Crude-By-Rail

FACT CHECK: Energy Production Not Impacted By Pipeline Protests

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CLAIM: Environmental activists claim that their actions to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline have been successful in reducing Canadian oil production.

RATING: FALSE

While production cuts have been imposed, they are already proving to be short-lived as more oil begins making its way market via railroad.

FACT CHECK

Oil prices in Canada plunged last fall due to a burgeoning supply glut resulting in large part from a chronic shortage in available pipeline capacity. In response, Alberta—Canada’s largest oil-producing province—imposed a temporary 8.7 percent production cut in order to clear the backlog of oil waiting to be shipped to market. The …

Rising Crude-By-Rail Shipments Bad News for American Agriculture

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Surging U.S. oil and natural gas production has unleashed a new ear of American prosperity. It has also created a myriad of  transportation bottlenecks in production regions across the country. In the absence of adequate pipeline capacity, producers are forced to rely on railroads to ship resources to market.

Most recently, reduced capacity on Enbridge’s Line 3 and the ongoing legal drama over the Keystone XL Pipeline caused the Canadian government to contract 4,400 railway tank cars to move oil to U.S. markets. Crude-by-rail shipments from Canada to the U.S. are already at an historic high, more than doubling …