As House Republicans offered a new bill and green activists unveiled a report related to Canadian oil sands crude today, government regulators revealed that they do not record how much of the controversial heavy fuel is transported daily through U.S. pipelines.
In explaining its lack of data on diluted bitumen, or dilbit — the technical name for the fuel that drives much of the safety debate over projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration stated a plain truth in the oil-shipping industry: Types of crude are often sent in batches based on where producers are willing to pay the necessary shipment tariffs.
