A great article from Dan Goodwill’s blog about Canada’s new oil reserves and what it will mean to Canada and the US.
Canada ranks Number 2 and is on its way to becoming Number 1
Canada apparently possesses the world’s second-largest oil reserves with only Saudi Arabia ahead of it. According to one expert, Canada controls 56% of the world’s investable oil resources. Once the Arctic opens up to serious exploration, which with global warming is becoming easier by the day, we may become number one. This certainly explains the tremendous interest in the region in recent months.
As Mr. Pope points out, a number of countries discourage foreign investment. As the price of oil rises and the process of extracting oil from the tar sands becomes more efficient, more multi-billion dollar projects are going to emerge. Canada’s oil production could increase from one million barrels a day to four million barrels a day by 2020.
Great news for US, since we can’t drill for our own oil thanks to the environmentalists, we should do the next best thing. Support Canada and Mexico by buying all of their oil and let the rest of the world worry about the Middle East. And Hooray for global warming! Canada needs to grab as much of the Arctic as they can before Russia does.
What about growing corn and all that Green propaganda? This from the chief at Volvo:
Volvo chief: Fuel — not technology — limits green trucks
The development and availability of biofuels and standards to govern their quality are the key constraints on the adoption of more climate-friendly trucks…
But while the engines could be available immediately, the supply of biofuels is quite small…
Not only the availability of biofuels, but a standard for biofuels so the engine manufacturers can build one engine and not several different engines depending on what fuel is available.
In the foreseeable we still need oil. Let’s get it from Canada and Mexico even if we have to pay whatever the going rate is and keep the money and the power out of the radicals in the Middle East. With no fear of losing our oil, we should have no problem showing them how sand turns into glass.
Canada is and, for the last 8 years, has been the number one supplier of oil to the U.S. market. Canadian imports represent 17 percent of U.S. imports and 11 percent of U.S. consumption. There are many reasons that foreign investment into Canadian oil production has increased; not the least of which is a stable tax environment (Check out what’s happening here in Alaska this week as our Governor seeks to increase, once again, the Producers Production Tax). Where we get our oil, however, doesn’t diminish the impact middle-eastern oil plays in the world market. If the Saudi’s, for example, were, for whatever reason, to radically reduce their supplies of crude, of which very little finds its way to U.S. refineries, the European and Asian producers would then seek their supply elsewhere. This would result in a sharp rise in the prices that U.S. refiners would have to pay for crude and cause a rise in prices. The price of crude, no matter where it comes from, is regulated in world, not local, markets.
The Canadian Tar Sands project has been around for many, many years but its only during those times when crude oil prices are high that its operation is feasible. Having delivered equipment to the project in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, which has been intermittently operated since 1967, and having seen one of the newer centrifuges being delivered to the site from Edmonton (I couldn’t miss it; it was 300 feet in length, 30 feet in diameter and weighed in around 1,000,000 lbs.), I can tell you that this project is both massive in scope and incredibly labor and fuel intensive. The MacKenzie river natural gas pipeline is being built primarily to provide the massive amount of natural gas needed to heat the centrifuges used to separate the oil from the mined sand.
All that said, I agree that we should support both Mexican and Canadian producers in every way that we can. The fact that the U.S. is such a large consumer of their production gives us some leverage with both of their governments because, without us, they would incur much higher shipping costs to reach other markets. I can think of ways in which this leverage can be used to our advantage and I’m sure that you can, as well.
As far as Biofuel standards go; the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) sets fuel standards. ASTM D 975 is the standard for petroleum based diesel fuel and ASTM D-6751 is the standard set for pure biodiesel used in 80/20 blends of petro- and biodiesel (B20). According to the National Biodiesel Board: “Most major engine companies have stated formally that the use of blends up to B20 will not void their parts and workmanship warranties. This includes blends below 20% biodiesel, such as the 2% biodiesel blends that are becoming more common.”