That Pipeline

[chillywilly2]

I never said Canada couldn't sell to China, just that they aren't foolish enough to do it.
Angering the sitting President of their closest neighbor would be the height of stupidity.

So the US is going to sit and pout if we sell oil to somebody else?

 

[chillywilly2]

Will the project be financed by China?

They own half the oil sands. If they want to sell oil they gotta build a pipeline

 

[Peregrinator]

Your like the neighborhood mooch.

Pop...ching!...rattle rattle rattle...

 

[Peregrinator]

I'm not sure siding with environmentalists once in three years is proof that they have Obama "in their pockets." Plenty are still upset about his decision to approve expanded offshore drilling a couple of years ago, before BP reminded us that's not a free lunch either. This decision is one the administration almost had to make given the time constraints imposed by the GOP, which of course was the entire reason they imposed them to begin with.

Obama came up through Chicago politics, where the environment is not, to put it mildly, a key issue for most people. And it shows.

Obama, the braying jackass, has been a terrible disappointment to enviros. The honest ones will admit that. The less honest ones, or the ones with partisan glasses, will still say things like "At least he's not as bad as McCain would have been."

Part of the reason I wouldn't vote for him is his continued bullshit about "clean coal" during the campaign.

 

[TexasWife25]

So the US is going to sit and pout if we sell oil to somebody else?

lol

we wont need to pout because Canada will never do it

It's in Canadas best interest to wait and sell to the US
The PM is just scoring points by going around and boasting
to reporters that he isnt going to be pushed around by the big bad US

 

[chillywilly2]

OK...this latest one...Obama to relax visa rules to boost US tourism....yep..he has his priorities in order

 

[chillywilly2]

lol

we wont need to pout because Canada will never do it

It's in Canadas best interest to wait and sell to the US
The PM is just scoring points by going around and boasting
to reporters that he isnt going to be pushed around by the big bad US

There is that but really, why would the US care if we sell to people other than them as well

 

[koalabear]

Sen. Lugar not giving up on Keystone Pipeline


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46059672/ns/local_news-indianapolis_in/#.TxhwFiOyxIs

 

[trysail]

Is there a way to get the dumbass government out of the way?



_________________

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...horten-keystone-xl-bypass-federal-review.html


TransCanada May Shorten Keystone XL
By Bradley Olson
January 19, 2012

TransCanada Corp. (TRP) may shorten the initial path for its rejected Keystone XL project, bringing oil from Montana’s Bakken Shale to refiners in the Gulf of Mexico and removing the need for federal approval.

“There certainly is a potential opportunity to connect the Bakken to the Gulf Coast,” Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada’s president of energy and oil pipelines, said in a telephone interview today. “That is obviously something we’ll be looking into over the next few weeks.”

TransCanada’s $7 billion Keystone XL proposal to bring crude from Canada’s oil sands to the Gulf was rejected yesterday by the Obama administration. The project required U.S. approval because it crossed the border with Canada. The company may seek that approval after it builds the segment from Montana to the Gulf, Pourbaix said.

The Bakken shale-rock formation is estimated to hold as much as 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana, according to a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report. Oil production in North Dakota surged 42 percent to 510,000 barrels a day in November, exceeding the output of Ecuador.

Production in the Bakken field may reach 750,000 barrels a day this year, Edward Morse, managing director of commodities research for Citigroup Inc., said at a conference in Calgary today.

Cushing Pipeline
As originally envisioned, Keystone XL would have carried as much as 830,000 barrels a day from Canada’s oil sands and the Bakken field along a 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) path to Texas refineries. The Bakken drilling boom may allow TransCanada to begin building the portion from Baker, Montana, to the Gulf, using much of the original route, Pourbaix said.

The company is also mulling whether to build the pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf, he said. If customers prefer the Bakken-to-Texas route, Calgary-based TransCanada would build that first.

Changing the project would allow TransCanada to use existing pipe materials and rights-of-way. The company would apply later for federal permission to connect the pipeline to Canadian oil sands and complete Keystone XL as originally envisioned, Pourbaix said.

“We believe there may be the potential to accelerate the construction of some elements of the pipeline,” he said.

