Keystone XL Pipeline will Wreck the Environment, BUT it will Create FIFTY Jobs!!!

Sometime in 1969 or 1970, President Nixon sealed off the U.S. Mexico border — Operation Intercept — for several days, in order to crack down on drug smuggling.  There was a comedy skit where one of Nixon's advisers is telling him:  “Tourist traffic hasn't moved in days, the economy has lost millions of dollars, the Mexican government is threatening to cut off diplomatic ties with the United States, AND — we scored three joints!”

At least that was only a comedy skit.  Now, fast forward forty-five years (and this is not satire):  The fossil fuel industry is ordering its prostitutes in Congress to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands oil from Canada to Texas, where this oil will be refined and then shipped overseas.  The Keystone XL Pipeline will drastically speed up the climate change process, jeopardize the water supply for about one fourth of the United States population, AND it will Create FIFTY Jobs!!!

The linked article is titled “Sorry, Republicans, the Keystone XL Pipeline is not a jobs agenda.”  I think the title is inaccurate.  Republicans don't give a flying fuck about jobs or people who work for a living.  “Jobs!!!” is one of their favorite soundbites, a mating call to their useful idiots.  Nothing more.

The article should be directed at the misguided Democrats who mistakenly believe the Keystone XL Pipeline will create jobs.  It won't.  But the GOP has shrewdly turned this into a wedge issue between environmentalists and labor unions.

According to the linked article:  “Generous estimates predict that the pipeline would create around 42,000 temporary jobs — about 2,000 construction jobs and the rest in supplying goods and services. How many long-term jobs? Fifty. That's right, 50 whole long-term jobs."

Got that?  Come on Democrats and labor unions — we need to stand together on this.  There aren't enough Republicans in the Senate to override President Obama's promised veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  They'll need some Democrats to falter and start believing the “Jobs!!!” hype.  Don't.

And if President Obama vetoes a must-pass spending bill because there's a Keystone XL Pipeline amendment attached to it, we need to stand together and make sure the blame goes to the right parties:  the fossil fuel industry and its “global warming is a hoax” useful idiots.

The Truth about Keystone XL Pipeline

Any questions?

No Keystone XL Pipeline Decision until After November Election

Whew!!!

The State Department has extended the comment period on the Keystone XL Pipeline, “...likely postponing a final decision on the controversial project until after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.”

If nothing else, this will buy an extra seven months before Planet Earth's Worst Nightmare begins.  I'm guessing President Obama will veto the XL Pipeline if the Democrats keep control of the Senate.  Then again, if the Senate goes Republican, Obama will probably be impeached and convicted of, well, whatever flimsy trumped-up charges the Kochsuckers can come up with.  If that's the case, maybe Obama will give the finger to the Kochs' useful idiots, veto the XL Pipeline and say “what're you gonna do, impeach me?”

It doesn't say much for American voters' collective intelligence, but most Americans are in favor of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Sad but true. 

But I don't think the XL Pipeline will be a major issue during the 2014 midterm election.  The election will revolve around the economy in general, and Obamacare in particular.  As pundits and columnists have been saying for months now, Democrats need to get behind the Affordable Care Act (i.e. Obamacare) and get out there and talk about it.  They need to keep hammering away at the fact that eight million (and counting) previously uninsured Americans now have health insurance.  Health insurance companies can no longer turn you down because of a pre-existing condition, and they aren't allowed to cancel your coverage if you have the nerve to go and get sick.  Shout it from the rooftops!  Get the message out!

Anyway, this pipeline delay was a shrewd decision.  It won't be a factor in the upcoming election.  Democrats are the ones who usually fall into this trap:  campaigning relentlessly on their favorite issues — the environment, income inequality, the Talibangelical war on women (war on everybody, for that matter) — issues where the voters agree with them wholeheartedly, and then they turn around and vote Republican because of “Jobs!”

Maybe Republicans will fall into that same trap this year.  Maybe they'll wage a shrill campaign in favor of Keystone XL and against those treehuggers and environazis who are ruining America, while Obamacare gets more popular and the economy improves.

Works for me.

Sixty-six Percent of Americans in Favor of Keystone XL Pipeline

Un-fuckin’-real.  According to a new Pew Poll, 66% of Americans are in favor of building the Keystone XL pipeline.  Only 23% are opposed.

DUUUHHH!!!

Supposedly the original inhabitants of Easter Island died off after they had used up the last of their resources.  There was no more food, and the last tree had been cut down, so they couldn’t even build a boat to go somewhere else.

Has the human race gotten any smarter since then?  [see above]

Last week’s Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture in Arkansas is just a preview of what we can expect if/when the Keystone XL Pipeline is built.  Thousands of barrels of crude oil flooded streets and people’s lawns and killed some of the local wildlife.

Can’t wait ‘til this starts happening on a massive scale.

And there’s more good news (if you’re a tar sands oil executive).  The type of crude oil that’s being carried in the Exxon Mobil pipeline through Arkansas — and will be transported through the Keystone XL Pipeline — is actually NOT oil.  I mean, it pollutes like oil, and it gets all over everything and kills wildlife, just like oil.

But thanks to a law written in 1980, the tar sands oil being transported through pipelines is NOT classified as oil.  And because tar sands oil technically/legally isn’t oil, the companies transporting tar sands oil are NOT required to pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.  This is the fund that ensures there will be enough money to pay for the cleanup of oil spills.

Producers of “conventional” oil are required to pay eight cents per barrel into this fund.  But tar sands oil producers and transporters don’t have to pay into it, since tar sands oil isn’t oil.

Somebody should tell the residents of Mayflower, Arkansas (site of last week’s tar sands oil spill) to cheer up.  That’s not oil gushing into their yards and covering their pets — it’s just tar sands oil.