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Weiland on MSNBC: Keystone XL Can Boost Dems; EB-5 Goes National Next Week

I don't watch much MSNBC. But when I do, it's gosh-darned awesome... with Rick Weiland laying out how he can close the gap and win the U.S. Senate:

Top lines no pundits imagined one year ago:

  • Ed Schultz reminds us that Tim Johnson kept his seat in 2002 thanks to the Indian vote. Schultz then reminds us that the Indian vote this year will be strongly against the Keystone XL pipeline. Implication: contrary to John Tsitrian's thesis, Keystone XL could put Weiland over the top.
  • Weiland expects big money to come after him on Keystone XL, but he unashamedly blasts away at the lies Mike Rounds tells us to justify the pipeline.
  • Schultz says he'll give us his full report on EB-5 next week Monday... because, I'll bet, he realizes it's a complicated story that will take some time to tell. That means that while Rounds gets beat up by the Beltway buzz over the entry of the Mayday PAC and national Dems on behalf of Rick Weiland, Rounds gets a whole 'nother dose of heartburn next week when the national press has had time to get its head around the complexities of EB-5.
  • "Mike Rounds really has this air of corruption around him," says progressive politicker Adam Green. "Rick Weiland is the perfect candidate at the perfect time."
  • "Isn't [Weiland] today's Democrat?" asks Schultz. "Yeah," says Green. "...This could be the defining race that puts Democrats over the top."

By the way, Rick Weiland is getting more free national press in two days than Mike Rounds has drawn in two years:

Remind me, Mike, what are you paying your people for?

49 Comments

  1. john tsitrian 2014.10.09

    KELO had a long feature on today's news about farmers not being able to move their crops because of the rail shortage. Apparently there's a big confab going on in SF today regarding another proposed pipeline that will cut nw to se in SD. This one is meant to ship Bakken crude, unlike KXL which will let some Bakken crude piggyback on AB tar sands. The ag industry seems pretty convinced that a pipeline will solve its rail shortage problems. Its political ramifications are apparent to me. I'd be surprised if Weiland showcases his opposition. In fact, I see that in his latest up-close-and-personal "face shot" ad he explains emphatically that while "we may disagree on some issues" he'd still put everything he has into representing us ordinary folks. I think that caveat is his way of acknowledging that his opposition to KXL isn't one of the strong suits of his campaign.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.09

    The farmers complaints about the railroad are bogus. And if it such a concern, why don't the Republicans simply buy them more rail cars to ship their grain.

    John, Keystone XL and uranium mining are big issues in Indian country, tribes having been fighting both for sometime now, they see and understand the consequences of that pipeline if it is built.

    Larry Pressler has made some serious attempts to court the Indian vote, but as soon as they hear he isn't unconditionally opposed to Keyston XL, they turn away from him.

  3. john tsitrian 2014.10.09

    Not disagreeing with your points, Roger, but I have to call attention to the Nielson Bros poll of a couple of weeks ago that showed nearly 3-to-1 support for KXL in SD: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2WPUu0-lics/VCxBRYF9vDI/AAAAAAAAKsc/oRWyxL7XiIQ/s1600/Keystone.jpg Schulz alluded to the need for educating South Dakotans and asked Weiland if he would commit resources to doing so. Weiland's weak response: "possibly." Rick knows its a loser and that his campaign would be better off not calling attention to his position. On the MSNBC show, Weiland knew he was speaking to a national Dem constituency from which he's drawing a lot of support. BTW, all here should know that I own commercial property close enough to the proposed KXL route to benefit from its construction. The gain will be marginal and transitory, but a gain's a gain, so I'm not exactly a disinterested observor.

  4. lesliengland 2014.10.09

    john-i thought rick's hesitance was likely the source of the money, those are not his resources.

  5. lesliengland 2014.10.09

    again john, are you sure KXL will really piggyback some Bakken product on Canadian liquidized asphalt?

