The Keystone Pipeline Vote: Delusion of Myth

The Keystone Pipeline Vote: Don’t you find it interesting that all of a sudden We, and not OPEC, are in control of the oil market; that We, and not OPEC, are the largest exporter of oil in the world; that We, and not OPEC, are now dictating the price of crude? We the People are benefiting, for now, with prices at the pump lower than we have seen for decades. It seems like decades, anyway. This means to me that we won the War in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Liberation, or O.I.L.). Corporate got what it wanted. And now the Keystone Pipeline Bill passed the Senate, knowing full well that President Obama is set to veto it. Nine Democrats crossed the aisle to join the Republicans in voting for it. They were sold a bill of goods. The major political selling point for the pipeline is job creation; 42,000, to be exact. The Republicans make it sound as though, with the pipeline, they are single-handedly saving the already robust United States Economy and dropping unemployment to Zero percent. They neglect to mention that 41,950 of those jobs are temporary. Permanent positions, for running the pipeline once it is completed, number only 50, according to TransCanada CEO Russ Girling. Those 41,950 jobs across Canada and several US states, are the high end estimate from TransCanada. The lowest estimate is just 4,000. Either way, it seems a huge investment for fifty permanent jobs. The pipeline will cross the embattled Yellowstone River. That river has been the victim of two massive oil spills in the past year. Both spills involved pipelines under the river bed that burst. In all, six pipelines have burst nationwide in the past year. Old style building techniques can be sited as the reason for several, but not all – one pipeline was completed just a year ago. I am not saying the Keystone Pipeline will burst any time soon after its completion. I am just saying that the given reasons for creating it are bogus. The real reason is money: always money. There is money to be made in the long haul for companies that are already filthy rich. As to the 41,950 potential temporary workers, what good money they make they had better bank for the inevitable time they will be laid off. I can’t help wondering if those jobs would better go to repairing the existing pipelines that might break, as well as our bridges. And our infrastructures. And maybe a trans-continental super-speed rail system. That sounds like job creation to me.