Recognizing that Donald Trump’s plan to build the Keystone XL pipeline entirely with American steel could run into some roadblocks (like inventory), South Dakota Democrats are lending Il Duce some support.
Senator Troy “Buy American!” Heinert (D-26/Mission) has filed Senate Bill 158, an oil pipeline tariff. Democrats have brought pipeline taxes before, only to see them shot down on Big-Oil-friendliness disguised as concern for the Commerce Clause.
But Heinert’s SB 158 isn’t a tax on oil in pipelines. It’s a pipeline tariff:
Any crude oil pipeline company using pipe made of steel not manufactured in the United States shall pay a tariff of twenty percent on the value of each length of pipe not manufactured in the United States used in this state. Any crude oil pipeline company that transports on average less than ten thousand barrels of crude oil per day by pipeline is exempt from the tariff and provisions imposed by this Act. The tariff established in this Act is in addition to any sales, use, or excise tax [2017 SB 158, Section 2, filed 2017.02.01].
Hmm… math… according to TransCanada’s original 2009 application to the PUC, 313 miles. I don’t have a steel cost per segment, but TransCanada said the total build cost in South Dakota would be $921.4 million… subtract $154.4 million for labor, wild-guess steel cost as a third of the remainder, half from elsewhere, times 20%—hey! SB 158 could put over $25 million into South Dakota’s coffers…
…or it could encourage TransCanada to use all American steel. Either way we win, right? Senator Heinert’s bill passes our Trump-lovin’ Legislature unanimously, right, just like our cordial invitation to the new President to visit our fair state. Heck, we can even time it so Trump can turn the first golden shovel at the state line when TransCanada sends the bulldozers to lay Keystone XL with all those “Made in USA” stickers on it.
But, KXL doesn’t carry ‘crude oil’, just dilbit which isn’t taxed as crude oil for environmental cleanup-even though it is much worse to clean up because wingnuts are dumb freakers.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cleanup-begins-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-encampment-180743034.html
Uh-oh with regard to clean-up. Kudos for trying to clean things up now, but future protests will need to anticipate the waste that is produced (which ironically will threaten clean water).
“Protesters have left behind not just trash, but tents and even cars.
“There’s more than anticipated, and it’s under a lot of snow,” Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault said. “I wouldn’t say it’s going to get done in days; it’s going to take weeks.” “
The difference being that waste from protests can actually be cleaned up.
Of the spills involving tar sands oils, reports indicate that after years of trying, clean-up has not happened.
I agree that the two waste forms are different, but if you are going to have an environmental protest, then be an environmentalist :^). Don’t leave your trash for someone else to pick up. Get to the protest without consuming gasoline, if your point is to get us off of oil altogether.
The good news is that there will be other opportunities to do better.
I like the bill, but Mike has a point. Is that crude oil that will be transported, or dilbit, or bitumen, or what? Pipelines carry different products – like the pipeline in Iowa that spewed so much diesel fuel last week.
Mr. McTaggart has a point too. Those protesters sure left a mess and surrendered the moral high ground, if any they occupied.
Even pipe made in the US may use steel ingots from Japan or China as source metal,
Thanks Rorschach…somebody finally gets it :^). The protests are an opportunity to show how things can be done better all around. Lead by example. The folks that are cleaning up the mess are leading by example.
DAPL is not rated heavy enough pipe to handle dilbit with the high pressures and chemical garp it needs to make it flow. KXL is supposed to be stronger, but as one can see from problems with the firsdt Keystone line, maybe corners were cut-severely.
This new format is weird, to be sure.
I just drove past some DAPL pipe trench and there is quite a bit of dirt not leveled in one stretch of pasture I could see, just off US Hiway 59 south of Larrabee iowa. The land to the east was too hilly and too much timber to see if theat had been leveled.
Doc- your expertise is needed in whitey wingnut’s congress before they destroy the environment totally.
http://www.vox.com/2017/2/2/14488448/stream-protection-rule
Lets dump coal mine tailings inrivers and streams. What harm could possible happen?
Doesn’t Trump own the new “Reardon Metal?” Steel that’s 13% less dense compared to normal steel, and that has almost the same strength-to-weight ratio compared to titanium alloys.
https://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/is-this-invention-the-real-rearden-metal-21606
Sorry, Ms. Rand. Spelled Hank’s name wrong. Who is John Galt?
