Refine our own oil here

Now that Joe Biden is officially the new American President, it is time to rethink the Canadian commitment to the Keystone XL pipeline project. President Biden has repeatedly said that he would cancel the pipeline project. Fine. Why are we selling our oil to American refineries at fire-sale prices, and buying back the finished products at full-blown retail with our weak dollar?

The oil companies will argue that oil is a "sunset industry", and the projected primary use timeline of those products will not amortize the investment in refinery projects. If we had our own refineries, we would not be subject to the conditions imposed by our weak dollar, the whims of OPEC, or the machinations of American stock exchanges. We are sitting on some of the largest oil reserves in the world.

We do not need foreign dictatorship oil, or having the price of our oil dictated by what American refiners will pay. We only need to refine what we need domestically. No need to give it away. Our extremely high fuel prices would easily make refineries worthwhile, and provide decent, well-paying jobs to boot. Since we wouldn't have to process as much crude oil, we would be contributing less to greenhouse gases/climate change. Whether we want to admit it, or not, petroleum product use is going to be around for a long time. We just need to be smart about it.

Andrew Kiesewetter, West Kelowna