comic

This isn't so much a bust on obama it could be any sitting pres. How much does anyone wanna bet that as the election grows nearer this pipeline will be approved by BO but in "his own way". Its' gonna be "his" pipeline.

I imagine the campaign pitch will go something like this whenever challenged why he nabob'd it to start;

"I was against the pipeline then because it wasn't up to the standards of (whoevr,insert name) and now that they have modified the plan up to standards that not only meet whatever guidelines,they now exceed them by a wide margin. In my pipeline plan,it will create about a million new jobs and will meet our energy needs for centuries to come. It will wipe out this nations debt and make us again a global leader of widget making. So in conclusion remeber to vote for me because i'm the one who brought this all about."

Darn Politics screws up so many things... lots of times they just get in the way and mess up a good thing. My job (as many of yours) and life in general would be much better if these people didn't come up with all their good intentions.

Think of all the lumberyard jobs we could have if we just chopped down all the forests!

Think of all the doctor and nurse jobs we could have if we just switched off all the traffic lights!

Think of all the bodyguard jobs we could have if we just emptied the prisons!

When weighing national policy, sometimes more than one consequence of a choice merits consideration.

This pipeline will be approved, but it needs to be done the right way. I remember how oil companies once proposed to build the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline out of wood. Wood!

Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in March of 1968. Permits were applied for and in April of 1969 special 48" cold weather steel pipe was ordered from Japan for construction. Permits and court cases delayed the start of construction until April of 1974.

Please provide a credible source for your statement that oil companies proposed building the pipeline out of wood. I would very much like to read it as I can find no data which suggests wood was ever proposed.

Damn it, Marc. You keep spoiling perfectly good stories by insisting on stupid facts.

I usually give no heed to your posts as they often are inaccurate or just dont make any sense. Well i beleive you did all 3 things in one single little post.

The first part is not only plain nonsensical (turn off all traffic lights? HUH?) that it has absolutely nothing to do with said the comic or my note about it.

The part about your saying they intially wanted to build it out of wood piqued my interest so i thought i would research it and find out whatever i could about the alaskan pipeline or aleskeyan pipeline as its lessr known name. Well,one thing is i now know more about that project than i ever thought i would and nowhere and i mean NOWHERE have i found anything that says anything about wood being used anywhere on the pipeline.

The only opposition that i found concerned mainly threat of pollution that could happen through a few diff ways and the disrupton of wildlife namely interfering with caribou not being able to go around it. The only reference to any other means besides steel in construction is the use of teflon skidders and those are used on the denali fault zone so the pipe can slide on the grounds surface in case of a major ground shift (interesting note here,on that fault line the pipe is laid in an "S" pattern so it can shrink or grow accordingly). There were some other worrys that brought up as well and will answer if asked but again i didnt see anything about wood being used and i would really love to be given a reference so i can read and educate myself properly on anything i may have mssed.

JOHN

So is everyone happy with what they are paying at the pump?

Once again, my disclaimer: I am a proponent of the pipeline.

If you think the keystone pipeline is a big source of jobs then you have been misled - likely by the people trying to build it. The original estimate of 100,000 jobs was not an estimate at all but rather a number pulled out of someone's ass. The source of the number can not be found. Later that number came down to about 20K jobs...but that counted 1 job for one person for 1 year. So if one job lasted 3 years they are actually counting it as 3 jobs. The actual amount is less than 10k jobs. And, hey, every job counts...and its good for our energy security...so I am on board. But dont kid yourself that its going to put a dent in the unemployment number.

If we are talking government initiatives and jobs, the infrastructure-plan proposed by the president and rejected by the GOP would have created multiples of 10X the jobs of Keystone...and it was paid for. I supect you'll see the president talking about that much more than Keystone.

I have personal knowledge of this. I hate talking about myself in these forums (Bagiant I'm not), but this is a fair question.

My father worked for SAPC for many years, including during construction, retired from BP Alaska even. Both my brother and I worked Prudhoe, Endicott, Kuparuk, and in Valdez. We're an oil family, have been since the late 60s. So I'm speaking from personal knowledge gleaned both personally and from family and friends.

TAPS wanted to save steel money by building the VSMs from wood as was commonly done in the Soviet Arctic: building 800 miles of anything out of steel is crazy expensive. Thankfully, this issue arose at a time when this nation was increasing its commitment to environmental safety, and that concept was abandoned. The producers did try though.

John, I believe you when you say some of the stuff I write is nonsensical to you. Also, so you understand, no one ever calls anything "aleskeyan pipeline", including the wives of men who get crushed in every election they enter.

This new pipeline will be built, But it needs to be done correctly, and that takes time.

Given the steel pipe was ordered only a year after the discovery of the oil, barely long enough to plan the route, I find it difficult to believe there was ever a realistic plan to use wood in construction. I also find it hard to believe there is not one single solitary corroborating reference. Lacking that you will excuse me as this gets filed with the other conspiracy theories. Once again if you can provide a credible source we can review then am willing to reconsider/admit error.