Ed Schultz on MSNBC has lost all credibilty by prostituting himself for the XL pipeline

[Swede Atlanta]

28. His position can be understood.....

He is making two basic points:

(1) Domestically produced oil is currently being shipped by rail and transport by rail is safer (i.e. less spills and less oil spilled per spill) and produces less greenhouse gases (i.e. not burning diesel to drive the rail engine)

(2) The pipeline will not result in increased domestic oil consumption - we still need to keep working on fuel efficiency and moving away from fossil fuels

I can in general agree with him on point (1) provided the statistics he uses are accurate. The problem I have is the confluence of points (1) and (2).

Let's say the pipeline is built and hypothetically oil from the Canadian tar sands begins to flow in 2020. The U.S. continues to decrease its use of fossil fuels generally. The oil comes down from Canada and is refined in Texas or other points along the Gulf Coast. At that point the U.S. may actually have a glut of oil (or not) but if consumption continues to decrease relative to supply that will eventually happen.

So what happens with the refined products coming out of Texas, Louisiana, etc.? It will be exported to other countries. Schultz' argument is if we don't build the pipeline to the U.S., Canada will pipe it to the Pacific and ship it to Japan and China where it will be refined. Why not keep it as a North American energy source?

I can agree we need to begin thinking strategically about the need to have fossil fuels available in times of war or other crisis. Keeping the infrastructure to move the oil around within North America appears to meet that objective.

But, as U.S. consumption declines and exports of refined products from the Canadian tar sands oil rise, we are taking on all the risk of transporting, refining and shipping out the oil as well as the pollution, etc. generated from those activities.

Sure, if it is shipped to Japan and China they refine it there and potentially the same amount of pollutants enter the atmosphere as if they are refined here. But the local effects of these activities are not being felt in the U.S. to facilitate consumption abroad.