keystone pipeline pros and cons

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How to Pick the Winners in the Keystone Debate

By , Keystone Expose, Money Morning -

Keystone XL

You might think the entire oil and gas industry is behind the Keystone XL Pipeline. And at the surface level that may be true.

After all, the big oil industry lobby, the American Petroleum Institute (API), has spent millions promoting it through advertising and outreach to members of Congress. API are the folks who brought us all of those pro-Keystone commercials a few months ago.

Since API represents the industry, with over 600 members, the project must be good for everyone in the energy space, right?

Not so fast. There will be some big winners if the pipeline proceeds - but a lot more will be either unaffected or potentially hurt by more oil sloshing into the U.S. market...

Keystone and the Mixed Blessings of Cheap Oil

By , Keystone Expose, Money Morning -

keystone xl project

Editor's Note: Our energy industry insider - who for professional reasons must remain anonymous - yesterday explained how the Keystone XL Pipeline debate is largely a political football. Today, he advances his controversial exposé of Keystone in the context of today's cheap oil, and whether the project would do more harm than good. This shows how energy investors should position their portfolios to reap the best returns at the lowest risk.

To understand the logic behind the Keystone XL pipeline requires a trip back in time. When Keystone and its associated 830,000 barrels of oil per day were announced in 2008, U.S. crude production was at lows generally not seen since 1950 - right around 5 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, U.S. oil imports were rampant, near their all-time highs of 10 million barrels a day.

Worse yet, over half of U.S. imports, again a near-record high of 5.6 million barrels per day, came from countries that don't like us very much (i.e., OPEC).

In a nutshell, the U.S. oil and gas industry was in decline, without much hope for a real renaissance. We were meeting a whopping two-thirds of our appetite for oil with imports, and over half of those imports were coming from potentially unstable, if not outright hostile, nations.

In that context, Keystone looked like a great idea.

Decisions based on these assumptions - such as the decision to green-light Keystone - seem in retrospect to be perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately for the project and the economy at large, the energy industry has since changed dramatically.

These changes have altered the project's consequences for everyone...

The Truth Behind the Keystone Pipeline

By , Keystone Expose, Money Morning -

Keystone XL

Editor's Note: The Keystone Pipeline has created one of the biggest political debates of the last five years. And you're about to hear a lot more in the media as the we move closer to the State Department's final ruling on the project.

But what is the truth about Keystone? And where are the lies hidden? More importantly, where can we invest to exploit its ongoing political soap opera?

We've asked one senior energy analyst to write the following exposé on the pipeline. He asks not to be identified because this analysis is so controversial.

What you'll find in today's segment, and the two that follow, will shock you. If you want to finally know who really benefits from Keystone - and how this one single project could keep energy sector growth stagnant - then read on...

The Keystone XL Pipeline saga should be laid to rest in the coming months when the U.S. State Department issues its final ruling on the project.

One would be hard-pressed to find a business issue that's more politically polarizing and contentious. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have used it to bludgeon their opponents, often with little evidence to support their claims...

A Nearly Identical Keystone XL Pipeline Just Got Built - and No One Noticed

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

The drama over the Keystone pipeline will rise to new heights when the Republican-controlled Congress sends its bill approving the project to President Barack Obama today (Wednesday).

But in the context of America's vast energy pipeline network, you have to wonder how the Keystone XL became an issue in the first place. The Keystone pipeline, you see, is far from unique. Even cross-border pipelines are not all that rare.

This proves the Keystone pipeline is nothing but political bluster...

Keystone Pipeline Veto Will Make These Stocks Winners

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

keystone pipeline veto

President Barack Obama has promised a Keystone pipeline veto. Soon he'll get his chance to do it.

Today (Thursday) the Senate voted 62-35 to complete work on the Keystone pipeline bill. That sets up a final vote that should result in the bill landing on President Obama's desk.

Some companies are actually rooting for a Keystone pipeline veto from President Obama. A veto would delay Keystone indefinitely, forcing Canadian oil producers to use alternatives like rail and barges to move the oil.

