The oil was always going to China. That's why the pipeline went to Houston, not so much for the refineries, but for the port.

Wow. A jaw-droppingly stupid article amplified by the comments in this thread.

Here is a summary of basic facts.

1. Tar sands oil is being piped to the Great Lakes refineries right now. Ever wonder why gasoline is so cheap in places like Iowa and Missouri? Because it's tar-sands oil. The Great Lakes is the only area in the US where it can be cheaply refined.
2. The purpose of the pipeline was to divert that oil away from the Great Lakes and down to Houston.
3. China has established trade routes to Houston. No new research, no new planning, no months of legal contracting. The fuel costs on a trans-oceanic voyage are pocket change compared to the volume of oil they would have taken out of Houston.
4. That pipeline was blocked by the tree-hugging, enviro-terrorist supporting, ultra-left-wing Democratic bastion of Nebraska...
5. Because the steel proposed for the pipeline has the worst safety record of any oil pipe. Americans would be on the hook for numerous small leaks, spills, and explosions over the life of the Keystone XL.
6. All that pipe was going to come from China. In other words, this cunning plan to keep China from profiting involved the purchase of millions of dollars worth of shoddy pipe from China.
7. No matter what, diverting this oil away from the midwest will have a direct impact on food prices. It's not just consumer gasoline that's cheap here. That same fuel powers agricultural equipment which produce the food, and fuels the semis that distribute it throughout the country.

What will we lose no matter what? Cheap fuel in the midwest. No matter what, those days are numbered.
What did we lose by canceling the pipeline? 2000 short-term jobs and a few hundred long-term ones.
What did we gain by canceling the pipeline? Not having to spend millions of dollars in the long run buying land, repairing pipe, inspecting it, cleaning spills, and restoring damaged land.

Yep. Stupid, stupid liberals. Can't see the big picture.

/especially those far-left extremists in Nebraska who shut it down in the first place...

The writer complains about American liberals, and then goes on to praise Canada, which of course has a high minimum wage, single payer health care, and other socialistic perks.

The moral of the story is praise be to socialism!

There's a reason Keystone was ending at a port city. It was always going to be shipped to China except now they can bypass our Midwestern refineries.

beta_plus: Liberal butt hurt tears over the unintended consequences of blocking the Keystone Pipeline.

So sweet, so delicious.

You are so naive. Currently the Keystone pipeline stops in the Mid-Mississippi valley to the refineries there so all that Canadian oil goes right into American gas tanks. If that pipeline would make it to the Gulf Cost all the Canadian oil will go on the global market, mostly to China and India and Americans will weep when they have to pay more for gas because the cheep gas they were getting from Canada is sailing away. Blocking that pipeline was the best thing to happen to your pocket book because now Canada has to build a new line to the Pacific coast to sell their oil to China but we still get the Keystone stopping in the middle of the US. It's a win-win

Those tar sands amount to environmental suicide. What they're doing to that river and that whole area is gonna affect the entire continent in years to come. That kind of water usage is not sustainable. Not that it matters, our culture is diseased. As long as we get our flatscreens we don't care, we deserve the future we're creating.

mrshowrules: 2. StarBucks

This invalidates your opinion. If you're gonna drink the bullshiat they serve as coffee, you might as well just drink burnt motor oil. My girlfriend likes their chai, but I'll make a separate stop at literally anywhere else to get my coffee.

Obama is Chuck Schumer's boss? Can someone point me to the section of the constitution where the president hires and fires senators?

Canada is going about oil extraction in the derpiest way possible.

Norway, Saudi Arabia, and UAE collect between 70-80% of the revenue from oil extraction. Canada collects 10% of the revenue.

- Norways' oil fund (established in 1990) over 600 billion dollars;
- UAE's oil fund (established in the 70s) over 600 billion dollars;
- The Saudi's oil fund is at over 500 billion, but probably much more

Canada's oil fund = $0

Too bad the author of that article has no clue that the Northern Gateway pipeline that would expedite the shipping of tar sands oil to China faces opposition from both of British Columbia's main political parties and cannot be built without British Columbians' permission.

This concept of "1. Tar sands + China 3. Rich forever!" floating around in the heads of the AB-based Conservatives is still missing Step 2: actually figuring out how to ship it out of Alberta.

It's a bit of an NEP moment for British Columbians. The eastern bastards (as WAC Bennett once noted, for us eastern Canada starts at Alberta) want to screw British Columbians over mainly for the gain of Enbridge and their investors. Unsurprisingly, it's not at all popular.

NeedlesslyCanadian: Methadone Girls: ArkAngel: And Dunkin' Donuts is far superior to Tim Horton's

You take that back!! I've had coffee from Dunkin' Donuts and tossed it in the parking lot. How do you drink coffee from there? Bleh.

Timmies coffee is farking disgusting too. It's practically unthinkable, but McDonalds probably has the best fast-food coffee around.

Which is why the sane brew their own.

ox45tallboy: so the company(ies) in charge of the pipeline will probably do a pretty good job of stopping leaks and spills - it's profitable to do so.

