The 1,700-mile proposed Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline should never be approved for several reasons.

**KEYSTONE XL IS AN EXPORT PIPELINE!

*According to their own presentations to investors, Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for EXPORT to Europe and Latin America. Proceeds from these exports are earned TAX FREE. Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.

*Gas prices: Keystone XL will increase gas prices for Americans—Especially Farmers

*By draining Midwestern refineries of cheap Canadian crude into export-oriented refineries in the Gulf Coast, Keystone XL will increase the cost of gas for Americans.

*TransCanada’s 2008 Permit Application states “Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude in the U.S. Midwest, are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil. Access to the U.S. Gulf Coast via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in the Midwest by removing this oversupply. This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to the equivalent cost of imported crude. The resultant increase in the price of heavy crude is estimated to provide an increase in annual revenue to the Canadian producing industry in 2013 of US $2 billion to US $3.9 billion.”

*Independent analysis of these figures found this would increase per-gallon prices by 20 cents/gallon in the Midwest.

*According to an independent analysis U.S. farmers, who spent $12.4 billion on fuel in 2009 could see expenses rise to $15 billion or higher in 2012 or 2013 if the pipeline goes through. At least $500 million of the added expense would come from the Canadian market manipulation.

*In 2008, TransCanada’s own Presidential Permit application for Keystone XL to the State Department indicated “a peak workforce of approximately 3,500 to 4,200 CONSTRUCTION personnel” to build the pipeline.

*Just 11% of the construction jobs on the Keystone I pipeline in South Dakota were filled by South Dakotans–most of them for temporary, low-paying manual labor.

*This is a pipeline - not a continuous construction job. Once built, there will be very few people needed to maintain it.

*In Alberta, extraction of tar sands oil has already been linked to a 30% elevated rate of rare cancers and autoimmune diseases in First Nations communities downstream from the project.

Attaching this oil company give away to the jobs bill is so completely Republican it is almost comical. That FOX News watchers believe that the pipeline is a good thing is indicative of the audience.

Please read more on the subject before you support it. It is not in our best interest - unless you are an oil company executive.