May 14, 2014 08:23 AM UTC

The Keystone XL Pipeline: 2014's Fakest Issue

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Hill's Laura Baron-Lopez:

The American Energy Alliance is spending over $400,000 on a new ad accusing Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) of opposing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The conservative super-PAC claims Udall, who is up for reelection this year, wants to kills the $5.4 billion project. The ad is set to run through May 23…

Udall spokesman Mike Saccone said the reason the senator didn't vote for the Republican and Democratic budget amendments on Keystone last year was because he felt it wasn't Congress' place to do so.

"Sen. Udall still believes Congress should not be injecting politics into the review process," Saccone said.

The Denver Post's Lynn Bartels explains, the American Energy Alliance is on a familiar team:

The alliance has ties to the the wealthy Koch brothers, who helped found Americans for Prosperity. That group also is attacking Udall on the air.

Politico reported in 2012 that American Energy Alliance is the political arm of the Institute for Energy Research, and both groups were funded partly by the Koch brothers and their donor network.

The controversy over completing the Keystone XL pipeline's Phase 4 connection between Hardisty, Alberta and Steele City, Nebraska, which would expedite shipments of Canadian tar sands heavy crude oil through to, among other locations, Gulf Coast oil export terminals, has been the subject of a massive public relations campaign by the oil and gas industry spanning several years. Over time, the case for building the Keystone XL has been hyped into an essential struggle for American freedom itself, not to mention the American economy, whose very existence apparently depends on being able to ship Canadian heavy crude oil to global markets a little bit faster.

If that sounds kind of silly, that's because it is.

The estimates of "job creation" from the construction of the Keystone XL Phase 4 line from proponents have ranged from highly optimistic to downright laughable. Media Matters documented some years ago how FOX News has estimated for its viewers anywhere between 50,000 and a million jobs created by Keystone XL, both of which having simply no basis in reality whatsoever. Now, don't get us wrong here–Keystone XL opponents haven't done themselves any favors by portraying this incremental increase in Canadian tar sands oil shipping capacity as the tipping point for end of the world. More expansive arguments about fossil fuels and climate change aside, the principal environmental risk posed by the Keystone XL is to the Sand Hills wetlands area of Nebraska. That's a significant issue, but not probably enough to inspire a March on Washington.

Here in Colorado, there's even less reason to get worked up about Keystone XL. The Suncor refinery in Commerce City already refines Canadian tar sands crude via our existing pipeline connection to Alberta, in addition to our booming local production. If anything, there's a very sound self-interested argument for Coloradans to oppose the Keystone XL, one that has nothing to do with climate change or oil pollution:

The purpose of the $7.6 billion Keystone is to move 830,000 barrels of oil a day from landlocked Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, obtaining new customers and a higher price for heavy Canadian crude, Canadian regulators said in a 2010 report. The oil sold for $23.38 less per barrel in 2011 compared with heavy grades of Mexican crude, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The Canadian plan was to use their market power to raise prices in the United States (UNG) and get more money from consumers,” Philip Verleger, founder of Colorado-based energy consulting firm PK Verleger LLC, said in an interview. Prices may gain 10 to 20 cents in central states, he said. [Pols emphasis]

Producers including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) and Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) may reap as much as $4 billion more in annual revenue if prices rise as expected following the construction of the 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) Keystone XL conduit, the 2010 report says.

Clearly, it's time to take to the streets of Denver and demand in the name of freedom that this oil export pipeline be constructed right now! So we can pay more for the same oil we already get! You can shovel all the money into this as an electoral message that you want–in Colorado, it's wasted money. The Koch brothers will love it, but Keystone XL won't be costing any Colorado Democrats their jobs.