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[audio https://www.peterbcollins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Horn.nov_.mp3]Steve Horn, research fellow at DeSmogBlog and freelance journalist, returns to talk about Obama’s delayed–and almost irrelevant–rejection of KeystoneXL. Horn has become an expert on America’s vast network of energy pipelines, and informs us that the administration’s decision will have little impact on the flow of tar sands sludge from Alberta, Canada to a new terminal near Houston. When Obama went to the pipeline hub in Cushing, Oklahoma in 2012, he fast-tracked approval of the southern leg of Keystone–which can connect with Canadian pipelines on many routes.
Horn also reports that while activists have focused on Keystone and its operator, TransCanada, the State Dept. quietly approved other pipeline permits, like Enbridge’s pipelines which Horn calls “the Keystone XL clone” because they connect the same points. We also note that the administration has granted huge delays in the deadline for safety upgrades to rail cars.
While some climate change activists declare victory, Horn details how the industry is winning the larger war, and that the investor press is still bullish despite the pressure from low crude oil prices.
We also talk about recent Congressional action to lift the ban on exports of crude oil and a number of other issues. Horn also recounts his recent effort to interview executives of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission in Oklahoma City, who hid in their offices and called the cops when he knocked on the door.