The Irony, Protesting Canadian Environmental Concerns, for Economic Reasons


The real problems which stand at the centre are:
NOT A LACK OF PIPELINES.
ü  IS the growing disconnect between Canada’s booming oil production and its lack of refineries and upgraders.
ü  All of the proposed pipelines are intended not to supply Canadian oil to Canadian markets; but to ship Canadian Crude refineries in the United States of North America, basically, because of Canada’s worthless Canadian Dollar, for free. Then and then only, Canadian will be GRANTED FIRST PRIVILEGE to buy back the refined product, as a UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA PRODUCED PRODUCT  for which The United States of North America will of course demand payment in United States of North American Dollars or the equivalent  value.
ü  The demand remains the same, you only handcuff a cleaner and more regulated industry, and foreign oil from countries with some of the world's worst human rights; or, OUR OWN; UNITED States of North Americanised; CANADIAN OIL gets pumped BACK INTO CANADA; by the millions of gallons each year.
ü  This means billions of dollars flows out of our country when we could be putting money back into it.
ü  Everyone who is against the use of Canadian oil is supporting far less environmentally regulated blood oil to come in to meet the demands. EVERY REFINERY BUILT MEANS A MORE SELF SUFFICIENT CANADA.Every pipeline, whether it leads DIRECTLY into the United States of North America of not; MEANS A MORE DEPENDENT LESS SELF RELIANT/SUFFICIENT CANADA.
ü  A $5-billion oil sands upgrader outside of Edmonton that will process 55,000 barrels of bitumen per day in partnership with Canadian Natural Resources and the Alberta government, converting heavy crude into diesel fuel for the Canadian market. But it is not enough. When first slated to come online (2015), the project already employed 1,000, a number that is set to grow to well over 8,000 – which as I see it, is proof that more Canadian oil can and MUST be processed right here—IN CANADA.
ü  Our kids want to work in high-tech industries. They don’t want to work with their hands. They want to have educationally and intellectually based jobs, and that’s what we produce when we refine this stuff; EVEN IF “REAL´ demand only lasts for another fifty years or so. Over the past few decades, the refining industry has undergone a major restructuring in North America, with BUSINESS INCREASINGLY CONCENTRATED IN THE HANDS OF MAJOR OIL COMPANIES, PRIMARILY SOUTH OF THE BORDER.
ü  SINCE THE 1970S, THE NUMBER OF REFINERIES IN CANADA HAS PLUMMETED FROM 40 TO 19, TAKING A BIG BITE OUT OF THE DIRECT REFINERY LABOUR FORCE, WHICH DROPPED FROM 27,400 TO 17,500 BETWEEN 1989 AND 2009.
ü  There hasn’t been a new refinery built in Canada since 1984, or in the United States of North America since 1976. (The North West Upgrading Project is not technically classed as a refinery because it is upgrading bitumen directly to diesel as opposed to producing light crude. None the less some  people do consider it to be the first major ground-up refining project undertaken in Canada in 25 years.)
ü  While expansions to existing facilities have enabled Canada’s overall refining capacity to increase, a recent Conference Board of Canada report observed that annual growth output has declined for the last five of six years (Harper and his Con-servatives).
ü  True, at the moment, more oil is refined here than is consumed. BUT WHILE CANADA CURRENTLY IMPORTS 0.7 MILLION BARRELS OF CRUDE OIL PER DAY, WE ONLY REFINE ABOUT 25 PER CENT OF THE OIL PRODUCED HERE. In Alberta, THE ENERGY RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION BOARD ESTIMATES THAT THE PERCENTAGE OF BITUMEN THAT WILL BE UPGRADED TO LIGHT OIL IN THE PROVINCE WILL DROP TO 47 PER CENT IN 2020, DOWN FROM 58 PER CENT IN 2010. Unlike more conventional “sweet crude,” which is not as easy to find as it used to be, oil sands crude must be upgraded and then further refined BEFORE GOING TO MARKET. According to most analysts and EEK- OH MY-ISTS, THE FINANCIALS have been -- and continue to be -- the most significant barrier to significantly expanding Canada’s refining capacity. Though the precise cost of a new facility is difficult to pinpoint, SOME PUT THE INITIAL CAPITAL OUTLAY AT MORE THAN $10 BILLION.
ü  The refining business is also considered to be more risky than upstream oil production, because profitability is directly impacted by swings in global oil prices and demand for refined products such as gasoline. In recent years, toughening environmental standards and the increasing availability of oil sands bitumen (as opposed to sweet crude, which is no longer as easy to come by), has presented an added challenge, as processing heavier oil is more expensive. 

But, OF COURSE, BECAUSE OF THE WORTHLESS CANADIAN DOLLAR AND also BECAUSE of the fact that THEY CAN NOW GET CANADIANS; TO PAY FOR THEM to take our land and resources out of our hands; that hasn’t stopped companies SOUTH OF THE BORDER, where FACILITIES IN SEVERAL DEDICATED REFINING AREAS HAVE UNDERGONE MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES, A PROCESS THAT IS STILL UNDERWAY, WITH MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR PROJECTS CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS IN MICHIGAN AND ILLINOIS.

Therefore FORGET THE PIPELINES INTENDED TO SHIP CRUDE TO FOREIGN SUPPLIERS AND BOOST THEIR ECONOMIES; when they well the finished product right back to us.
Getting into the petroleum processing business would seem a no-brainer considering Canadian crude oil production is expected to nearly double to as much as 4.7 million barrels per day by 2025. Moreover, Trans Canada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries is still mired in controversy, oil sands producers continue to; and will in the foreseeable future; offload Canadian crude to foreign refiners at a discount, and eastern provinces are importing more expensive Atlantic basin oil(both mainly because of or WORTHLESS Canadian Dollar).
Yet, the refining industry has flatlined, which prompts one very vexing question: As Canada produces more oil than ever before, why aren’t we building more refineries and upgraders here???
Some say the explanation is primarily economic???
To others, it’s a matter of politics??? How??? Is NEVER explained.

But, none the less, either way, it’s clear that Canada hasn’t been a serious player in the refining game for some time. And because of the increasing complexity of the forces shaping the global oil industry -- and a lack of WILL; on the part of the Alberta citizen, entrepreneur, worker, taxpayer, and CANADIAN, HA-HA INDUSTRY to do so -- it has only become more challenging to enter that domain.

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