The Keystone Pipeline

My research question is, what effect would the Keystone Pipeline have on U.S gas prices. The Keystone Pipeline is a crude oil (unrefined oil) pipeline that is already constructed in Canada and within the legislative process of approval to be constructed in the U.S. The pipeline is meant to transport crude oil from Canada through various points in the U.S-Illinois being one of the points-to be refined into useable fuel such as diesel and gasoline that is used at the pump.

After continuously hearing about the effect both political ideology believe the Keystone Pipeline would have on gas prices, I was curious on finding out which one was true. Those that are for the pipeline say that it will create jobs, stimulate the economy, loosen Americas’ dependency on foreign oil and bring down gas prices because we are so close to Canada. Those that are against the pipeline not including environmentalists say that the pipeline will not effect U.S gas price by bringing it down because the pipeline is not to provide fuel to the U.S market but to other regions such as South America. There are good points on both sides but I really want to find out what will happen to the U.S gas price if the pipeline  should ever be ran through the United States.

In choosing this topic the double entry journal did help because I was able to choose from a number of potential topic. Some of the topics that was in my journal did not fulfill the requirement of this paper, so they were terminated. The journal also gave me an idea of how many issues that I am interested in.

Thinking more about the topic, I think that after all the research and observing similar situation that is similar the pipeline argument, that it will not bring down U.S gas price even if it was going to be used by United States customers. This is because the price of fuel is determined on a world market not on a domestic market like the U.S. We would probably only see a difference in the suppliers cost of bring fuel to the market but suppliers don't usually tend to drop the price of their product due to the the fall cost of production but due to the falling demand of customers. After the research I will be able to back this claim up or discover otherwise.