Are you joking? Enbridge is getting roasted for the number of spills it's had recently. Much cheaper to let a little oil spill than monitor a huge pipeline.

Chimperror2: ThatGuyGreg: TL;DR

And, it's adorable that you ferriners think we go to Dunkin' for the donuts.

Weaver95: Today we are undergoing a similar dance in our economic relation with China. And wouldn't you know, it's our liberal friends in Congress, so enthusiastic about hamstringing American enterprise, who are the last to realize that they are undercutting our political hegemony as well.

Because all those liberal CEOs are the ones shipping jobs overseas to china every chance they get....

No, it's just the liberal politicians and their enviro-whacko watermelon masters. Get rid of those and jobs will stop leaving.

[desmond.imageshack.us image 178x225]Chuckie
[lh4.ggpht.com image 81x85]"The Joker"Schumer

Yes, if only American businesses were allowed to make children (as well as adults) work in unsafe conditions for pathetic pay! Then those heroic Job Creators™ wouldn't be FORCED to send jobs to China!

Mrtraveler01: Toaster4k: Wanting separation was more to be masters in our own home.

So they were attention whores? Even Alberta doesn't pull that kind of crap like bombing businesses they disagree with (ie: like how FLQ bombed different Anglophone businesses and institutions in the 1960s) even though they biatch about Ontario all the time.

Toaster4k: Now there is still lots of bad blood between English and French, whatever.

I wonder why...

Toaster4k: Opression made the PQ a necessity back in the days. Now ignorance and hate on both side of the fence just makes it a sucky situation. Mostly ignorance.

I agree, both sides acted like dicks. But once the PQ came into power, they started acting like the same kind of dicks that they complained the Anglophones were treating them with a bunch of BS laws like Bill 101.

Maybe Quebec would be better off on it's own so the Anglophones and Francophones can finally fight each other and leave the rest of Canada alone.

/Knows that Canada would still be dragged into Quebec's affairs even if they did declare Independence
//Sorry for the lack of sympathy I have for the PQ

Like I said, lots of ignorance. I dont have time to give an history dissertation and dont care enough. You might want to look into it.

Mrtraveler01: Toaster4k: Mrtraveler01: mrshowrules: Mrtraveler01: The trouble I see with the third pipeline is that it's routed through Quebec.

With the PQ getting popular again and flirting with another referendum on soverignity, is it smart to plot a pipeline through Quebec?

There will never be another referendum on separation.

I hope you're right. I was reading the Toronto Star one day (I was bored) and they kept pushing the idea that the PQ is flirting with that idea.

That said, I don't know why anyone would support the PQ considering that were responsible for the shape that Quebec was in already. Even with a corrupt Quebec Liberal party.

Seems like lose/lose for Quebec either wway.

Spoken as someone who has no clue about the history of Quebec.

The rise to power from the PQ is a direct consequence of how we (the big french majority) where treated inthe 50-60s. Its more or less relevent now, but still dealing with the after effect. I might not agree with the separatists, but I do know where they are coming from.

That being said, next election, its highly doubtfull we will have a majority governement.

And even if by some sort of miracle, it was a majority PQ gouvernement, no chance of a referendum ever passing now.

I understand that the francophones felt slighted by the Anglophones in power (esp. in Montreal), but the francophones acting like total dicks back to the Anglophones was NOT the right thing to do.

That's comforting to hear.

Wanting separation was more to be masters in our own home. That got more or less accomplished without it. Some stills wants it. Now there is still lots of bad blood between english and french, whatever. Just go to any thread mentionning canada and/or Quebec and you can just feel the love.

Opression made the PQ a necessity back in the days. Now ignorance and hate on both side of the fence just makes it a sucky situation. Mostly ignorance.

But hey, just keep thinking this whole thing happens cuz francophones acted like dicks. Its more simple.

Mrtraveler01: mrshowrules: Mrtraveler01: The trouble I see with the third pipeline is that it's routed through Quebec.

With the PQ getting popular again and flirting with another referendum on soverignity, is it smart to plot a pipeline through Quebec?

There will never be another referendum on separation.

I hope you're right. I was reading the Toronto Star one day (I was bored) and they kept pushing the idea that the PQ is flirting with that idea.

That said, I don't know why anyone would support the PQ considering that were responsible for the shape that Quebec was in already. Even with a corrupt Quebec Liberal party.

Seems like lose/lose for Quebec either wway.

Spoken as someone who has no clue about the history of Quebec.

The rise to power from the PQ is a direct consequence of how we (the big french majority) where treated inthe 50-60s. Its more or less relevent now, but still dealing with the after effect. I might not agree with the separatists, but I do know where they are coming from.

That being said, next election, its highly doubtfull we will have a majority governement.

And even if by some sort of miracle, it was a majority PQ gouvernement, no chance of a referendum ever passing now.

improvius: relcec: you're just making shiat up. our domestic companies could bid whatever the f*ck they want for it, but it would be extremely less attractive to china if they had to pick it up in houston.