  6. jerry 2014.10.09

    John T, those poll numbers you attest to are just like the unemployment numbers that are so skewed in South Dakota without reservation input. Go on the reservations or poll Native people off the reservations and add those to the polls. The Keystone XL should make you cringe man, you make a good living on the tourists that come here for the pristine beauty of the place, in fact, Rapid City is a destination city, the last thing they would want to come see would be an environmental disaster of epic and I mean epic consequences. The disaster would look like the base camp areas of northern I Corps https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/553349/kingPamela.pdf?sequence=1

    I would like to hear how the use of known carcinogens in Agent Orange is any different that the use of known carcinogens that will be transported over our states water.

  7. john tsitrian 2014.10.09

    lesliengland, I've seen numbers range from 20 to 30% of KXL capacity will be devoted to Bakken crude. Here's a critical piece about the shifting estimates: http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059986484. Good point about Rick's hesitation, and probably a better interpretation of it than mine.

  8. john tsitrian 2014.10.09

    Interesting you should bring up the Nam, as I survived 13 months in northern I Corps myself, Jerry, mostly right next to the DMZ from 66-68. As a financially interested party, I stand aside from the pros and cons of KXL, per se, and focus on the political aspects of the issue. I think I've made my point here.

  9. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.09

    That was a good interview with Rick, he hit the necessary high points and better yet, Ed is going to spend some extended time on EB-5. Can't wait for Monday.

  10. jerry 2014.10.09

    I too have seen northern I Corps, a little farther south, but I Corps just the same. Got familiar with the frontier of Laos as well, so like you, I have seen what those chemicals can do when handled indiscriminately exactly like this pipeline would do. Your point of the polls though, does not make any point as the numbers are not accurate if they do not include Native input. I think in that regard, Weiland was correct in not showing his hand on how this campaign money will be directed. Weiland is on record for his opposition to this black snake so it is his call on how to direct it of course. This tar sand oil from Canada and fracking oil of the Bakken are short term remedies for long term sorrow for all of us who live here.

  11. Les 2014.10.09

    I believe it was Continental Oil that had the on ramp deal. They've indicated they no longer need XL and the on ramp they had would have started at 15 to 20% going to less after they turned up the pressure to not quite double the flow. Memory could be off a few points.

  12. lesliengland 2014.10.09

    HuffPost writer Stein's 5 sentence "Fargo-like" encapsulation of EB5, today, is brilliant, concluding "death in a cornfield-arrest warrants imminent-and Rounds has stumbled."

  13. john tsitrian 2014.10.09

    Jerry, I don't know that they exclude the Indian population from their polls. According to the NB website: "Calls are made randomly to phone numbers from a preselected list, while ensuring appropriate geographic and demographic representation." Do you have contradictory info on this?

  14. Jenny 2014.10.09

    The press likes a good scandal. Even if Rounds wins, this EB-5 will follow him into the Senate. EB-5 lawsuits will be ongoing, I'm sure.
    I hope both the Pressler and Weiland Camps work the Reservations hard these next few weeks. A few hundred votes in 2002 from the Reservations rocked the vote for Tim Johnson.

  15. jerry 2014.10.09

    No, I have no contradictory information on this, but common sense will tell me that there "preselected list" is from what? Registered long time voters I would presume. That maybe the case, if so, then their numbers are not accurate. We are speaking of a place where there are not a lot of communications with land lines. Mostly cell numbers. Who wants to take the time to answer questions anyway, and how are the questions asked? Yes or no without the long drawn out "leader questions", are not in the mix generally. I guess we will have to wait until November 5 to see the polling numbers from the reservations.

  16. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.09

    Jenny,

    The word is out in Indian country that Larry Pressler will not commit to opposing Keystone XL and in fact favors additional pipelines.
    Once that hits Indian voters, I predict that they will turn their backs on Pressler.
    Besides, Indian voters aren't dumb, they know Pressler is a Republican at heart and doesn't have their best interest in mind.

  17. Jenny 2014.10.09

    I wish South Dakota had same day voter registration like MN does. According to SD rules, anyone that hasn't registered to vote needs to 15 days before the election. So there's just a few days left for SD citizens to register!

