API, Upton push for Keystone XL pipeline

In the face of a determined campaign by environmentalists to get Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to withhold approval for the Keystone XL pipeline to carry more tar sands crude oil from Canada to the United States, the American Petroleum Institute is making a public push for approval.

The industry trade group, whose members have a clear financial stake in getting the pipeline built, are spending $500,000 on a campaign to advocate the project — and using some fuzzy math in the process:

In its report outlining the challenges industry faces in meeting growing American energy demands, the API describes Canada’s oilsands as “crucial” to U.S. prosperity, saying increased imports could add $34 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product by 2015.

That “crucial” impact on the economy would amount to about 2/1000s of the GDP in 2015.

The report also notes the support of Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:

“Our number one priority must be job creation, and this is a prime example of the over-burdensome regulatory system that is killing the private sector,” Upton wrote.

An interesting conclusion given last year’s million gallon oil spill in Calhoun County, which encroached on the Eastern edge of Upton’s district. As Michigan Messenger investigations showed, there were major gaps in the regulatory system that allowed that spill to happen, including a lack of inspectors that allowed hundreds and hundreds of anomalies to go unfixed in the pipeline that burst.

Those investigations also revealed that tar sands crude makes problems in pipelines more likely by giving off thousands of false pressure readings every day, making it more difficult to respond when you have a real leak. And once a leak occurs, the damage to the environment is considerably worse due to higher heavy metal content in the oil.