Keystone pipeline aids our enemies

Steven M. Anderson, says the Keystone XL pipeline threatens our national security. He’s just any commentator on the subject. He’s a retired Army brigadier general, and senior mentor with the Army’s Battle Command Training Program. When he served in Iraq, he saw first hand what a threat our oil addiction is to our present and future. Read the whole op-ed, but here’s a key graf:

The Keystone XL pipeline doesn’t help. This pipeline would move dirty oil from Canada to refineries in Texas and would set back our renewable energy efforts for at least two decades, much to our enemies’ delight. It would ensure we maintain our oil addiction and delay making the tough decisions regarding energy production, management and conservation that we need to start making today.

And even in the short term, this pipeline isn’t going to solve our energy needs for one very important reason:

The Keystone XL is an export pipeline. Valero Energy Corporation, the pipeline’s largest customer, has explicitly told investors that it plans to focus its Port Arthur refinery on exports. Canadian oil won’t replace imports from hostile countries because Texas refiners are serving global demand rather than domestic need. [emphasis added]

Which is also an important point in general. Our own US oil corporations could be supplying more oil and gasoline to us, but in the chase for the biggest profits, patriotism takes a back seat. Even if we let Big Oil drill anyplace they want and drain every drop of oil within the US borders, they’ll still sell it the highest bidder. That probably won’t be America. [photo credit]