The Free Market just vetoed Keystone XL---Economics no longer make Keystone pipeline viable

[kpete]

Economics no longer make Keystone pipeline viable

What if they voted for a pipeline but nobody came? As Congress rushes to approve the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline, it is questionable whether or not the project will make as much of a difference as proponents expect. Since June, crude oil has declined by 28 percent, pushing the price that oil from new wells in Canada may command below what the expected cost will be to produce it. The so-called "heavy oil" extracted from sand in Alberta, which the proposed pipeline would carry to Nebraska, en route to refineries on the Gulf Coast, will cost between $85 and $110 to produce, depending on which drilling technology is used, according to a report in July by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, a nonprofit whose work is often cited by Keystone proponents. West Texas Intermediate crude oil traded today at $76.67. "Anything not under construction is at risk of being delayed or canceled altogether," said Dinara Millington, vice president for research at Calgary-based CERI. Her cost estimates include the price of drilling new wells, meaning that existing wells that have already been paid for can continue to pump oil profitably, she said. CERI' s analysis squares with the views of other experts, who have pointed to low prices as a sign that economic facts, at least for now, don't match political rhetoric coming from Washington, where Keystone has been a goal for both Republicans and for Senate Democrats from oil-producing states.

MORE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/economics-no-longer-makes-keystone-153213747.htmlgsand
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/13/1344639/-The-Free-Market-just-vetoed-Keysonte-XL

[notrightatall]

1. Well that is good, sadly, POTUS will not.

[Cha]

5. Oh is that so? Try to keep up.

[pampango]

2. BREAKING: Pres. Obama's Press Secretary says he will veto any legislation to force approval of

Keystone XL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025813509

[Half-Century Man]

3. If we put the oil subsidie money and 1/5 of the defence budget into Renewable Energy

How long till fossil fuel use ends?

Wars for oil make no sense then. The first moot point war?

[woo me with science]

4. Well, that's interesting.

Could this be the real reason for the ostentatious veto threat?

[woo me with science]

6. Kick.

[Earth_First]

7. Gotta look TOUGH!

"GRRR!"

[Andy823]

8. You never stop, do you

Always the cynic.

[Jim Lane]

9. Key phrase: "at least for now". The long-term trend is probably for higher prices.

Other sources of oil can't keep producing at their current rates forever (the "Peak Oil" phenomenon). Furthermore, rising population will put upward pressure on consumption. Consumption per capita may be more of a mixed bag, but there will be upward pressures as well as downward.

Overall, I'd see a good chance that, within a few years, the price of oil will be back up at a level that would make Keystone profitabl.