  18. Jenny 2014.10.09

    I'll round up some DFLers to head out to Dakota for volunteering. :)

  19. Rorschach 2014.10.10

    Voters don't really know Rick Weiland. He needs to do a "fireside chat" commercial where he looks directly into the camera and tells voters who he is and what he wants to do in DC - like John Thune's 1996 commercial saying "I'm a South Dakota Conservative." Like Tim Johnson's 2002 commercial that may have been the difference between winning and losing to Thune. Weiland needs to boil himself down to his essence and articulate who he is in a firm, non-patronizing voice without bobbing his head and without appearing wishy washy. He needs to be strong and resolute, and it can't be an act because he's not that good an actor. I wish him luck, but come election day the candidate who gets my vote (Weiland or Pressler) will be the one who I feel has the best chance of beating Rounds.

  20. Don Coyote 2014.10.10

    From the lips of Ed Schultz: "He [Pressler] has deep conservative roots, close to the Tea Party." Weathervane Larry? Seriously? Why Ed Schultz still is on MSNBC is beyond me. His ratings are beyond abysmal. Who can listen to his flapdoodle without breaking out in hysterical laughter?

  21. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.10

    Hey, "Don" or "Gomezz" or whatever pretend name you want to play with today, this isn't your little forum where you can throw meaningless insults. Why not stick with providing real evidence of Pressler's weathervane-ness? [And check your e-mail.]

  22. jerry 2014.10.10

    LOL Don Coyote, you are a funny feller, I am now laughing hysterically. Lets see now, the Tea Party is funded by the Koch Brothers along with other corporate fat cats. Pressler presented us with the Telecommunications Act in 1996, a huge giveaway to the same corporate fat cats, look at your cable and phone bill Don Coyote and thank Weathervane Larry for that bull dropping. Ed Schulz is right on with his description of this phony baloney

  23. Don Coyote 2014.10.10

    @Roger Cornelius. "The farmers complaints about the railroad are bogus. And if it such a concern, why don't the Republicans simply buy them more rail cars to ship their grain."

    Really? There is three inherent problems hauling grain vs oil.

    1) Oil is a year around gig. 24/7. There is just more money from the oil customer than the farmer who is essentially two seasons: hauling grain out and hauling fertilizer back in.

    2) Reduced train length in winter to compensate for pressure loss in the hydraulic brakes on the train. Smaller trains = reduced capacity.

    3) Not enough track. Increasing the number of available cars is not necessarily a total fix. You can only push so much traffic down a section of track. Solution? Build more track but then I'll bet we'll hear plenty of carping about eminent domain.

    Damned if you do; damned if you don't.

    Now tell me again why oil pipelines won't help solve the traffic jam on ND railroad tracks.

  24. JeniW 2014.10.10

    When phone calls are made, where are the phone numbers coming from considering that a lot of people have cell phones instead of landline phones?

    Are the numbers coming from what is put on the voter registration forms?

  25. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.10

    Don Coyote,

    In my definition of capitalism, the farmers need to treated like other businesses that have to ship their product, that is their responsibility not the governments.
    They can use trucks, the rails, or wheel barrows for all I care.

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.10

    Don, simple: because Keystone XL won't be hauling North Dakota oil, and North Dakota oil producers don't make as much money sending their oil south to the Gulf as they do sending it east and west. Read the link Larry gave.

    We could alleviate the demand for rail cars just as easily by improving energy conservation and using less oil.

  27. jerry 2014.10.10

    Interesting the track situation here in South Dakota. There were several tracks that ran the entire east west portions of South Dakota. The last one that I recall being dismantled was the one that served Faith, Dupree, Eagle Butte and others along that line. There are remnants of another that went south of the existing Milwaukee Roadbed that ran through Winner, Gregory that could be brought back into service. The eminent domain issue is no different that the one that is being jammed down our throats with the Keystone XL. In fact, if there was public transportation involved, I would bet that the welcome signs would be up in all of the little towns that lost so much when the railroad left in the first place. More rail, more rail, more rail. We are seeing that now with the old Milwaukee being rebuilt! What excitement for our state! More good jobs with keeping these newly built cars and engines going!

