#Constitution [] Supreme Law of the Land

Q. What constitutes the supreme law of the land?

A. Art. VI, cl. 2 of the Constitution says: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shalt be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Constitution Questions & Anwsers

Facts to Dismiss #GOP Operative Fairy Tales

Average Rig Count in the United States of America By Year

 

Average Crude Oil Price in the United States of America By Month

Average Non-Farm Employment Count in the United States of America By Month

Average Retail Price Gallon of Regular Gasoline in the United States of America By Month

Americans for Making Decisions with Factual Information!

#Vote 2012

 

Keystone XL Pipeline

Canada has excess pipeline capacity and in our Department of Energy report reviewing the Keystone XL pipelines impact on U.S. energy supply over the next twenty years, the agency found that it will take decades for Canada to produce enough oil to fill existing pipelines. DOE's conclusion is the United States will import the same amount of crude from Canada through 2030 whether the Keystone XL pipeline is built or not.

Canada has a business risk issue to correct; they have a single marketplace for their oil production, the United States. A big the problem with existing pipelines is they all end in the U.S. Midwest and 97 percent of their energy is delivered to the United States. They need to diversify. Though even the Canadians remain balancing the environmental factors involved with the production of Tar Sands oil Production as the Canadian government has halted two pipeline proposals to export tar sands through its provinces due to the need to take more time to listen to its own public's concerns about water and safety.

The hidden benefit behind the Keystone XL pipeline is a 1st step for Canada to diversify it's energy marketplace. The pipeline would divert large volumes of Canadian oil from its present destination in the Midwest United States to our Gulf Coast, where it would be available for the first time to buyers on the world market. This goal is coveted since many of the refineries on the Gulf Coast happen to be located in foreign trade zones, where they can export Canadian oil to the world market without paying United States taxes.

Nothing is ever as it seems

 

Historically the Cushing, Oklahoma is the area in the United States where crude oil from the Gulf Coast came to Cushing for refining in order to and to reach out to America's northern consumers. Generally, Light Sweet Crude oil is stored in bulk here.

In 2006, with production increases from Canadian oil sands, one pipeline reversed direction, bringing crude into the Cushing Hub, rather than delivering crude from Cushing to oil refineries. Today the existing market for HEAVY Canadian Crude are oversupplied.

Light Crude oil is liquid petroleum that has low density and that flows freely at room temperature. It has low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally has a low wax content as well.

On the other hand, heavy crude oil or extra heavy crude oil is any type of crude oil which does not flow easily. It is referred to as “heavy” because its density or specific gravity is higher than that of light crude oil. Heavy crude oil has been defined as any liquid petroleum with an API gravity less than 20°. Extra heavy oil is defined with API gravity below 10.0 °API (API gravity, is a measure of how heavy or light a petroleum liquid is compared to water. If its API gravity is greater than 10, it is lighter and floats on water; if less than 10, it is heavier and sinks. )

Light crude oil receives a higher price than heavy crude oil on commodity markets because it produces a higher percentage of gasoline and diesel fuel when converted into products by an oil refinery. 

Heavy crude oil has more negative impact on the environment than its light counterpart since its refinement requires the use of more advanced techniques an the use of contaminants.

The sweet light crude oil Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) is a benchmark in oil pricing in America.

The core refining process is simple distillation. Crude oil is made up of a mixture of  hydrocarbons, this first and basic refining process is aimed at separating the crude oil into its "fractions," the broad categories of its component hydrocarbons.  

Crude oil is heated and put into a still -- a distillation column -- and different products boil off and can be recovered at different temperatures.  

The lighter products -- liquid petroleum gases (LPG),  naphtha, and so-called "straight run" gasoline -- are recovered at the lowest temperatures.  

Middle distillates -- jet fuel, kerosene, distillates (such as home heating oil and diesel fuel) -- come next.  

Finally, the heaviest products (residuum or residual fuel oil) are recovered, sometimes at temperatures over 1000 degrees F. 

Keystone XL is a pipeline delivering Canadian Heavy Crude; an export pipeline. According to Keystone Investor Presentations, Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export to Europe and Latin America. Proceeds from these exports are earned tax-free. Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.

By distilling heavy Canadian crude oil in Gulf Coast Refinery's the United States Refinery Capacity for Light Sweet Crude will be reduced lowering supply of the very products on which American consumers rely.

By draining Midwestern refineries of cheap Canadian crude into export-oriented refineries in the Gulf Coast, Keystone XL will increase the cost of gas for Americans.

And the risk of environmental damage from the transportation and refinement process is a dramatic increase from that of our Light Sweet Crude with no appreciable benefits for the country.  

There might actually be an increase cost for the consumer for light crude products such as gasoline. Since we have limited Oil Refineries in America, if our existing refineries begin to process this dirty heavy Canadian crude oil there will be less capacity to process our own light sweet crude supplies.

Hold Congress Responsible for Meeting their Obligations

Social Security Old-Age, Survivors, & Disability Insurance & Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Programs are financed by employment taxes. Congress has failed over many years to manage the entire government budget process creating annual debt which has created a larger deficit accumulated over many many years of failed fiscal discipline.

Today politicians speak of the need to cut the insurance programs for citizens whom have faithfully paid their end of the insurance contract. The same citizens who have planned on these insurance benefits for their retirement  years, 5, 10 and 20 years out.

Tell congress their failure to properly manage the government overall budget is no excuse to change the Social Security, Medicare and/or Unemployment Insurance Program Benefits in any way.

These same elected officials have enacted bankruptcy laws for the private industry which allows private enterprise to make retirement security promises to employees over many years, decades or a lifetime; then when the management team looses sight of the organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and finds itself with financial difficulty, can file for bankruptcy to shed it's responsibility to their employee pension and retirement obligations. Thus placing the previously private enterprise retirement fund in the hands of the "Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation" (PBGC).

The PBGC is funded four sources:

• Insurance premiums paid by sponsors of defined benefit pension plans;
• Assets held by the pension plans it takes over;
• Recoveries of unfunded pension liabilities from plan sponsors' bankruptcy estates and
• Investment income.

PBGC pays monthly retirement benefits to approximately 631,000 retirees of 3,800 terminated defined benefit pension plans. Including those who have not yet retired and participants in multiemployer plans receiving financial assistance, the PBGC is responsible for the current and future pensions of about 1.3 million people.


Private Companies go bankrupt to dump their pension obligations onto the #PBGC just like congress is trying to dump their social security, medicare and unemployment obligations onto the backs of the very people paying for thses insurance programs in the first place.

Tell Congress their plans to make major changes to Scoial Security, Medicare and/or Unemployment are NOT ACCEPTABLE.

#Vote2012