Keystone XL Pipeline On Hold - For Now

The Keystone XL pipeline is not dead, it's just on hold. We can thank President Obama for at least delaying this disastrous project, but it needs to be killed off before it kills us.

Robert Samuelson, a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, recently posited that rejecting the pipeline was an act of national insanity. Among other things, Samuelson claims that the oil produced will reduce America's dependency on foreign oil and create jobs. Will it? Let's take a look at an opposing analysis of the pipeline.

• An Oil Change International Briefing September 2011 stated: The Keystone XL pipeline is an export pipeline. The Gulf Coast refiners at the end of the pipeline’s route are focused on expanding exports, and the nature of the tar sands crude Keystone XL delivers enhances their capacity to do so.

• Very little of the tar sands crude will find it's way into American gas tanks.

• By draining Midwestern refineries of cheap Canadian crude into export-oriented refineries in the Gulf Coast, Keystone XL will increase the cost of gas for Americans, especially farmers. If their costs increase, guess what happens to food prices.

• In 2008, TransCanada’s Presidential Permit application for Keystone XL to the State Department indicated “a peak workforce of approximately 3,500 to 4,200 construction personnel” to build the pipeline.

• TransCanada estimates 20,000 “person-years” (the amount of work equal to the output of one person working for 1 year) of employment based on a non-public forecast model using undisclosed inputs provided by TransCanada.

• As a part of the permitting process for Keystone XL, the Department of State (DOS) did an analysis of the jobs that would be created by building the pipeline. Based on information provided by TransCanada it would generate 3-year, temporary jobs for 1,668 people, with only 167 jobs going to local workers.

• Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) both oppose the pipeline:  "We need jobs, but not ones based on increasing our reliance on Tar Sands oil. There is no shortage of water and sewage pipelines that need to be fixed or replaced, bridges and tunnels that are in need of emergency repair, transportation infrastructure that needs to be renewed and developed. Many jobs could also be created in energy conservation, upgrading the grid, maintaining and expanding public transportation - jobs that can help us reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy efficiency." 

In his article, Samuelson barely touched on safety or the environmental impact, two major concerns that must be addressed.

• A rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could cause a BP style oil spill in America’s heartland, over the source of fresh drinking water for 2 million people. 

• NASA’s top climate scientist says that fully developing the tar sands in Canada would mean “essentially game over” for the climate.

• In a study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a group of retired four-star generals and admirals concluded that climate change, if not addressed, will be the greatest threat to national security.