A Keystone pipeline veto will give these companies a lot more business...

The Biggest Fallacy of the Keystone Pipeline Approval Fight

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

keystone pipeline

The battle over the Keystone pipeline has become one of the foremost issues in Washington today.

That's the problem.

The great fallacy of the Keystone XL pipeline is that whether it gets built or not is much less important than craven politicians in Washington would have you believe. Both Republicans and Democrats have turned up the rhetoric on the Keystone pipeline mainly to serve selfish political interests.

It's amazing they can keep a straight face when they're saying these things...

Keystone Pipeline Vote Is Just a Bump in the Road to Approval

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

keystone pipeline

A narrow defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline in the Senate yesterday (Tuesday) is a setback for the project, but a minor one.

The tally was 59-41, just one vote shy of the 60 needed to pass. But the Republicans have vowed another Keystone pipeline vote next year when they have the numbers to pass the bill. Then it will be up to President Barack Obama, who many assume will veto the $8 billion project.

But President Obama may have other ideas...

Keystone Pipeline Approval Will Make These Stocks Winners

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

keystone pipeline

Republican control of the U.S. Senate has made approval of Keystone pipeline imminent.

The controversial $8 billion project, skillfully delayed for years by President Barack Obama, would transport oil sands crude from Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP), the company building the Keystone XL pipeline, would be the greatest beneficiary of its approval, of course. But dozens of other companies also figure to gain from the project.

Now's the time to jump on these stocks...

Why the Keystone XL Crude Oil Pipeline Deal Is Far from Done

By , Global Energy Strategist, Oil & Energy Investor • @KentMoors_OEI -

Late Friday afternoon, the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline cleared one of its biggest hurdles.

In its Final Environmental Impact Statement, the U.S. Department of State concluded that completing the pipeline's northern leg would not have a major impact on global greenhouse gas emissions.

It just needs to get past these last political hurdles...

Keystone Pipeline Gets Step Closer to Approval - Which Is Good News for These Investors

By , Executive Producer, Money Morning -

Keystone XL pipeline supporters - who have been waiting years for this project to be completed - just received good news from the U.S. Department of State.

The Keystone pipeline is 1,179 miles long and would connect heavy crude oil from bitumen deposits in Canada to the southeastern refining network of the United States. While the southern portion has been built, the northern section requires approval given its cross-border passage.

To continue reading, please click here...

It's Time to Climb Aboard the Oil-by-Rail Boom

By , Global Energy Strategist, Oil & Energy Investor • @KentMoors_OEI -

Rail transit is about to make you some big money...in oil.

That's why I'll be headed to Dallas in late August and Calgary mid-September for extensive meetings with all of the key players.

I can promise you, that in a hurry this is going to get a lot bigger.

As it happens, I'll be providing all of the details for average investors to profit from this monumental change.

Let me explain to you how all of this has suddenly come about...

This Pipeline Will Make Investors More than Keystone Ever Could

By , Money Morning -

Look for the Obama administration to delay its Keystone Pipeline decision until after the 2014 election as it's preoccupied by ongoing scandals and the debate about fracking in the United States.

With House and Senate Democrats now vulnerable over these scandals and Obamacare costs, the President is expected to appease his base and continue to double down on alternative energy projects at the Department of Energy.

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Will John Kerry Kill the Keystone XL Pipeline?

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

When new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Friday with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird in Washington, the talk turned to the fate of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Kerry said the controversial $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline project would undergo a "fair and transparent review," adding he expects to make a decision "near-term" on whether to move forward with it. The State Department has final say over the pipeline because it traverses international borders.

To continue reading, please click here...

A 795,000 Mile Long Pipeline to Big Energy Profits

By , Global Energy Strategist, Oil & Energy Investor • @KentMoors_OEI -

At the request of a major player in oil and gas pipelines, I was given a major task.

I had to estimate how much of the U.S gas and oil infrastructure needs to be replaced by 2025.

Then I needed to estimate the extent of additional connectors that would be needed to handle new domestic hydrocarbon developments.

And you thought Super Bowl Sunday was a lot of pressure.