A new push by TransCanada to paint its proposed TransCanada pipeline as one that’s in America’s interest highlights cross-party support, portraying the project as a no-brainer for a nation aiming for energy independence from countries like Saudi Arabia and a boost to the economy. Yet when it comes to business, the U.S. is just the middleman in TransCanada’s bid to pump its oil to the international market.
Alberta tar sand oil is already being transported through U.S. pipelines, although now its main market consists within the U.S., the Midwest in particular. Keystone XL would only expand the market for TransCanada, providing access to the global market, and the more than 800,000 barrels of oil passing through the U.S. each day would escape to foreign refiners without being subject to U.S. taxes.
In 2011, when the Canadian Government and TransCanada were pushing Keystone XL, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the number one priority behind Keystone XL was to access international markets beyond the U.S.
“We export 97 percent of our energy to the U.S. and we would like to diversify that,” Oliver told those gathered at the year’s APEC Transportation and Energy conference in California.
Now, TransCanada is advertising itself as a foreign company that’s looking out for America’s best interest, promising that “it could” create 20,000 jobs — 13,000 in construction and 7,000 in manufacturing.
The timeline for those jobs, though, isn’t being discussed. The only discussion about permanent jobs puts the job creation total at 3,000, jobs needed for pump stations along the proposed route.
And when it comes to saving bucks at the pump, the evidence just doesn’t back it up. With oil leaving the Midwest market for the global scene, consumers, particularly those in the Midwest, could see costs increase by an additional 40 cents per gallon. A Consumer Watchdog analysis predicted the rise, claiming the pipeline was never about helping out with the American economy, it’s about TransCanada profits.
“Their explicit intention is to export to the Gulf and abroad, which would increase the price of crude oil and gasoline in the United States and, in particular, the Midwest,” the Consumer Watchdog study states.
That’s a claim that has consistently been backed by Canadian officials and TransCanada executives, too. In 2011, while awaiting presidential approval of the pipeline, Oliver indicated that it would be patient with the U.S. as it sought to reach foreign markets.
“We respect the regulatory process, and without talking about that project specifically, the overarching need to diversity energy customers is an important issue for this government,” Oliver said, according to the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.