A bill to build the Keystone XL pipeline didn’t get enough support in the U.S. Senate – but that doesn’t mean the proposal is dead.
The new year will bring a Republican-controlled Senate that will likely make building the pipeline one of its top priorities.
President Barack Obama is a staunch critic of the plan and often speaks out against the pipeline proposal. During a November press conference, the commander in chief claimed:
“Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.”
PolitiFact rated the claim for its truthfulness. Writer Joshua Gillin says the claim rates MOSTLY FALSE. According to Gillin, the President’s statement doesn’t hold water.
“The U.S. is a net exporter of oil based products,” Gillin said. “Those are things like jet fuel, gasoline, and asphalt. To make that, they need that crude oil from the oil sands.”
Most of that crude oil comes from Canada. In fact, nearly all of Canada’s exports go to the United States. It accounts for about a third of America’s total crude oil imports.
Critics of Keystone XL still hold firm, though. Those critics say American refineries would then export the products made with that crude oil to other countries.
According to the State Department, that trend of exporting products would continue regardless of whether the new pipeline is built. Because of those facts, PolitiFact rated the claim MOSTLY FALSE.
SOURCES: KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
- PolitiFact's rating
- White House, Obama press conference transcript, Nov. 14, 2014
- State Department, Keystone XL Project impact statement, January 2014
- State Department, Keystone XL Project impact statement market analysis, January 2014
- Energy Information Administration, Canada analysis, Sept. 30, 2014
- Energy Information Administration, Import and Export data, Nov. 14, 2014
- Energy Information Administration, Gulf Coast refinery data, 2013 annual
- TransCanada, "Keystone XL is good for Montana, good for the U.S." June 2014
- TransCanada, "Energy Security is National Security," accessed Nov. 19, 2014
- Tar Sands Action, Keystone XL facts, accessed Nov. 19, 2014
- New York Times, "A New American Oil Bonanza," Aug. 28, 2014
- Washington Post, "As House approves Keystone pipeline bill, Obama veto grows more likely," Nov. 14, 2014
- Washington Post, "The Keystone XL pipeline isn’t about lowering your gas prices," Nov. 17, 2014
- Washington Post, "Obama’s claim that Keystone XL crude would go ‘everywhere else’ but the United States," Nov. 20, 2014
- Washington Post, "Four Pinocchios for an over-the-top ad attacking the Keystone XL pipeline," Jan 31, 2014
- Reuters, "In Keystone XL debate, Obama's warning on oil exports rings only half true"
- FactCheck.Org, Pipeline Primer, March 10, 2014
- Slate, "Liberals Were Wrong: Drilling for Oil Really Did Bring Down Gas Prices," Nov. 18, 2014
- Interview, Charles Ebinger, energy economist at Brookings, Nov. 18, 2014
- Email interview, Michelle Foss, chief energy economist at the University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology, Nov. 18, 2014
- Email interview, Eric Smith, energy economist at Tulane University, Nov. 18, 2014
- Email interview, Kenneth Medlock, energy economist at Rice University, Nov. 18, 2014
- Email interview, White House spokesman Frank Benenati, Nov. 18, 2014