|
|
|
PITTSBURG —
Dear Editor:
We listen to politicians decry President Obama’s declining to support the Keystone Pipeline from Canada to the Gulf. It appears that our refineries are on the Gulf and subject to attack by land, sea and air. Many of us have wondered, why not build the refineries in North Dakota and/or Canada? Therefore, doing so you would not have to pipe them all the way to the Gulf? It would also create lots of jobs which appear to be an issue versus jobs for pipelines.
Current predictions are that oceans will rise between 13 and 20 feet, if the major ice shelves melt. However, most are predicting that this would actually be a century away but, short term rises will be in the one- to five-foot range. The other predictions from global warming is that storms will be more severe, especially hurricanes and typhoons! So, you get the double whammy having our refineries between four and 10 feet of sea level, plus coastal storms are asking for major disasters.
We also had another thought, why do we have all these refineries close to the shore? Shipping! We don’t know if you’ve seen the recent news, but the United States has recently been a major gasoline exporter. When petroleum companies can sell refined gasoline overseas for twice what they can get for it here, they ship! While we are not major conspiracy theorists, we suspect that international oil companies want to maximize their profits, and they are rarely interested in the security or service to the American market. It seems a bit ironic to think that we are going to lower our gasoline prices here in the United States by shipping Canadian crude to the Gulf, where it will actually be sold on the world market.
One of our families has two pipelines running through our farm in southeast Kansas. We are not against the pipelines. We have not heard any discussion on this within the media. Are we missing something?
Jim Shetlar,
Kansas City area resident and Kansas farm owner
Dear Editor:
We listen to politicians decry President Obama’s declining to support the Keystone Pipeline from Canada to the Gulf. It appears that our refineries are on the Gulf and subject to attack by land, sea and air. Many of us have wondered, why not build the refineries in North Dakota and/or Canada? Therefore, doing so you would not have to pipe them all the way to the Gulf? It would also create lots of jobs which appear to be an issue versus jobs for pipelines.
Current predictions are that oceans will rise between 13 and 20 feet, if the major ice shelves melt. However, most are predicting that this would actually be a century away but, short term rises will be in the one- to five-foot range. The other predictions from global warming is that storms will be more severe, especially hurricanes and typhoons! So, you get the double whammy having our refineries between four and 10 feet of sea level, plus coastal storms are asking for major disasters.
We also had another thought, why do we have all these refineries close to the shore? Shipping! We don’t know if you’ve seen the recent news, but the United States has recently been a major gasoline exporter. When petroleum companies can sell refined gasoline overseas for twice what they can get for it here, they ship! While we are not major conspiracy theorists, we suspect that international oil companies want to maximize their profits, and they are rarely interested in the security or service to the American market. It seems a bit ironic to think that we are going to lower our gasoline prices here in the United States by shipping Canadian crude to the Gulf, where it will actually be sold on the world market.
One of our families has two pipelines running through our farm in southeast Kansas. We are not against the pipelines. We have not heard any discussion on this within the media. Are we missing something?
Jim Shetlar,
Kansas City area resident and Kansas farm owner
