After Keystone cancel, is the Dakota Access Pipeline next?
Gas prices have spiked to a 12 month high
The Keystone XL pipeline is dead in the water thanks to President Biden, so what does that mean for the Dakota Access Pipeline and ultimately energy prices which have already spiked higher?
The 1,172-mile underground 30-inch diameter pipeline transporting light sweet crude oil from the Bakken/Three Forks production area in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois to refiners in the Midwest has been a factor in keeping gasoline prices low. It is the main pipeline that moves oil out of North Dakota, our number 2 oil-producing state.
JET SETTING CELEBRITIES ARE TRYING TO KILL DAKOTA PIPELINE
Yet Hollywood has a problem with that. FOX News reported that over 200 actors, sports star climate activists, indigenous leaders, and more have signed a letter calling on the Biden administration to shut down the long-disputed Dakota Access Pipeline for good.
US ENERGY INDEPENDECE IS ON THE WAY OUT
These environmental celebrities which include, Aaron Rodgers, Amy Schumer, Don Cheadle and Mark Ruffalo to name a few, want you to pay more money for gasoline and are using their considerable influence with the White House to further what is already underway.
Following Keystone's shutdown, U.S. oil producers are cutting back production and raising prices in anticipation of more regulations causing oil supply to fall and gasoline prices to rise.
The average retail gas price in the United States is now $2.50 per gallon after soaring from an average price of $1.74 per gallon in April 2020. Another pipeline kill would increase prices even further. Gas has risen every week since President Biden was inaugurated.
BIDEN'S KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE ORDER COSTS HUNDREDS MORE OIL WORKER JOBS
Of course in Hollywood, if you are going to enjoy the show, you must sometimes forgo reality. Like, trying to pretend to forget the fact that it was determined that the shutdown of the Keystone XL pipeline would have no real impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the real world, the killing of the Keystone XL pipeline did more to kill jobs than it did to help the environment.
Hollywood fails to mention that the Dakota Access Pipeline has operated safely since it has opened in 2017. Moving oil by pipeline is providing a safer means of transportation over trucks or rail. North Dakota produces light oil, so it is more environmentally friendly to refine. Blocking the pipeline could allow for other grades that are dirtier and would add to greenhouse gas emissions. It also will raise oil and gasoline prices.
Actors and sports stars may not have to worry about the real cost of raising a family or living paycheck to paycheck, but their climate activism is taking its toll on American's paycheck.
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Producers have no choice as they must prepare for what comes next, some are charging a premium for oil in case buyers cancel a contract in the event the pipeline gets shut down. Others are laying off workers because they are delaying well completions and cutting production. Some oil producers in North Dakota are cutting production on fears that they won't be able to move oil if the pipeline shuts down.
If the Biden administration continues with its anti-pipeline, fracking review, and oil production campaign, Americans will be facing record-high gasoline prices in just a few years. Complicating the situation, vaccine rollouts will start to produce a surge in global demand.
So, President Biden and his administration will have to own the coming gasoline price spike and the financial toll it may take on American households.
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Phil Flynn is senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group and a Fox Business Network contributor. He is one of the world's leading market analysts, providing individual investors, professional traders, and institutions with up-to-the-minute investment and risk management insight into global petroleum, gasoline, and energy markets. His precise and timely forecasts have come to be in great demand by industry and media worldwide and his impressive career goes back almost three decades, gaining attention with his market calls and energetic personality as writer of The Energy Report. You can contact Phil by phone at (888) 264-5665 or by email at pflynn@pricegroup.com.