I always like Rorschach’s comments and I really like this point about the moral high ground.
My view is that the way to stop the oil business is to stop using oil. Don’t drive to North Dakota and beg for gasoline to run your generators. Walk to your grocery store and protest strawberries in January. Go to the liquor store and insist that imports of French wine and Scotch whisky be curtailed.
Stop using oil.
if thousands of people want to protest fossil fuel in the face of a NORTH DAKOTA WINTER, and leave some garbage as a necessary result, I’ll happily go up there and help clean up. Moral high ground my a** rohr&barth. Go Chase Iron Eyes!!
The mess Bundy left in Harney County OR could use you two to clean it up! Haha Go Chase Iron Eyes!!
Mike,
Coal is not failing because of regulations. I agree that while it may cost the companies more if they fully complied with the rule, this isn’t going to save them from cheap natural gas.
We are not building any new coal plants, which leads me to believe that eventually they will be replaced as they just simply get too old.
If more infrastructure occurs, then some forms of coal will benefit to make the steel (like the pipes above).
Doc, you know the meaning of “hoisted on his own petard?” pehaps engineers do need English.
“Get to the protest without consuming gasoline, if your point is to get us off of oil altogether.” jfc
Certainly you jest? Otherwise, up u go, buddy
Leslie,
Let’s be fair…the protest leaders couldn’t anticipate everything, particularly the size and duration and nature of the protest. But those that spend the next several weeks in the cold picking up trash will be well within their rights to demand that clean-up is integrated into future plans.
Really, who wants to spend months picking up trash in the cold, when it should have been avoided in the first place?
Leslie,
The protest was a perfect opportunity to show that people can function perfectly fine without oil. That didn’t happen except for some who rode on horseback or walked.
It is easy to tell somebody else to stop using oil, while being hypocritical and using oil yourself to get to the protest.
It is difficult and expensive to pay your own way to sustainability with wind/solar/electric cars.
Two points:
1. Frerichs and Wismer should be also sponsors on this bill, since the first spill of recent history in SD, was on the KXL in their back yard, when TransCanada used the cheaper India pipe at the last minute with the approval of the PUC and the pipe burst in the first 6 months on the ND/SD border.
2. Dr. McTaggert is so worried about cleanup of the above ground contamination, but is perfectly willing to let the nuclear waste of the entire country be dumped in deep bore holes in South Dakota, with the possibility that the shafts will leak at some point in the future and contaminate ALL of our water.
Thanks for your efforts Senator Heinert!!!
Doc-it had nothing to do with coal failing. Wingnuts just reopened America’s waterways so Coal companies can pollute at will.
Weren’t you just sermonizing to Indians about trash pollution in North Dakota?
It happened Leslie. I expect you are on your way there to happily assist with the cleanup. Give us an update on the your progress please.
Mike, I was “sermonizing” to the people who didn’t pick up their trash at the protest. How can you be part of an environmental protest and not pick up your trash????
Lanny…once again, no nuclear waste would be coming to any bore hole test site. Geez. If you want to build a temporary or permanent waste facility in South Dakota, get in line behind New Mexico and Texas.
I would prefer that we recycle (i.e. reprocess) our nuclear waste prior to any attempt at direct burial. That would reduce the volume, radioactivity, and duration of isolation of said waste from hundreds of thousands of years to hundreds of years.
But if you are going to go ahead with direct burial, then underground disposal in an engineered facility is a safe means of isolating the waste.
Should we keep spending money on the maintenance and security of our above-ground storage facilities, when if we simply addressed our waste issues said monies would be better spent on social security and medicare?
Oh by the way Lanny, nuclear methods are used to examine cracks in pipe and other kinds of infrastructure. Neutron sources are also used in agriculture, environmental engineering, and civil engineering to evaluate water content in soils (neutrons are slower when water is around, which means they generate a stronger signal in neutron detectors).
Those sources end up as nuclear waste at some point and must be disposed of properly.
Mr. Stricherz, I have heard there is a law bill being circulated that will make it illegal to put any such wastes in South Dakota unless the legislatures vote on it. If this passes then The Borehole can be dug with no further handwringing, except from those who continue ignore facts and spread lies. When they dig The Borehole, knowledge and learning will take place and jobs will be had by many. Philip and Midland will thrive.