  28. Wayne Pauli 2014.10.10

    I watched the rail lines be tore out of the Milwaukee Road line through Tripp and Gregory counties. I just shook my head in disappointment watching it happen. You do realize that it was the Republican party that made that happen? Once again, the State's inability to move forward, to keep things we have, and to make things better is because we have absolutely no tax base. If you are not willing to raise money and spend money you get remnants of rail beds and towns that have dried up and blown away.

  29. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    It is difficult to grasp the immensity of Canada's oil sands and heavy oil resource. Fields in northern Albert [have] volume of bitumen [that] dwarfs the light oil reserves of the entire Middle East. One of those deposits, the Athabasca oil sands, is the world's largest known crude oil resource. wiki

  30. jerry 2014.10.10

    You are correct Wayne Pauli, so it is of great relief that the Wheat Growers are doing what needs to be done to bring back some of the services lost. I would say that changing the way Washington works regarding Amtrack and the rail system as a whole, we would see the return of these lost lines. They served a purpose in the beginning and they are needed very badly here once again.

  31. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    Heavy oil and bitumen have far more carbon than hydrogen, are heavy, black, sticky and either slow-pouring or so close to being solid that they will not pour at all unless heated [and] do not float on water, but sink [and]...this thick ... gunk is mixed with sand and many chemical impurities such as sulfur; these must be separated ... for the oil to be useful. wiki

  32. Don Coyote 2014.10.10

    I've seen numbers that stated that KXL capacity will be made up of at least 8% Bakken oil or about 65,000 barrels a day which is 8% of the total oil now being moved daily from Bakken. That's enough oil transported over a year to remove approximately 300 oil trains from the jammed up tracks in ND. That's 300 trains that could be hauling grain and fertilizer.

  33. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    Heavy ... oil is a sister resource to bitumen. It is lighter than bitumen and its reservoirs are much smaller than the great oil sands deposits. wiki

    dilbit is...bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products... such as naptha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines... If the diluent density is greater...the diluent is typically synthetic crude and...the blend is called synbit.[2]wiki

  34. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    The rapidly increasing tight oil production from the Bakken formation of North Dakota...competes for space on the Canadian export pipeline system... to deliver their oil to US refineries.

    [In 2012 t]here was insufficient capacity to take it from there to refineries on the Gulf Coast, where half of US oil refinery capacity is located. wiki

  35. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    [B]itumen can be loaded directly into tank cars equipped with steam heating coils, avoiding the need for blending it with expensive condensate in order to ship it. Tank cars can also be built to transport condensate on the back-haul from refineries to the oil sands to make additional revenue rather than returning empty.[61]wiki

  36. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    Canadian Pacific (CP) and National Railway (CN), have 2,400 locomotives and 65,000 freight cars...and... moves 30-35 trains per day... to Vancouver. Union Pacific (UP) BNSF handle more than 100 trains per day on ...[US] western corridors.[61] CN said that it could move 1,500,000 bbl/d...of bitumen from Edmonton to the deepwater port of Prince Rupert, BC if the Northern Gateway Pipeline... to...Kitimat, BC was not approved.

    A single-track rail carrying 10 trains/day, each with 120 tank cars, can move...[up] to 780,000 bbl/d,... the capacity of a large transmission pipeline. This would require 300 locomotives and 18,000 tank cars, which is a small part of the fleet of a Class 1 railroad. wiki

  37. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    By 2014 movement... by rail had become very profitable to oil companies. Suncor Energy, Canada's largest record profits attributed much to transporting oil to market by rail. It was moving about 70,000 bbl/d ...[to] Oklahoma...into TransCanada's new Gulf Coast pipeline - the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, before the northern...was stalled by US federal government delays.[65]wiki

  38. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    bitumen production [from Alberta is] expected to reach 5,000,000 bbl/d by 2035.wiki

