The debate about whether to build the Keystone Pipeline has been raging for several years now.
The project would mean building a 1,700 mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. 98% of Canada’s known oil reserves are located in Alberta, and 99% of those reserves are in oil sands. Canada will harvest that oil, whether we buy it and move it to the Gulf by pipeline or not.
If we don’t move it by pipeline, American buyers will still buy it, but it will be hauled by rail cars. Estimates are that it will take 15 trains of 100 tanker cars a day to move the same amount of crude oil that the Keystone Pipeline would transport. Moving oil by train would create much higher emissions of CO2 from the diesel locomotives, than the pipeline would.
If for any reason American buyers were not to purchase the Canadian crude, the Canadians would ship the oil to the hungry markets of Asia (I can’t help but think of Palin when I write “hungry markets”). It does not really matter who burns the oil. It will release CO2 into our atmosphere, whether it’s done in Asia or in the United States.
Boehner spouted last July that Obama’s decision to deny the pipeline would “destroy tens of thousands of American jobs.” However, the U.S. State Department calculated that the underground pipeline would add 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. jobs. In an independent review the Cornell University Global Labor Institute found that the pipeline would add only 500 to 1,400 temporary construction jobs in the U.S.
The way I see it, Obama should allow the Keystone Pipeline to be built. American jobs would be created, albeit nowhere near as many as the pundits would have us believe. The oil lobby would be pacified. The oil would not flow to China. It would contribute to keeping our supply up and prices down.
In the meantime, the administration – and the world – should continue its efforts to reduce dependence on oil altogether. That is the real solution to the problem. Building the Keystone Pipeline, or not, is only a band-aid and has little real impact.
Leave a Reply