Free Enterprise – Keystone XL: Real Benefits for the U.S.

Sean Hackbarth notes  Keystone XL pipeline developments this week: The House Transportation Committee advanced  a bill that would allow construction of the full pipeline – the third congressional committee to do so; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in New York City touting  the project’s benefits  for both the U.S. and Canada; and a small business owner in Maryland told the president that businesses like his  would get a boost from the project.

The Hill – DOE Approves Natural Gas Export Project

A Texas LNG  facility has the green light from DOE  for exports to non-free trade nations. DOE noted that project opponents “have not demonstrated that the requested authorization would be inconsistent with the public int... more »

There’s no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale natural gas production in Arkansas’ Fayetteville play. So says a new study by a team of Duke University-U.S. Geological Survey scientists. Their key conclusions:

"Our results show no discernible impairment of groundwater quality in areas associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. … Only a fraction of the groundwater samples we collected contained dissolved methane, mostly in low concentrations, and the isotopic fingerprint of the carbon in the methane in our samples was different from the carbon in deep shale gas in all but two cases.” – Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment

"These findings demonstrate that shale gas development, at... more »

In an interview with Fuel Fix, Charlie Williams, director of the Center for Offshore Safety, fields a question about the perceptions surrounding the safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico:

“I think the biggest misconception is that not much has been done, when there has been a tremendous amount of effort by the industry and by regulators in moving this forward. … There has been more collaboration, cooperation and improvement in working together to make things better than I think we have ever done before.”

Steadily improving offshore safety in oil and natural gas development was the main reason for the center’s creation and Williams’ selection as director last year. The center gathers industry practices that foster safe and responsible operations, shares the inform... more »

Each of the State Department’s four reviews of the Keystone XL pipeline – during the more than four years the project has been under consideration – focused primarily on the Keystone XL’s impacts on the environment: air, ground and surface water, wetlands, vegetation, wildlife and more. State went beyond the Keystone XL itself, evaluating the environmental impact of oil sands crude that would be delivered through it – as well as the impacts on Canada.

Bottom line: Each review came to the same conclusion – the Keystone XL’s construction and operation will not significantly impact the environment. From the most recent State assessment, issued in March:

The analyses of potential impacts associated with construction and normal operation of the proposed Project suggest that there would... more »

Reasons why the oil and natural gas industry talks about a regulatory “tsunami” coming down from EPA:

• A newly proposed Tier 3 rule to further lower sulfur content in gasoline – that would have “very small” additional environmental benefit, according to a recent study. At the same time, it could increase the manufacturing cost of gasoline by up to 9 cents per gallon. (More on Tier 3 below.)
• Increases in the federal ethanol mandate under the Renewable Fuel Standard – which could add to the manufacturing cost of gasoline by about 30 percent by 2015, according to a study by NERA Economic Consulting. (Posts on that here, here, here and here.)
• A potential vapor pressure reduction requirement that could increase refinery costs.
• An expected Refinery Sector Rule, new ozone requir... more »