Nebraska Re-Route
TransCanada has already paid C$1.9 billion ($1.88 billion) for the Keystone XL project, which could still be completed by 2014, Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said in a presentation to investors today. The company owns the rights to 93 percent of the land it needed to build the original Keystone XL route, Girling said. Quanta Services (PWR) Inc. was contracted to build the Keystone XL pipeline for TransCanada.

TransCanada agreed in November to re-route the project to avoid the environmentally sensitive Sandhills region in Nebraska. Discussions with the state on a new route may be completed by September, Pourbaix said.

The U.S. State Department rejected the permit application yesterday after Congress set a Feb. 21 deadline for a decision. President Barack Obama said the “arbitrary” time line wouldn’t have allowed enough time to make a decision on the new Nebraska path.

The pipeline has already won support in Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.

“There’s no bigger advocate for the Keystone pipeline than me,” Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat said yesterday in a telephone interview. “We have plenty of oil in Montana, we need the ability to get it to market.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...horten-keystone-xl-bypass-federal-review.html

 

[shoulderblade]

lol

we wont need to pout because Canada will never do it

It's in Canada's best interest to wait and sell to the US
The PM is just scoring points by going around and boasting
to reporters that he isn't going to be pushed around by the big bad US

Actually I think the chances of the North Gateway being built are pretty good. As per supply it is not an either/or situation as there is enough oil to supply the US as well as Asia.

The Chinese are interested and have extensive investment in the oil sands as it is.

Why be held hostage to the conflicts in the American political machine when you can deal with customers that actually want your product?

More jobs in Canada.

I thing that public opinion is moving toward backing the North Gateway as an expansion of the industry and a diversification of the customer base.

If the Federal government and the governments of AB and BC get behind this it will almost certainly be a go.

 

[trysail]

The dimbulbs who succeeded in blocking the Keystone pipeline are directly responsible for a loss of U.S. jobs and energy security. I hope they will be held to account for their actions.



_____________________

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...dian-finance-with-oil-providing-leverage.html


Harper Seeks China Access for Canada Finance With Oil as Lever
By Theophilos Argitis and Sean Pasternak
February 6, 2012

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is carrying a big bargaining chip as he tries to open Chinese markets for companies such as Manulife Financial Corp. - access to Canadian oil.

Harper is leading a delegation of more than 40 Canadian executives on a four-day visit to China beginning tomorrow. While he may try to assure President Hu Jintao he’ll encourage oil shipments to Asia and welcome Chinese investment in Canada’s energy industry, Harper will also push for greater access for banks, insurers and companies such as Bombardier Inc., a Montreal-based plane and train manufacturer.

“If you are going to open up Canada or Canadian resources to Chinese investment, there’s going to have to be some show of reciprocity on the other side,” said David Emerson, a former trade minister under Harper.

Economic ties between China and Canada, which holds the world’s third largest oil reserves, have been lopsided and meager on investment. Canadian direct investment in China was C$4.8 billion ($4.8 billion) in 2010, less than 1 percent of Canada’s total, and about one-third the level of investment in Canada by Chinese firms, Statistics Canada data show. With 99 percent of oil exports going to the U.S., Canada’s trade deficit with China was C$147.5 billion from 2006 to 2010, Industry Canada says.

The trip will be Harper’s second to China since his Conservatives took power in 2006. Harper, who last month called diversifying Canada’s energy exports a “national priority,” is aiming to reduce the country’s reliance on the U.S., after President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada Corp.’s $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline to ship Canadian oil to the Gulf Coast.

Meetings in Beijing
Harper will meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Feb. 8 in Beijing and President Hu Jintao the next day, as well as Vice Premier Li Keqiang.

Spokesman Andrew MacDougall said that Harper will have an opportunity to raise “market access issues” that some Canadian companies are having, citing banks as an example.

“It’s evident right now the two countries do have clear interests,” MacDougall told reporters. “We can meet each other’s needs in a number of various areas and that’s not just energy.”

John Manley, head of Canada’s Council of Chief Executives, said in a Nov. 21 speech in Beijing that China should ease restrictions in sectors such as financial services and mining.

