The Keystone Pipeline Addition: Assessing the Potential Benefits of Reduced Gasolie Prices and Increased National Security

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|The United States is an oil-hungry nation, and the Keystone pipeline addition could bring new source of oil to sate America's appetite. The proposed pipeline is a direct route connecting oil from Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, with a stop along the way to pick up U.S. domestic production in Montana and North Dakota. With high gasoline prices, U.S. reliance on oil from turbulent places like the Middle East, an high unemployment, one would think construction on Keystone would begin quickly. Yet the permitting process for Keystone has been anything but quick. The permit application, originally filled in 2008, is now projected to be approved or rejected outright at the beginning of 2013, five years later...