BLOOMINGTON, IN – A pipeline to bring Canadian oil to American refineries makes a lot of sense for the U.S. economy, says a leading economist for freight analysts FTR.

In a webinar to examine the economic outlook for 2015, economy expert Bill Witte said President Barrack Obama’s objection to the Keystone XL pipeline is difficult to defend.

“Does it make sense to use Canadian oil to bolster North American energy independence? Clearly it does,” he said.

“It is my understanding that Canadian oil is ‘dirty oil’ and that is what our gulf coast refineries have been built to process.”

Furthermore, relying more heavily on North American sources of oil makes the U.S. more independent of other areas of the world, some of which are politically unstable.

“So, yes, it makes a lot of sense,” he said.

To stand in the way of the Keystone XL pipeline, “as a certain politician in Washington seems determined to do” seems counter-intuitive, he added.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. has been waiting for more than six years for a U.S. permit to build the $8-billion pipeline, the blocking of which has become a major irritant in Canada-U.S. relations.

A bill to approve the Canada-U.S. Keystone XL oil pipeline cleared the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources committee today. It will move to the full Senate next week. The House of Representatives will vote on its version of the bill Friday, where it is expected to pass it easily.

Witte said oil-producing areas of the U.S. have been strong contributors to GDP growth in the years since the recession. With recent low oil prices, that is bound to reverse somewhat.

“At current prices, some of the production that has been going on no longer makes sense. So the growth in domestic oil production will definitely slow down and you might even see some minor declines,” he said. “But when that happens, oil prices will start to rise.”

He suggested the equilibrium price is somewhere between $70 and $80.

“How long it takes to get there is anyone’s guess,” he added. “I doubt it will happen during this year.”

In fact, he said one of the biggest challenges in his job recently has been to predict how low oil prices will fall.

“I’m reminded of what someone said about politicians – it might have been Will Rogers – ‘I try to be as cynical as politicians, but I just can’t keep up.’ Well, in adjusting my oil price projections, I try to keep up but I just can’t.”