“This lack of openness is an obvious source of frustration for Canadian investors, particularly given the recent dramatic increase in Chinese investment in Canada,” Manley said. “Canadian investors ought to be afforded the same access to China that Chinese investors are afforded.”

‘State Capitalism’
China has also faced criticism from the U.S. and the European Union for protecting state-owned enterprises and domestic industry, prompting U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke to accuse it last year of “embracing state capitalism more strongly each year.”

Relations between Canada and China cooled in 2006 after Harper criticized China’s human-rights record, telling reporters that promoting trade shouldn’t require the government “to sell out important Canadian values.” A year later, new foreign investment rules, which put additional scrutiny on state-owned entities, raised questions about whether Canada was targeting China. Harper then chose to skip the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The relationship began to improve in 2009 with trips to China by Canadian government officials including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and chief bank regulator Julie Dickson, to promote the country’s banks and insurers.

Joint Ventures
Canadian financial institutions have tried to expand in Asia’s largest economy, with investment mainly limited to joint ventures and minority stakes, such as Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)’s C$719 million purchase of 20 percent of Bank of Guangzhou.

The bank bought a minority stake in Xi’an City commercial bank with International Finance Corp. in 2004, which grew to 14.8 percent in 2009. At the end of 2011, Scotiabank increased its stake further to 18.1 percent.

“We continue to see a lot of potential in China given the size and age of the population here,” said Michelle Kwok, the lender’s senior vice president of Asia Pacific and Middle East, who will be part of the Canadian delegation.

“It behooves them to try to get in there as the middle class is starting to get a little bit more sophisticated on its savings,” said John Aiken, a bank and insurance analyst at Barclays Capital in Toronto. “In a perfect world, I’m fairly certain that they’d love to go in, set up their own proprietary shop and grow from there but the nature of China, the regulators, they preclude them from doing such.”

Executives in Delegation
Harper’s delegation will include Patrick Daniel, head of Enbridge Inc. (ENB), the pipeline company that plans to build a link between Alberta’s oil reserves and the Pacific coast; Tim Gitzel, chief executive of Cameco Corp., the world’s largest uranium producer and Marcel Coutu, chief executive officer of Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., which holds a stake in the Syncrude oil venture along with China Petrochemical Corp.; as well as executives from Scotiabank and Manulife.

“We are pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be visiting China and believe this visit will be warmly received,” Manulife CEO Donald Guloien, who was on Flaherty’s 2009 trip to China, said in an e-mail. “We know firsthand, through our experience with our two Chinese joint ventures, the importance of relationships.”

Canada has lagged behind other countries in developing trade links with Asia, and hasn’t signed a free trade agreement with any country in the region. Canadian exports to China totaled 1.8 percent of shipments abroad in 2006. That figure has since risen to 3.7 percent through the first 11 months of 2011, according to Industry Canada.

Investor-Protection Agreement
Aside from building opportunities for Canadian firms, Harper may try to make progress on an agreement to increase legal protection for companies in disputes with Chinese businesses. The two countries have been in talks on an investment-protection pact. Emerson, who was trade minister under Harper between 2006 and 2008 and is now a member of the international advisory board of China Investment Corp., China’s sovereign wealth fund, said concluding the agreement on this trip would be a “home run” for Harper.

Harper will also focus on the need for intellectual property protection and developing a process to resolve investment disputes, Emerson said. As well, two countries may consider developing a deeper “economic framework” agreement that could cover regulatory and other barriers to trade and can focus on specific sectors, he said.

“You want to be good to your friends and allies but you are going to require some reciprocation,” said Emerson.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...dian-finance-with-oil-providing-leverage.html

 

[trysail]

Date: January 24, 2012
To: Valero Employees
From: Bill Klesse [ CEO of Valero ]
Subject: Keystone XL Pipeline Statement


As you know, the Obama administration decided last week to deny TransCanada’s application to ship crude oil via the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. Valero has planned to be a shipper and purchaser of that oil since 2008, and obviously we were disappointed in the decision. We issued a statement in response to questions from the media, and I wanted to share it with you in case you get questions from friends or business partners, and so that you would know why Valero supports the Keystone XL pipeline.