Even though they're already picking up oil in Houston, and have been doing so for years?


how is this so difficult for you to understand? having houston be the port of delivery is the optimum situation for us.
the west coast of canada isn't.
or domestic supply companies can still bid whatever they want for it in vancouver or wherever, but then we have to but we then have to pick it up on the west coast of canada and then ship down to LA to stick it on another pipeline, or ship it all the way around south america if we want to get it to new england.

also when the chinese have to pick it up in houston, they have to pay our port and pipeline fees, and then they have to pay the largest transport fees possible to ship it 2/3 of the way around the globe.

this isn't some bullshiat talking point. you can't argue against it by saying well the Chinese already buy it in houston. no shiat. no one is saying sending it to houston makes it impossible for the chinese to buy. just a f*ckload more expensive for them while making it cheaper for us.

it is retarded for us to do what we can to make it less expensive for the chinese to buy it and more expensive for ourselves. but that is exactly what you dumbasses are arguing for because not one of you can ever look at political questions even slightly objectively.

if obama had said this was a great idea you would be arguing the exact opposite of what you are now. there is no other argument other than the environmental one. it does not exist. making a dwindling and vital resource more expensive for us and less expensive for the Chinese is straight f*cking retarded. you can't make a f*cking economical arguemnt about why shooting ourselves in the foot is a great idea. so quit trying you stupid motherf*cking asshole.

IronTom: farking environmentalist/terrorists/....ists are treehugging the lifeblood out of our country.

What you might not have realized is that there's money in them thar trees - and incredible economic costs to cleaning up the inevitable spills from these pipelines and tankers. With no profit from the pipelines in the areas where the economy and environment is damaged they're a lose-lose proposition.

Methadone Girls: NeedlesslyCanadian: Methadone Girls: ArkAngel: And Dunkin' Donuts is far superior to Tim Horton's

You take that back!! I've had coffee from Dunkin' Donuts and tossed it in the parking lot. How do you drink coffee from there? Bleh.

Timmies coffee is farking disgusting too. It's practically unthinkable, but McDonalds probably has the best fast-food coffee around.

I keep hearing that, but I can't get over the taste of the old McDonalds coffee. I had enough of that when my kids were little. bleh. Pro-tip: Playland on Sunday mornings is surprisingly empty


The worst coffee EVER was here.



I took my dad there for coffee after his surgery, as a treat. I was all excited because it had a cool Caribou on the coffee cups and I wanted to treat my Dad :( We are BIG coffee drinkers too and we took one drink and threw it in the trash. It was like drinking acid. Worst. Coffee. EVER.

You know what else is the fault of liberals? The bad press Cthullu gets.

FTFA: "Here's the setup. Last week the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) offered $15 billion to buy Nexen, a Canadian drilling company with large holdings in the Athabasca Tar Sands of Alberta, which is rapidly becoming Canada's pot of gold in energy development. Now it so happens that only six months ago the Canadians were planning to ship nearly all of this newly developed oil to Texas via the Keystone Pipeline. Environmentalists, however, swore the pipeline would be built over their dead bodies and President Obama, not wanting to be left with no natural constituencies except single mothers and minorities, decided to appease environmentalists and block the pipeline."

Seriously you have to be a farking retard to read this kind of BS and take it seriously at all. Honestly how do these farktards expect anyone outside of a mouthbreathing conservative dumbass to take one thing they write seriously? P J O'Rourke and George Wil should be ashamed.to be associated with these douchebags.

One thing I can still give props to Rush for: "Chuck U Schumer"

Chuck Sucks.

I got as far as the part where the author claims Obama blocked Keystone and realized this was going to be another load of AS horseshiat.

NEDM: I find it hard to believe that it was cheaper to build a pipeline across the country than it was to build a Canadian oil port on their west coast.

Alberta has been busy giving the rest of Canada the finger since they figured out they had lots of oil. Now no one wants to help them get the oil to market. The US however is quite happy to pipe it even if some in the American government have some odd assumptions as to who the oil really belongs to.

Bears repeating, the pipeline was for export and the US wasn't going to see any oil out of it, and not that many jobs.

Another thing is, the tar sands may be generating plenty of money for the Canadians now, but it's also racking up a huge environmental cleanup cost after the party is over. The process to cook the oil out of the sand used metric shiattons of water, and the water coming out of the process is badly polluted. Only the scarcity of population up there allowed the process to even start; no civilized area would tolerate the environmental impacts.

Weaver95: Today we are undergoing a similar dance in our economic relation with China. And wouldn't you know, it's our liberal friends in Congress, so enthusiastic about hamstringing American enterprise, who are the last to realize that they are undercutting our political hegemony as well.

Because all those liberal CEOs are the ones shipping jobs overseas to china every chance they get....

They did offer it to us first, without even putting it out for bid. We passed, now they are selling it to somebody else. Can't really blame them for that.

We don't always agree, but you always have a reason for your point. What do you think here?

begun the doughnut wars have

That's an embarrassing article.

That's how I know I'm on fark, all the goddamn links go to stupidity of one brand or another. You really should fight against your stereotypes.

Lionel Mandrake: And this is the fault of liberals?

When you're herping the derp, everything is the fault of liberals. Traffic jams, stale beer, ring-around-the-collar; It's all a liberal plot, don't you know?