A Canadian railroad carrying millions of barrels of oil to Gulf refineries is hurtling full steam ahead through the Obama administration's block of the Keystone pipeline.My friends in Harvey, ND have commented to me before about the huge trains they see pulling dozens of oil cars through their area on the way to refineries in the south. For those who panicked over the relatively small environmental risk posed by the pipeline, how do they feel about diesel belching locomotives - probably four to a train - traveling hundreds of miles through the country pulling huge tankers full of oil? What kind of damage would be done if there was a major derailment and fire?
The amount of oil Canadian Pacific Railways carries down through the heartland has surged 2,500 percent since 2009, to 8.5 million barrels per year from just 325,000. The company expects to move 45 million barrels per year within the decade.
“We are responding to a growing demand,” Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific told FoxNews.com. “There has been unprecedented growth in the energy industry.”
The Calgary-based railroad is one of two that carries oil down from Canada's tar sands, but Canadian Pacific also carries thousands of barrels per day to the Gulf from North Dakota's booming Bakken Formation oil fields.
Experts estimate shipping by rail instead of pipeline adds anywhere from $5 to $10 to the price of a barrel, not to mention the high-capacity, 24-7 flow a pipeline affords. Rep. Fred Upton, (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the explosive growth of oil delivery by rail underscores the missed opportunity of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that became bogged down by environmental concerns and was ultimately tabled by the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate.
"We need to be doing all we can to develop our resources, particularly now, with rising gasoline prices and the threat of supply disruptions overseas," Upton told FoxNews.com. "Most observers acknowledge that rail transport is the best option we currently have to get this oil down to the refineries -- but the Keystone XL pipeline presents us with a better alternative."
Environwackos just don't think these things through.
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Harvey, ND is a major stopping point for CP Rail where a lions share of trains that need "cars switched out" are done here as well as fueled up. Just last summer, CP doubled the size of the yard in Harvey in which we see many oil cars here. Pretty amazing site.
"Environwackos just don't think these things through"
If they could, they wouldn't be envirowackos.
Canadian- Pacific is "one of two" railroad carrying the oil down. Who is the other??
BNSF is the other railroad transporting oil out of North Dakota. The majority of the oil that Canadian Pacific is transporting out of both the US and Canadian portions of the Bakken Oil Fields is not going to Gulf Coast refineries, rather it is going to US East Coast refineries. Traffic is to a barge loading facility at Albany, NY or another one at Westville, NJ. (Few refineries can take delivery of oil by rail yet)
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