This is the statement: Despite the uncertainty and political fighting over the Keystone XL pipeline, Valero has continued to invest in its U.S. refining operation. In 2011 we spent nearly $3 billion on projects, and for 2012 our capital expenditure budget is over $3 billion. These expenditures are keeping our employees on the job and putting additional people to work.

To reference two of our refineries, at Port Arthur, Texas, we have 1,600 contractors working on an expansion project, and at St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, we have another 1,000 contractors working on a separate project. We need this kind of economic activity to accelerate to help all Americans.

This illustrates why the federal government’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is so absurd. There are pipelines in every neighborhood all across America. The administration’s decision was not about pipelines, it was about the misguided beliefs that Canadian oil sands development should be stopped and that fossil fuel prices should increase to make alternative energy more attractive.

Instead, we should be impressed with how well the oil sands engineering and recovery technology has advanced, and the economic benefits this development brings. Having more oil available in the marketplace has the potential to lower prices for consumers. As an independent refiner, Valero buys all of the oil we process.

Due to the administration’s misguided policies, refiners like Valero will have to buy more oil from other sources outside the U.S. and Canada. Consumers will bear the additional shipping cost, not to mention the additional greenhouse gas emissions and political risks.

With all the issues facing our country, it is absolutely unbelievable our federal government says no to a company like TransCanada that is willing to spend over $7 billion and put Americans to work on a pipeline. The administration’s decision throws dirt into the face of our closest ally and largest trading partner.

The point above is that it is not about pipelines as many pipelines cross the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains region, and, in fact, there is already significant oil and gas production in the area covered by the aquifer. This is politics at its worst.

Thanks for your support.

 

[NeverEndingMe]

what did we pay per gallon of gas when obama came into office? and what are we paying after suffering through several obama years?

hum, is this whining?

 

[NeverEndingMe]

They own half the oil sands. If they want to sell oil they gotta build a pipeline

Canada will sell the oil to China. God bless the obama, as obama is good for China!

 

[trysail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/harper-courts-china-for-canadian-companies.html

...Canada, which holds the world’s third largest oil reserves, is seeking to reduce its reliance on the U.S., after President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada Corp.’s $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline to ship Canadian oil to the Gulf Coast. Canada sends 99 percent of its oil exports to the U.S.

“We want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy,” Harper said at a dinner organized by regional Canadian chambers of commerce in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, the nation’s most populous province. “It’s that simple...”

Thanks to the economic illiterati now regnant, the U.S. has shot itself squarely in the foot. Way to go!!

 

[trysail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...pipeline-outlets-to-avoid-landlocked-oil.html



Liepert Says Alberta Needs Many Pipeline Outlets to Avoid Landlocked Oil
By Greg Quinn
February 13, 2012

Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert said the province needs multiple pipelines to ensure its crude doesn’t become “landlocked” as oil companies prepare to ramp up production.

“Our biggest concern and challenge is getting our product to market,” Liepert said in an interview at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York today. “By 2020, Alberta could be landlocked in bitumen.”

The western Canadian province, home to the world’s third- largest pool of oil reserves, is working to obtain capacity to transport crude amid opposition from environmental groups as companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. invest about C$20 billion ($20 billion) annually in the oil sands.

U.S. President Barack Obama last month denied a permit to TransCanada Corp.’s planned Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver 700,000 barrels a day of crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Gulf of Mexico through six U.S. states.

Enbridge Inc. has also proposed the Northern Gateway pipeline that would run from Alberta to the Pacific coast, and Kinder Morgan Inc. is seeking to expand its existing Transmountain line to Vancouver.

“Keystone is only one of them, Enbridge is only one of them, but the reality is by 2020 we are going to need two or three Enbridge-Keystones,” Liepert said.

Liepert said he believes the decision to deny the Keystone permit will be reversed after elections this November, and said environmental groups are misrepresenting the province’s oil industry.

‘Makes No Sense’
“The common belief is that this will all change after the presidential election, so I think that’s still where the investor community is,” Liepert said. “The U.S. needs the product. Canada has the product. It just makes no sense that it’s not coming to the U.S.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called diversifying Canada’s energy exports a “national priority” after the Keystone pipeline permit was denied. Tapping markets in Asia may raise the price received by Canadian producers by $13.60 a barrel by 2030, according to a University of Calgary study. About 99 percent of Canada’s crude exports go the U.S.

