IN BUSINESS TO DELIVER, IT’S IN THE GENES!

(United States Department of State, TransCanada, Frazer Chronicle)

 

The Keystone XL crude oil pipeline stretches from Hardisty, Alberta, passes through three states, will be 875 miles in length, will somehow negotiate 56 bodies of water, and will be done…..never! Mineral producing companies never ever have enough products, no matter which type you’re talking about, whether it be natural gas, crude oil, iron, copper, silver, zinc, gold or uranium, these producers have a ravenous appetite that can never be satisfied.

 

We here in Wisconsin…..through our fearless leaders, and some short sighted local politicians, have granted a mining company special initiatives to come to the northern part of the state to dredge millions of ton of earth out of the ground, crush it down into a fine powder, and then roll the powder into what is called taconite pellets that is saleable as iron ore. Did you know it takes 4, 5, 6, and sometimes 7 ton of waste rock to produce just 1 ton of pellets…..betcha didn’t know that, did ya.

 

Exactly where is all the excess rock and dirt going to go…..piled up in what is called waste rock piles, and piles, and piles, and piles. If the Gogebic Taconite project takes 20, 30, or 40 years of production, can you imagine how many ton of waste rock there will be…..by using a simple equation, 5 ton of rock to produce 1 ton of salable ore, with a production life of say 30 years, and Gogebic Taconite produces 7 ton of pellets a year x say 40 years, that’s 280 million ton of iron ore, and 1.4 trillion ton of waste rock that has been displaced and produced. Ain’t no way Gogebic Taconite is gonna ever put that waste back in the hole that they dug.

 

But I digress; we were talking about crude oil and natural gas, and an 875 mile pipeline that would pump the sandy crude from Alberta Canada down to the Port Arthur, Texas area. Sounds, on the surface of the subject, a little bit dangerous…..at least to me, and for the little that I know about the process. But I do know that a sandy liquid being pumped through a 36” pipe at varying speeds would seem…..to me, a guy who knows little about the process, to be a bit precarious…..and at the least abrasive…..to the pipeline.

 

I borrowed TransCanada’s slogan, In Business To Deliver, it’s In Their Genes was my slogan, but it’s true, all extraction companies, whether it’s oil, natural gas, diamonds, iron ore, coal, or the precious metals has to displace the earth in order to get at whatever product they seek. In so doing, they are altering the ground, usually under the surface, unless it’s an open pit type of mining.

 

With liquid products retrieving the product is just the first step, petroleum products need to be broken down and to do this cracking, the product needs to be shipped over vast mileages of land, usually in the straightest line from the source to the cracking plants.

 

The gooey mess is transported through these 36” pipelines to these separating places where it is turned into all sorts of wonderful 21^st century products that enhance our lives, move us from our point A’s to point B’s in our automobiles on pretty much a daily basis…..ain’t technology grand.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE MENTALITY

People need to understand a basic truth about every mineral company throughout the world…..they all have one major issue, or agenda, deliver profits to shareholders…..it’s been that way since the beginning of shareholderisum. It can be compared to the amount of waste rock that is produced to make one ton of iron ore.

 

 

An oil rig might cost a million dollars, and a pipeline from the oil well to the cracking plant might cost $100 a lineal foot. A shareholder expects a return on his investment, a handsome investment, so corners need to be cut, will be cut to insure that bottom line mentality. Oil spills are nothing more than piles of waste rock, and they are dealt with in the same manner as a rock pile, ignored, and moved away from.

 

The land that a 3’ oil pipeline runs through will be scared for generations, and in many cases will not be suitable to farm, make a road through, or build a house or business on. The land is nothing more than a casualty of war, a victim of collateral damage.

 

The press is pushing for the project, politicians are pushing for the project, TransCanada is pushing for the project, and President Obama will cave into the mounting pressure and become a proponent of the project.

 

IT’S BEEN GOING ON FOR 12 DECADES

That’s right; earth exploration companies have been greasing the political skids, buying up favorable decisions, and installing their own representatives whenever possible. There are old mining sites that dot the landscape throughout the country, from the east coast, through the mid-lands all the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and west.

 

In the beginning these exploration and extraction companies established their own towns complete with a Mayor, sheriff, fire department, newspapers, churches and a company store. They were…..and are a power unto themselves, and they never ever forget a pocket of ore, or an underground deposit of crude.

 

They may not get approval this year, but they’ll be back in five, ten, twenty or fifty years and promote the same project, just in a different package. They are relentless, never forget, and will beg, borrow, or steal their way to their project…..no matter the cost, or the degradation to the land, that’s how valuable these mineral are to these people.

 

When legislators ease mineral extraction regulations in the name of progress, and the creation of jobs, prosperity, and a better way of life, you maybe should take a summer trip to one of the long forgotten mining towns…..any mining town, and see the end result of the extraction of Mother Nature’s treasures. Or take a side trip to an old oil rig site and check out the discharge pond…..it ain’t a pretty site.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!