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OIL SANDS HELPING TO HOLD DOWN AMERICAN PRICES. Well, good. More: Cushing is flush partly becau?

By Glenn Reynolds

OIL SANDS HELPING TO HOLD DOWN AMERICAN PRICES. Well, good. More:

Cushing is flush partly because demand in the United States is only slowly recovering. But most of all, it is a result of increasing imports of refined synthetic oil produced from Canadian oil sands, now the single most important source of imported oil.

Canadian oil producers love the way that Americans are growing increasingly dependent on them as opposed to our trading partners in the Persian Gulf. It is no coincidence that while most of the world?s stock exchanges experienced declines on Friday related to the crisis in Egypt, the Canadian stock market rallied. Particularly strong were the oil sands company stocks.

The shifting oil trade and the Egyptian crisis come as the controversy over the Keystone pipeline is heating up. The State Department needs to decide whether to grant approval to the pipeline, which is designed to substantially expand the flow of Canadian synthetic crude to the United States.

Seems like this is a good time. Read the whole thing, and forward it to your congressman.

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails:

Being dependent on Canada rather than Saudi Arabia is a problem? Why? Will they use all the money to finance Tim Horton’s doughnut franchises worldwide instead of madrassas? Force us to give up the fourth down?

Bring it on.

Hey, the story says the Canadians like it. It doesn’t say it’s a bad thing. And I’d take doughnuts over madrassas any day.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 01, 2011 (boomark / email).