{"id":1034,"date":"2021-02-09T18:28:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T02:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2021-02-09T18:28:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T02:28:06","slug":"american-manufacturers-require-cheap-available-energy-to-be-competitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/general\/american-manufacturers-require-cheap-available-energy-to-be-competitive\/","title":{"rendered":"American Manufacturers Require Cheap Available Energy to be Competitive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On\nhis very first day in office, President Biden signed an Executive Order<\/a> canceling\nthe permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Halting work on the \u201cpipeline<\/a> in South\nDakota immediately eliminated 1,000 union jobs. TC Energy, the company that was\ndeveloping the project, predicts that more than 10,000 jobs will be lost in\n2021 due to the order.\u201d Only a week later, he signed an Executive Order<\/a> freezing new\noil or natural gas leases and drilling permits on federal land. These orders\nput American energy independence at risk, which will hurt American\nmanufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most\npeople don\u2019t realize that there are already thousands of miles of Keystone\npipelines that have been completed. \nAccording to Wikipedia<\/a>, Phase 1 started construction in 2008 and became operational in\n2010.  Phase 1 goes from Hardisty,\nAlberta, Candada to Wood River and Patoka, Illinois, going through Saskatchewan\nand Nebraska.  Phase 2 goes from Steele\nCity, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma and was completed in 2011. Phase 3 goes\nfrom Cushing, Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas and was completed in 2014. A Phase\n3b goes from Liberty County, Texas to Houston, Texas and become operational in\n2017.  If completed, Phase 4 would go\nfrom Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska, passing through\nMontana.  It has been under construction\nsince 2017 after President Trump approved the permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep.\nDaines (R-MT) introduced an amendment<\/a> attached to\na COVID-19 relief bill on February 4th<\/sup> to reverse the Executive\nOrder canceling Phase 4 of the Keystone Pipeline.  Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia\nand Jon Tester of Montana initially voted in favor of the Republican amendment,\nso that it passed 52-48, but later reversed themselves and voted with other\nDemocrats with to kill the amendment. V. P. Harris cast the deciding vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American\nmanufacturing has flourished since it started in the 1790s partly because of\nthe availability of cheap energy:  Water\npower was used by the first American industry, textiles. Large water wheels\nharnessed the flow of a river to provide the necessary power for mills to\nmanufacture the textiles by means of a water-powered spinning frame.\nStand-alone steam engines expanded the opportunities to manufacture other\nproducts at locations throughout the country in the early 1800s.  The discovery of oil in 1859<\/a> and the ability to process it into different forms of fuel for a\nvariety of engines and motors accelerated the ability to manufacture a much\nwider variety of products.  These fuels were\nfirst used to power the trains and ships that transported goods all over the\nU.S., creating a mass domestic market for manufactured goods.  These fuels were used to power the cars, trucks,\nand airplanes after they were invented in the early 20th<\/sup> Century.\nThese same fuels were used by companies to power the equipment and machines\nthat manufactured vehicles and airplanes. Then, these new modes of\ntransportation enabled American manufactures to expand their domestic markets\nand export products worldwide.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthe invention of the Bunsen burner<\/a> in 1885 by\nRobert Bunsen, vast new opportunities to use natural gas for energy were\ncreated. After \u201ceffective pipelines began to be built in the 20th century, the\nuse of natural gas expanded to home heating and cooking, appliances such as\nwater heaters and oven ranges, manufacturing and processing plants, and boilers\nto generate electricity\u2026Because natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil\nfuel, it is playing an increasing role in helping to attain national goals of a\ncleaner environment, energy security and a more competitive economy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior\nto pipelines, oil was transported in barrels by wagons or flat boats, and then\nin wooden tank cars on trains.  There was\na big problem with leakage of the oil in both barrels and wooden tank cars. A\npipeline made out of wooden boards built in 1862 proved equally impractical,\nbut the \u201cfirst fully successful pipeline<\/a>\u2014which used\nwrought iron and highly reinforced joints to transport between 1,950 and 2,000\nbarrels of oil daily across five miles of land\u2014came in 1865. By the early\n1900s, Standard Oil owned 80% of the pipelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding\npipelines, Wikipedia says, \u201cOil pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes\nwhich are usually buried. The oil is moved through the pipelines by pump\nstations along the pipeline. Natural gas (and similar gaseous fuels) is\npressurized into liquids known as Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs).[3]<\/sup><\/a> Natural gas\npipelines are constructed of carbon steel\u2026Pipelines are one of the safest ways\nof transporting materials as compared to road or rail\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nas long as the oil industry has tried to move its products through pipelines,\nthey’ve been contested. At first, it was because private companies were\nbuilding and controlling the pipelines creating monopolies.  Today, it is because environmentalists want\nto stop the production and transportation of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto the U. S. Department of Transportation<\/a>, \u201cThe biggest source of energy is petroleum, including oil and\nnatural gas. Together, they supply 65 percent of the energy we use. According\nto the U.S. Energy Information Administration, oil furnishes 40 percent of our\nenergy, natural gas 25 percent, coal 22 percent, nuclear 8 percent, and\nrenewables make up 4 percent\u2026The nation’s more than 2.6 million miles of\npipelines safely deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of\nbillions of ton\/miles of liquid petroleum products each year. They are essential:\nthe volumes of energy products they move are well beyond the capacity of other\nforms of transportation. It would take a constant line of tanker trucks, about\n750 per day, loading up and moving out every two minutes, 24 hours a day, seven\ndays a week, to move the volume of even a modest pipeline. The\nrailroad-equivalent of this single pipeline would be a train of 225, 28,000-gallon\ntank cars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice\nthat renewables, such as solar and wind power, only provide 4 percent of our\nenergy.  It\u2019s going to be a long time, if\never, before they can replace the energy provided by oil and gas.  Energy experts have estimated it would take\n25 \u2013 50 times the number of power plants to provide the energy to charge\nelectric cars when, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be\nzero-emission vehicles by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nmodern way of life depends on energy.  It\ntakes energy to produce the food we eat, the clothes and shoes we wear, to\nmanufacture our household furnishings and appliances, as well as all of the variety\nof electronic systems and equipment we use. \nIt takes energy to provide transportation for ourselves, as well as to\ntransport all of the products we use by means of cars, trucks, airplanes, and\nships. It takes energy to manufacture the equipment and systems used by the\nmilitary to protect our country. We need Phase 4 of the Keystone Pipeline to be\ncompleted and new oil and gas leases be permitted to ensure that our American\nmanufacturers have the energy they need to be competitive in the global marketplace.\nWithout sufficient affordable energy, life as we know it would end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On his very first day in office, President Biden signed an Executive Order canceling the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Halting work on the \u201cpipeline in South Dakota immediately eliminated 1,000 union jobs. TC Energy, the company that was developing the project, predicts that more than 10,000 jobs will be lost in 2021 due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,226],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-american-manufacturing","tag-power-generation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}