The federal government last month began hearings on a proposed pipeline by Enbridge to move crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast, where it could be shipped to Asian markets.

The pipeline has become a flashpoint with environmentalists, and Harper has said his government will review regulatory-approval rules for new energy projects so they can be concluded more quickly. That will include looking more closely into complaints that “foreign” environmental groups are seeking to overload the regulatory process, according to Harper.

Liepert said environmental groups are relying on “stunts” to generate attention because their arguments are weak.

“It comes down to honesty,” he said. “Let’s put all the facts on the table and let Canadians, Americans, the world, consider the facts.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...pipeline-outlets-to-avoid-landlocked-oil.html

 

[trysail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...r-tankers-for-kinder-morgan-oil-ceo-says.html



Vancouver Could Take Larger Tankers, More Kinder Morgan Oil, Port CEO Says
By Greg Quinn
February 15, 2012

Vancouver would be able to handle larger tankers that could receive crude oil from an expanded Kinder Morgan Inc. pipeline, allowing Canada to boost energy shipments to Asia, the head of the city’s port authority said.

Canada’s largest port has already expanded from handling Panamax-sized ships to partly-laden Aframax vessels, and is studying so-called Suezmax tankers, Port Metro Vancouver head Robin Silvester, 43, said in an interview yesterday in Bloomberg’s Ottawa newsroom. The ship names are linked to the size of waterways they can pass through.

“Can we see sort of Asia-trade competitive sizes of vessels with a pipeline that can deliver capacity to them? I think that’s very plausible” Silvester said.

Kinder Morgan is seeking commitments from Canadian oil drillers so it can double its pipeline’s capacity to 600,000 barrels a day. Trans Mountain is the only pipeline that connects Alberta’s oilsands region to the Pacific coast, and regulatory approval to expand it may come before Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway project.

“It would seem as a sort of involved bystander the permitting of expanding an existing right-of-way is probably an easier task than permitting a whole new right-of-way,” Silvester said.

Canada’s largest port handles an oil tanker every week and probably needs new harbor dredging to handle larger ships, he said. The biggest obstacle may be convincing the public it can be done safely, he said.

No Impediment Seen
“We understand the public concern and we see it’s very important to make a good case that this trade can happen safely, but we don’t see any impediment,” Silvester said.

Ships travel through the port in daylight with two pilots on board and tugs powerful enough to control a tanker that has lost engine power and rudder control, Silvester said.

Kinder spokeswoman Lexa Hobenshield said by e-mail the company has no comment on Silvester’s statements. The company has said it would decide by mid-year whether to seek government approvals for an expansion.

Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway said the company is “focused on the regulatory process we are in now.”

Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert said in a Feb. 13 interview the province needs multiple pipelines to ensure its crude doesn’t become “landlocked” as oil companies prepare to ramp up production.

The western Canadian province, home to the world’s third- largest pool of oil reserves, is working to obtain capacity to transport crude amid opposition from environmental groups as companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. invest about C$20 billion ($20 billion) annually in the oilsands.

U.S. President Barack Obama last month denied a permit to TransCanada Corp.’s planned Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver 700,000 barrels a day of crude from the oilsands to the Gulf of Mexico through six U.S. states.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...r-tankers-for-kinder-morgan-oil-ceo-says.html

 

[trysail]

It is quite possible that a decision not to build the Keystone XL pipeline would be the single dumbest decision in the history of the universe. I suspect that the politicians will eventually come to their senses but, after the stupidity we've seen thus far, I'll believe it when I see it.



___________________



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...wager-on-america-with-burlington-freight.html



Buffett Poised to Win Wager on America With Burlington
By Natalie Doss
March 1, 2012

When Warren Buffett bought North America’s second-biggest railroad, he called it an “all-in wager” on the U.S. economy. It’s turning out to be a pretty good bet on the oil industry, too.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s track network puts it among the best situated of its peers to meet shipping demand for fracking sand, pipe and crude in the northern U.S. Bakken region, where oil production has more than tripled since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gains in mineral and chemical carloads helped Burlington Northern pay a $1 billion distribution to Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/B) last month. The railroad is the busiest in the U.S. in 2012 by traffic, positioning it to build on a 16 percent jump in 2011 sales that helped narrow the revenue lead of Union Pacific Corp., which lacks tracks into the Bakken area.

