America's New Energy Boom is a Bust for Foreign Suppliers

Canada has an export problem. America is the only country that purchases oil from Canada's deep sand beds. This poses a large problem from the country, especially after the shale oil and gas boom started south of the Canadian border. A major problem for Canada is that its production far exceeds its ability to export due to bottlenecks in the rail and waterway methods, the shale oil boom in America has captured most of the ability for Canada to transport its product. A project known as the Pipeline Keystone XL will rectify the problem, however a problem lies between environmentalist and politicians. The pipeline will extend from North Dakota to the cost of Texas where oil refineries prepare oil for export. Politicians say that it will create thousands of jobs, add revenue, and continue to drive fuel prices down, environmentalist say that the pipeline will be laid in sensitive areas and ecological disasters are inevitable with pipelines. It remains to see whether the pipeline will be constructed. In the meantime Canada's oil industry has been scrambling for ideas to find new buyers for its oil exports and methods in which to transport the fuel. There problem has been great news for rail car operators as Canadian oil firms have been renting tankers at unprecedented rates.

I thought this was in interesting article, as our country tries to ween itself from foreign oil suppliers there will be causalities to our allies. I think the Pipeline is an efficient method of transportation but strict controls must be put into place to ensure there is little risk of a rupture that could cause catastrophic damage to the environment. Although renewable energy is starting to become mainstream, consumers will continue to use oil for many years into the future until solar, wind and other technologies evolve to the efficiency of oil.