Kelly McParland: Keystone’s future dribbles away in an Arkansas suburb

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/04/02/kelly-mcparland-keystones-future-dribbles-away-in-an-arkansas-suburb/



Kelly McParland: Keystone’s future dribbles away in an Arkansas suburb
Kelly McParland
13/04/02 | Last Updated: 13/04/02 3:39 PM ET

Keystone XL fans, it was nice while it lasted. Making fun of the C-list celebrities who chained themselves to the White House gates; chortling at the inflated numbers claimed by anti-oilsands protest organizers (“The entire population of United States — except a few from Texas — marched on Washington Saturday in a united protest against Canada’s stinkin’ pipeline,” claimed 350.org founder Bill McKibben Thursday); marvelling at the number of pejoratives “activists” could cram into a single reference to Alberta (“We don’t need Alberta’s dirty foreigner tarsands fish-killing high-pollution oil!”).

Yes, it was all fun. But you might as well kiss it goodbye. Keystone’s hopes are even now dribbling down the street in a Mayflower, Arkansas subdivision. As far as many wavering Americans are likely to be concerned, the ExxonMobil Corp pipeline spill proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the proposed $7 billion Keystone pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf Coast is a bad idea. If Canadians can’t be trusted to ship oil through an Arkanas suburb, how can they be trusted to send it all the way from Alberta (not that many Americans could find Alberta on a map) all the way to the Gulf Coast? Case closed.

Truth be told, the Arkansas spill has nothing to do with Keystone or the oilsands. The problem in Mayflower was with the pipeline, which is operated by a good old American oil giant, ExxonMobil, and not by any Canadians. The oil inside the pipeline may be from Alberta, but no one (other than maybe Bill McKibben and his pals) is suggesting the oil made the pipeline rupture. Oil is oil. It just flows along wherever the pipeline takes it. If the oil in the ExxonMobil pipeline had been from another country than Canada — Nigeria, say, or Venezuela — the chances of a spill wouldn’t have been diminished one iota.

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If Canadian journalists can’t tell the difference between ExxonMobil and TransCanada Corp., don’t expect Americans to notice.

Doesn’t matter. Even in Canada, a Toronto newspaper got nine paragraphs into its report before it bothered to mention that the spill was on a U.S. pipeline. Until then, it was all about the oilsands, and Alberta oil “coursing across the driveways of everyday Americans.” If Canadian journalists can’t tell the difference between ExxonMobil and TransCanada Corp., don’t expect Americans to notice. President Barack Obama has been holding off on the Keystone decision, waiting for Ottawa to give him political cover to approve it. Instead, Mayflower gives him another argument to say no. As it happens, the President is dropping in Wednesday at the home of a California billionaire, who hopes to personally make the case against Keystone. Tom Steyer is charging $5,000 a person for to eat appetizers with Obama (the main meal at the home of another California Democrat runs $32,500 a plate), with the money going to Democrat campaigns. Think Obama is going to take millions from trendy Californians and then OK the pipeline? Good luck.