“It’s kind of like if somebody discovers gold in your backyard but not your neighbor’s,” said John Anderson, advisory director at Greenbriar Equity Group, a private-equity firm based in Rye, New York, focused on the transportation industry. “It’s just good luck.”

Drilling in the Bakken region in Montana and North Dakota is increasing because of improvements in hydraulic fracturing, a technology that uses sand and other chemicals to hold open fissures in shale formations to extract oil. With no pipelines in place yet, railroads are taking oil to refineries and delivering materials such as pipe and specialized fracking sand.

North Dakota
Burlington Northern has “been lucky” to some degree, Tony Hatch, an independent rail analyst in New York, said in an interview. “They’ve got a big presence in North Dakota, which was probably not something that was probably in the forefront in their mind two or three years ago as a competitive advantage.”

That’s adding to the benefits Buffett received when he spent $26.5 billion to acquire the 77.5 percent of Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern that Berkshire didn’t already own. Buffett, 81, called the deal an “all-in wager” on the U.S. economy when he announced it in 2009.

He negotiated his biggest-ever purchase so Berkshire could benefit from demand for shipping on routes in the U.S. West. The deal has helped boost Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s profit in the past two years as a recovering economy pushed Burlington Northern’s revenue to $19.5 billion in 2011.

Burlington Northern “has benefitted from the shale play probably more than Union Pacific,” said Lee Klaskow, a Bloomberg Industries analyst in Skillman, New Jersey.

Two Railroads
The railroad serves about 30 percent of U.S. oil refineries, Klaskow said in an interview. It’s also one of only two major carriers, along with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., with tracks into the region. That means Burlington Northern can pick up shipments from drillers and take them to the refineries across its 32,000-mile (51,500-kilometer) system.

Having a “full service” approach contrasts with Union Pacific’s need to exchange carloads with Burlington Northern or Canadian Pacific to move petroleum to refineries on its network, Klaskow said. Freight that stays on one railroad’s system for the full trip is typically more profitable.

Oil and gas-field servicing are “exploding very healthily” for Burlington Northern, said Paul Bingham, economics practice leader at consultant CDM Smith in Arlington, Virginia. “In the west I think the BN disproportionately benefits from that.”

Fourth-quarter net income advanced 41 percent, Burlington Northern said this week in a filing. Buffett didn’t respond to a request for comment e-mailed to his assistant, Carrie Kizer.

Fracking Fallout
The increase in fracking has hurt another Buffett bet: $2 billion in bonds of Energy Future Holdings Corp. He wrote down the investment by more than $1 billion as lower gas prices pressured the power company and told shareholders in a Feb. 25 letter that the investment is at risk of losing all value.

Investors following Buffett’s lead on railroads have outperformed the broader U.S. market.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Railroads Index (S5RAIL), a gauge of Burlington Northern’s three publicly traded peers, surged 80 percent through yesterday from Nov. 2, 2009, the day before Buffett agreed to buy the carrier. The S&P 500 rose 31 percent in the same period.

Canadian Pacific’s shares were up 57 percent since then in Toronto. Its largest shareholder, Pershing Square Capital Management LP’s William Ackman, has cited Bakken access as one of the railroad’s potential advantages as he pushes for a management change.

Trade Group’s Data
Association of American Railroads data offer glimpses of Burlington Northern’s drilling-related traffic.

Fourth-quarter originated carloads of non-metallic minerals and products grew about 15 percent, while chemicals climbed 5.4 percent. Fracking sand and petroleum are included in the latter two categories, according to the Washington-based trade group.

The railroad doesn’t report oil cargo as a category, and Krista York-Woolley, a spokeswoman, said Burlington Northern doesn’t break down volumes by shipping locations.

Burlington Northern is leading the North American industry in originated carloads of all kinds in 2012, with a four-week moving average of almost 165,000 through Feb. 18. That compares with about 140,000 for Union Pacific, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries.

