Title: Intelligence Memos: What’s the Real Deal with Keystone XL?
Author: Blake Schaffer
Publisher: C.D. Howe Institute
Date: November 21, 2017
Summary:
- Additional export capacity was needed. According to NEB predictions, the Keystone XL approval will prevent a $10/barrel drop in oil prices, which would have decreased oil production investment in Alberta.
- Oil sands emissions are not as disproportionately emissions-intensive as is commonly believed. Innovations are making oil sands extraction more efficient. Some facilities are only slightly more emissions-intensive than conventional oil.
- Shipping oil by pipeline is safer and less emissions-intensive than by rail.
