Obama's "All-Of-The Above" Oil/Energy Policy Misguidedly Leaves Much Off The Table

On March 22 in Cushing, Okla. -- a municipality core to the nation's oil and gas industry, as it represents the cited location for domestic crude oil deliveries and is central to the determination of the 'WTI' (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil price quoted on the commodity exchanges -- President Obama, while rationalizing his holding back approval of the full Keystone Pipeline project because of environmental concerns, assured his audience that the southern leg of the Keystone route, from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast, would become "a priority."

Well thank you, Mr. President. Without the flow-through originating in Alberta, Keystone's point of origin, you will be helping to increase the price of oil by some $20 a barrel. You see, Cushing is choking with oil -- its storage capacity filled to the rafters from the new shale oil wells in North Dakota, Wyoming and on. It has brought the price of U.S. quoted crude oil to a discount of some $20 per barrel compared to that of the quoted price of Brent crude (Brent $125.13/bbl vs WTI 106.87/bbl). With the new pipeline in place, and without the back up of Alberta oil, that difference will all but disappear and we will all be paying higher prices for gasoline. Read more.......