Union Pacific’s chemical volumes also are rising because fracking technology is boosting natural-gas drilling. Chemicals are Union Pacific’s second-biggest commodity by volume, after coal. And its route system blunts the disadvantages of not serving the Bakken region directly, said Tom Lange, a spokesman for the Omaha-based railroad.

Gulf Coast Access
“The majority of Bakken crude shipments ultimately are delivered by Union Pacific to the Gulf Coast refineries,” Lange said yesterday by e-mail. “Other railroads interchange with us in Kansas City and St. Louis.”

The revenue lead for the largest U.S. railroad over Burlington Northern dwindled to only $9 million in 2011 from more than $2 billion in 2003. Sales growth at Burlington Northern has been faster since then, and it eclipsed Union Pacific sales in 2008 for the first time since at least 1987.

Burlington Northern has a “bigger position in what I think in the next cycle will be faster-growing elements -- intermodal, the Bakken, international grain,” Hatch said. “If you just woke any rail analyst in 1990 or 2000 and said, ‘Best franchise?’ They’d have said Union Pacific. I think it’s closer now.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...wager-on-america-with-burlington-freight.html

 

[JohnnySavage]

I do like the trains.

 

[MeeMie]

Obama “Not Concerned” With High Gas Prices


According to Obama administration Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, President Obama has little interest in lowering rising gas prices – and in fact sees those prices as an opportunity to further push the administration’s green energy propaganda…err…programs.

Secretary Chu laid out the basic Obama platform of green energy platitudes, but eventually was forced on the specific issue of whether or no the administration was concerned over high gas prices, to which he replied:


"No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy,” Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and diversifying our supply and we’ll help the American economy and the American consumers.”


While Secretary Chu should be applauded for his honesty – whether intended or not, it becomes once again clear just how ideologically entrenched is the Obama White House, where practical measures of domestic energy production take a backseat to continued spending of taxpayer funded programs that now permeate such scandals as Solyndra where hundreds of millions of federal funds went to a company with strong connections to Obama campaign supporters - a clear case of pay to play politics at the highest levels of government.

Then again – perhaps Barack Obama should also be applauded for his at least former honesty on the subject. He did indicate not so long ago his desire to see America’s energy costs skyrocket – and now with $5 a gallon gas approaching, President Obama is about to make good on that promise. I have watched this video clip many times and each time I am left to wonder how in the hell we elected this man as president. He ADMITS here that everyone’s energy prices will skyrocket under his plan – and YET, he was elected. Either people were not actually listening to the radical Obama agenda, or they did not understand its actual implications….a sad case of this country back in 2008 of being either deaf or dumb – or both.




http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DoXTk0-Hdwg/TcQ8u-6snAI/AAAAAAAAAKI/KnuRKK39O7c/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg

Enough said...

 

[RAddams]

"My New Study: Coal is 1500 Times Worse for the Environment than Oil Sands"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weaver/the-alberta-tar-sands-and_b_1288264.html

"The United States mined 1.17 billion short tons of coal in 2008."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_States

 

[Peregrinator]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...een-raising-gas-prices-in-midwest-energy.html

Keystone Oil Pipeline Seen Raising Gas Prices in Midwest: Energy

TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project backers including Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum say will create cheaper U.S. gasoline, instead risks raising prices as much as 20 cents a gallon in the Midwest, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
The line would create a new way to carry Canadian imports outside the Midwest and reduce an oil surplus that’s depressing prices in the central U.S. Spot gasoline was 55 cents cheaper in Chicago than in New York on June 1, the second-highest ever. Nationwide, retail gasoline set its highest February average at $3.55 a gallon, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Chicago Avg
4.057

New York City Avg
4.018


See generally

 

[koalabear]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...een-raising-gas-prices-in-midwest-energy.html

Keystone Oil Pipeline Seen Raising Gas Prices in Midwest: Energy

Gas in the Midwest is now $3.99........

 

[chillywilly2]

Gas in the Midwest is now $3.99........

Just wait till it hits 4 bucks, then you can complain

I think I was paying 3.60 or something this weekend...didn't really pay attention cause I just wanted it...you want to run horses, you gotta expect to feed them