Keystone XL Could Boost Global Oil Consumption by 500K Barrels a Year

A new study from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) focuses on a greenhouse gas impact of the Keystone XL pipeline that hasn’t received much attention: how the pipeline could affect the global oil market by increasing supply, decreasing prices and therefore driving up global oil consumption.

Even if those effects are small in global terms, they could be significant in relationship to Keystone XL and U.S. climate policy, argue Peter Erickson and Michael Lazarus, senior scientists in SEI’s U.S. Center, in a new paper, Greenhouse gas emissions implications of the Keystone XL pipeline.

“The more suppliers there are in the market for oil, the more they compete and that drives down prices for consumers,” Erickson said.

Keystone XL Could Boost Global Oil Consumption by 500K Barrels a Year