jig is up here at home, where dozens of new coal plant
proposals are being tossed in the trash. As such, Asian countries are
increasingly coming into play, as China continues to build two
mid-size power plants a week. In 2007 the Energy Watch Group reported
that China could reach maximum production by 2015, which means they
will have to get much of their coal from elsewhere.
This is why companies operating in the coal-rich Powder River Basin
are increasingly eyeing potential coal export facilities up and down
the West Coast. There are only two coal terminals that ship coal to
Asia; one in Seward, Alaska and another major terminal in Vancouver,
B.C. Coal exports from the U.S. to Asian markets during the first six
months of 2010 increased almost 400 percent compared to the entire
year of 2009. It's one of the only shimmering lights on the horizon
for the struggling coal industry, which is facing increased
opposition in the U.S. as old power plants are shuttered and new
proposals are being met with stiff resistance.
This hasn't stopped the Obama administration from pumping hundreds of
millions into "clean coal" projects or from allowing the Bureau of
Land Management from opening up public lands in the Powder River
Basin for coal mining. Nonetheless, as awareness of coal's
contribution to global warming and human health impacts grows,
American coal companies are going to fight to keep the mines
operating and the coal burning. Even it if means helping to fuel one
of our country's main economic rivals, China.
This brings us to the curious case of natural gas, the one fossil
fuel that continues to be deemed a clean energy source by many
despite the fact that its extraction through fracking could have
catastrophic impacts, not to mention global warming causing emissions
from leaks and carbon from its burning. There is no doubt there is a
natural gas boom taking place across the country, with proposals for
new fracking operations spreading from California to New York. But
how much of this proposed natural gas will actually be used in the
United States in the future is a question that has yet to be answered.
The first natural gas export from the United States was approved for
Cheniere Energy in March 2011 by the Department of Energy. It will be
the first large natural gas export out of the Gulf of Mexico, with
other proposals in the pipeline by companies wanting to sell American
natural gas to the global market. Their loyalty isn't to America, but
to their bottom line.
The Keystone XL pipeline saga and the recent misinformation about
coal development illuminate how these resource profiteers market
their destructive endeavors to normal Americans - as a means of
energy independence and national security. Nonetheless, as the U.S.
public looks to wean the country off of dirty fossil fuels, it's a
safe bet that the extraction industry will have little problem
selling their dirty products to anyone who's ready to buy.
Joshua Frank, Managing Editor of CounterPunch, is the author of Left
Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, and along with
Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of Red State Rebels: Tales of
Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, and of Hopeless: Barack Obama
and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is now
available in Kindle format. He can be reached at
brickbur...@gmail.com.
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