Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Obama opens taps for Canadian tar-sands crude

I don't know whether to call it a whopper or a little fib, but there's something disingenuous about the first sentence in this story from Reuters. With West Texas Intermediate trading under $54/bbl today, nobody expects this move to "open the door for selling more domestic shale oil abroad."

The only shale oil coming out of the ground today is stuff that was sold forward months ago at prices that work. For virtually every shale producer in America, $54 doesn't.

So what's this story really about?

Moving Canadian tar-sands oil out of American ports.

Why can't Canada move it's oil out of her own ports?

Well, that's a long story...

Indians...

Environmentalists...

Federal-provincial bickering...

Common sense...

In spite of the neo-liberal onslaught of recent years, there remains a good sturdy rump of obstinate Canadians who a) don't see the need to mine tar sands in the first place, b) don't see the rush to build pipe-lines willy nilly to get the stuff to market, and c) truly believe that this country should have far more important priorities than a & b above.

I'm with them.

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