After nearly a three (3)-year analysis, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline. The DOS did not find any environmental obstacles to prohibit the development of the Keystone XL Pipeline as proposed.
The Administration's proposed tax changes on the oil and natural gas companies are purported to raise revenue. However, in a recently published study, Louisiana State University Professor Joseph Mason indicates these tax changes would result in lost economic output, lost jobs and reduced tax revenues.
According to a study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI), Canadian oil sands will boost the nation's economy by creating more than 342,000 new U.S. jobs between 2011 and 2015.
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) conducted another comprehensive environmental analysis and released the results in a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS). The analysis found "no new issues of substance" and "does not alter the conclusions reached in the draft EIS regarding the need for and the potential impacts of the proposed Project."
This study, conducted by Ensys Energy and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Policy and International Affairs, evaluates the impacts on U.S. and global refining, trade and oil markets of the Keystone XL project to bring additional Canadian crudes, including oil sands, into the United States. The study concluded that the Keystone XL pipeline would help reduce U.S. imports of foreign oil from sources outside of North America. The study also found that growing Canadian oil sands imports and U.S. demand reduction have the potential to very substantially reduce U.S. dependency on non-Canadian foreign oil, including oil from the Middle East.