Dr McTaggert, now that the deep bore hole project failed in North and South Dakota, it was never going to be used for putting the depleted uranium underground here? Then for what were the deep bore holes going to be? And now all of a sudden Texas and New Mexico were ahead of us on the nuclear wasted disposal? You do know of course that the primary disposal site of our nuclear waste has been in the countries where we are attacking them to get control of their natural resources, (oh wait a minute it was because they were on the axis of evil, that’s right) by firing it at them in all kinds of weaponry, don’t you?
That bill is HB 1071. It apparently got out of committee on a 12-0 vote.
I note that the bill also restricts the processing of high level nuclear waste as well, which would seem to cover reprocessing facilities.
Not sure about nuclear power though. Technically nuclear waste is continually processed within each reactor as it operates. And when they exchange fuel the spent fuel is stored somewhere on site to cool off. Whether you call that “disposed of” is a good question.
Mr. Stricherz, The Borehole is #4Science and nothing else
Lanny,
Sorry, the borehole has zero to do with depleted uranium.
The testing is being done to study the drilling itself and the geology/geochemistry inside the borehole. That will help them assess suitability for isolating defense wastes, which come in these capsules filled with Cesium or Strontium. They are remnants of nuclear weapons production. Each of them has a half-life of 30 years, not millions or billions of years.
I don’t think it is the case that Texas and New Mexico are suddenly ahead of South Dakota. They both have companies and facilities that have expertise in nuclear waste management…and there has been more public support than in South Dakota, generally speaking.
And oh by the way, the new head of the DOE, who was Governor of Texas, has favored a temporary storage facility in Texas. I don’t think he spent much time on borehole issues however.
But back to the pipe issues….
I would think that if you are interested in clean water, you will want the best-made steel possible for the pipelines, regardless of where it came from. Maybe instead of demanding that the pipe come from here or there, that random samples of pipe have to satisfy safety tests.
I have no clue what tests the steel for pipelines must go through before it can be used. Not every industry is as picky as nuclear with regard to testing or laboratory accreditation standards.
WHER DID THIS COWBOY COME FROM STAR WARS.
I don’t want Trump to visit the Dakotas because I stand with my Native brothers and sisters and their fight against the Black Snake (DAPL).
Our current impulsive president said full speed ahead without even knowing the facts. He thinks that it is going to be built with American steel. Do you think Rounds, Thune or Noem’s staff has told him that the pipes are all sitting in storage and are not all American?
Didn’t think so.
I just remember that when the pipe from India was approved at the last minute, it was a much thinner pipe. I can’t say for sure that that is the reason that it leaked, but when it happened in the first half year, I would have to think that was a very strong possibility.
Moses, that “cowboy” is the newest and maybe the bestest Democrat out in the legislature.
I would think that if you are interested in clean water, you will want the best-made steel possible for the pipelines, regardless of where it came from. Maybe instead of demanding that the pipe come from here or there, that random samples of pipe have to satisfy safety tests.
The random sample tests only include the cheapest steel to maximimize profits for korporate criminal A-Z. In fact, it is prolly the only test.
It’s a good question Lanny whether chemical resistance to the properties of the oil is the critical property. Then a thickness beyond a certain amount will simply add costs. Somebody must know what the technical requirements for the pipe happen to be.
https://lasttechage.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/kxl-threatens-us-environment-not-energy-not-climate/
Good article. Also, “Clean water” really means water rid of various molecules, not certain minerals. While distilled water is very clean in terms of low levels of impurities, drinking it is not recommended either…we need some amount of minerals/ions in the water for cells to function properly.
I’d rather we power a fleet of electric cars with some nice nuclear power, wind, or solar instead. Until then, we can only make transport of oil/gas safer and the vehicles more efficient.
Fukushima is melting as I write while doc says nuke is cool man, nothing to worry about. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/03/fukushima-daiichi-radiation-levels-highest-since-2011-meltdown
The folks over in District 27, keep telling yourself this won’t happen to you. Listen to doc tell you how safe it all is.
Heinert is spot on, tariff the hell out of these polluters.