    Canadian refineries...which closed... in oil deficient regions (Quebec ect.)... were part of an international trend....wiki

  39. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    Since the [west TX] price... rose to $100/bbl beginning in 2011,[78] it was highly profitable assuming it could be delivered to...the huge [KOCH BROS.] refinery complexes on the US Gulf Coast, which are generally capable of processing Canadian bitumen....wiki

  40. Paul Seamans 2014.10.10

    There is nothing at all to suggest that oil producers in the Bakken will use pipelines even if they are built. The Dept. Of State's latest Final Supplemental EIS states that the KXL will set aside a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day for a Bakken oil onramp, after six years only 65,000 bpd have been contracted for and shippers are saying they might not even need that. Oil producers will use the shipping method that will return them the most profit and at this point that method is via the rails. Evidently Warren Buffet believes that the Bakken will continue to use the rails as BNSF has been spending close to $7 billion per year in upgrades.

  41. lesliengland 2014.10.10

    A Stanford University study commissioned by the EU in 2011 found that oil sands crude was as much as 22% more carbon intensive than other fuels.[110][111]

    Greenpeace says the oil sands industry has been identified as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions growth in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.[112]

    [I]ndustrial activity undertaken to produce oil sands... will grow to make up 8% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 2015.[113] If the entire oil-in-place of 1.8 trillion barrels were to be burnt, the predicted global mean temperature increase is 0.24 to 0.50 °C.[118]wiki

  42. Richard Schriever 2014.10.10

    Coyote - train brake systems are NOT - I repeat - NOT "hydraulic". In addition, the frozen rail beds of winter, vs. the soft ones of Spring are the real determining factor of train "size" (per/axle weights.) Maybe an indicator you don't know what you're talking about.

  43. Don Coyote 2014.10.10

    @Richard S: You're right...100%. Not sure what I was thinking/typing after reading the following in an article from the Williston-Herald:

    "As cold weather set in, BNSF removed train cars to help maintain air pressure for the brakes. Goehring said they shrunk trains from 7,200 feet down to 4,500 feet."

    http://www.willistonherald.com/news/local-farms-feeling-the-pressure-of-delayed-shipments/article_794dbfb0-4d72-11e4-8eec-a710e2b4196d.html

    Eyes saw "air"; brain saw "hydraulics". Go figure.

    The winter weather's effect on air pressure would make sense according to Gay-Lussac's gas law.

    "The pressure of a gas of fixed mass and fixed volume is directly proportional to the gas's absolute temperature."

    The fact still remains that the railroads have to reduce the length of a train in winter due to the cold weather's effect on the train's brakes. Smaller trains means less capacity on a crowded track.

  44. lesliengland 2014.10.11

    a thought-around steamboat springs UP idles coal trains 24/7/365 hours a day, waiting for scheduled runs. (nearly all the union lifer crews up there are smart, educated democrats. good people, good friends, good musicians)

    the point is, industrial diesel engines run world-wide, all day/ all night/ in use or not. they never shut em off. "burning fossil fuels, the road the ruin"-damn that traffic jam-james taylor 1985

  45. Les 2014.10.11

    """"(nearly all the union...... smart, educated democrats. good people, good friends, good musicians)"""". All in one sentence, leslie?
    .
    """""I've seen numbers that stated that KXL capacity will be made up of at least 8% Bakken oil or about 65,000 barrels a day which is 8% of the total oil now being moved daily from Bakken. That's enough oil transported over a year to remove approximately 300 oil trains from the jammed up tracks in ND. That's 300 trains that could be hauling grain and fertilizer.""""" Only in a socialist world do we force a business to haul a product without the profit they currently enjoy while hauling oil.
    .
    """""As cold weather set in, BNSF removed train cars to help maintain air pressure for the brakes. Goehring said they shrunk trains from 7,200 feet down to 4,500 feet."""" This sounds like they've taken the BS from BNSF. Compressors don't care what the temp is, they make pressure.

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