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willbeurdaddy -> RE: Repubs hold the middle class hostage over a fucking pipeline (12/12/2011 10:20:37 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr
When I was growing up, there was a similar issue; it was referred to as "The Alaskan Pipeline". I don't know what the cost would be in today's numbers but I am confident in guessing that it could be referred to as a "multi-Billion dollar boondoggle".
It seemed okay to the casual observer. It was going to create jobs. It was going to end or greatly reduce our dependence on OPEC. In fact, we were going to be able to export product from Alaska and make ourselves a few sheckles.
Well, to be fair; it did create quite a few temporary jobs. Once the construction was finished, more than 2/3 of the male workers left to do other construction products. I specified "male" because all the prostitutes that had been brought in to "service" the large influx of "new jobs" stayed there to settle down into some form of domesticity with the oil riggers, etc. who did stay.
All of that's fine. The biggest issue is that after all that money spent and all of that wilderness destroyed, it turns out that the crude oil we're getting is not a high enough grade to be refined into anything other than Grade 2 Deisel fuel (Home heating oil for those of you in Poughkeepsie).
Does it help? Surely, with the rise in fuel costs, the last 8 years we heard stories of people not being able to heat their homes. Of course it helps; the oil companies who control the oil fields and rigs and who sell that oil to other nations because they can make a higher profit by doing so than by selling it here, in the states.
Am I against the Canadian pipeline? I don't know. I haven't done enough research on it but my guess is that we'll find the same quality of crude oil in Canadia as we did in Alaska and to be brutally honest: it is sounding like I heard these same arguments, forty years ago.
Peace and comfort,
Michael
Edited because I swear to the Great Creator that I know how to spell "oil"
16 billion barrels of oil made accessible is hardly a boondoggle.
11% of the oil produced in the US is hardly a boondoggle. (Closer to 17% during the suspension of Gulf production)
2000 well paying jobs (not to mention the spinoff jobs) is hardly a boondoggle.
It is a myth that the crude is of a quality that can only produce diesel fuel. Alaskan oil covers the same range of quality as any other field and produces diesel, gasoline and light petroleum products. The average specific gravity of oil through the pipeline is nearly 30, the upper end of intermediate. Its a bit more sour than West Texas and Brent oil but lower than many oil fields.
Other than that you nailed it.
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