Consumer Watchdog Report: Keystone XL Pipeline Would Increase Gas Prices While Bringing Few Jobs

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Jan 24, 2017, 15:12 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As President Trump revived the Keystone XL Pipeline, Consumer Watchdog pointed to its 2013 analysis that found that the pipeline would increase Midwest gasoline prices and likely bring few jobs.

The report by Judy Dugan and Tim Hamilton that found the pipeline was a way to move Canadian crude oil to Asia via the gulf coast, re-routing cheap crude that now feeds Midwest refineries. The likely result would be increased gas prices in the Midwest, hiking them as much as 20-40 cents per gallon.

Read the report at: www.consumerwatchdog.org/keystone

"Keystone is not an economic benefit to Americans who will see higher gas prices and bear all the risks of the pipeline." Said report author Judy Dugan. "The pipeline is being built through America, but not for Americans."

Consumer Watchdog said one of the major beneficiaries is ExxonMobil - the stated goal of multinational oil companies pushing the pipeline is the ability to charge a higher price for the oil being produced in Canada. The intentions notably ignore impacts on American consumers, who have little to gain from the infrastructure.

"Keystone XL was never about jobs for America or crude oil for America, it was about profits for ExxonMobil and others who owned stakes in the tar sands." Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said.

The 2013 Consumer Watchdog report investigated the new infrastructure and found that the pipeline would allow tar sands producers in Canada to bring their oil to the Gulf Coast, where it could be refined for foreign consumption, or simply exported as raw crude oil. The pipeline creates a transportation route around the Midwest, where crude oil now flows through existing Keystone pipeline --- that will crimp supply, increasing prices, and damaging the economy of the Midwest.

While proponents have harped on the economic positives, they have offered no proof of substantial jobs created beyond construction and maintenance of the pipeline.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog