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TransCanada to Impose Gun Control in Labor Camps

What's it going to take to get more South Dakotans to oppose TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline? How about the fact that TransCanada supports gun control?

Amidst discussion of ordinances to manage potential temporary labor camps (the word gulag springs unbidden to my mind), the Butte County Commission learned Thursday that TransCanada does not plan to erect a man camp on their turf. If they build Keystone XL, they will encamp workers in Harding, Meade, and Tripp counties.

But Bud Anderson, independent contractor for TransCanada, also explained a detail about the man camps that ought to alarm the God-fearing, gun-loving folks of the greater Belle Fourche ruri-politan (Larry: Rura Penthe!) area:

Anderson also said a strict code of conduct is already in place for TransCanada’s workforce complexes, which prohibits theft, fighting, using or selling drugs, and firearms [Kaylee Tschetter, "TransCanada Won't Put a 'Man Camp' in Butte County," Black Hills Pioneer, 2013.12.12].

So TransCanada won't just take away your land; it will also take away your guns!

18 Comments

  1. interested party 2013.12.14

    General Chang: "To be or not to be?" That is the question which preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk. We need breathing room.
    Captain James T. Kirk: Earth, Hitler, 1938.
    General Chang: I beg your pardon.
    Chancellor Gorkon: Well... I see we have a long way to go.

    Captain Spock: If I were human I believe my response would be "go to hell." If I were human.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102975/quotes

  2. Porter Lansing 2013.12.14

    TransCanada has applied for thousands of temporary work permits for Canadian skilled laborers (welders, heavy equipt. operators etc.) to do the high paid jobs on the proposed pipeline. Really the only jobs for USA workers will be common labor, clean-up and shovel work. The labor camps will be for Canadian workers while the rest can sleep in their cars.

  3. Jana 2013.12.14

    Oh boy! Here's another conundrum for the GOP mouth breathers.

    They pay no attention to God loving and constitution carrying citizens of These United States of America having their God given 2nd Amendment rights infringed upon by a foreign company with a socialist government. Check.

    They like Canadian companies that have the advantage of government run health care. Check.

    They look the other way when it comes to the taking of private land by a foreign owned company. Check

    They don't mind a bad track record for leaks as long as it doesn't affect them personally. Check

    They pay no attention when wildly inflated claims of job creation are actually vetted. Check

    They pay no attention to what the oil the pipeline carries will do to our SD gas prices. Check.

    They pay no attention to the fact that most of the oil is destined to our biggest military and economic enemy. Check.

    They pay no attention to the environmental impact of tar sands oil. Check. (Could just be astrology)

    They love the Governor(s) who have chosen to give South Dakota taxpayer money and rights to threaten our private and public lands to foreign companies at a discount. