API is out with two new oil and natural gas industry standards on well design and drilling operations:

• Deepwater well design and construction
• Protocol for verification and validation of high-pressure, high-temperature equipment

Both represent advancements toward making oil and natural gas extraction safer – for people and the environment. David Miller, API director of standards:

“Every industry standard we develop shares the goal of safely and responsibly producing more of the energy America needs. These new guidelines will help the industry to continue operating safely in deeper, higher pressure, and higher temperature environments. As changing technologies provide better opportunities to develop the energy that fuels America, industry standards must adapt as well.”

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Joe Oliver, Canada’s minister for natural resources, making the case for approval and construction of the full Keystone XL pipeline – on economic and environmental grounds – at IHS CERAWeek:

“By any objective measure the most responsible source (for imported oil) is Canada. … There’s enough oil in the oil sands to meet the U.S. need for imported oil for at least the next 100 years. This could mean, with additional U.S. oil, independence for North America by 2030. What a great thing energy independence would be for both our countries.”

Oliver’s economic/strategic case:

• The U.S. gets more imported oil from Canada than anywhere else in the world – more than the combined imports from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Ninety-nine percent of Canada’s crude oil exports and 100 percent of... more »

More from around the web on the new State Department draft analysis of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, again, proved the economic benefits and lack of negative environmental impacts from the pipeline?  First to the Washington Post:

In its 2,000 pages, the report dismantled the case that nixing the Canadian pipeline must be a priority for anyone concerned about climate change, explaining anew that accepting or rejecting the project won’t make much difference to global emissions, U.S. oil consumption or world oil markets.

And from the Bismarck Tribune:

“After 41/2 half years, and a total of four environmental reviews, the Keystone XL pipeline project is perhaps the most thoroughly studied and long-delayed project of its kind in U.S. history,” [Sen. John] Hoeven said. “The... more »

The Keystone XL pipeline now is four-for-four – that is, four environmental impact assessments by the State Department and four findings that the project wouldn’t have significant impacts. From State’s draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) released Friday:

The analyses of potential impacts associated with construction and normal operation of the proposed Project suggest that there would be no significant impacts to most resources along the proposed Project route …

That conclusion is conditioned on assumptions including: the incorporation of 57 special conditions developed with the help of the Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration (which builder TransCanada already has agreed to incorporate in its plan), use of mitigation measures as required by per... more »

A sampling of recent editorial opinion and commentary on the Keystone XL pipeline project:

Nature.com

… regarding the Keystone pipeline, the administration should face down critics of the project, ensure that environmental standards are met and then approve it. … By approving Keystone, Obama can bolster his credibility within industry and among conservatives. The president can also take advantage of rising domestic oil and gas production to defuse concerns over energy security.

Houston Chronicle

President Obama has run out of reasons to block expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. With the sign-off by Nebraska's governor on a new route for the pipeline that avoids environmentally sensitive areas in the Cornhusker state, the president should give the project the green light... more »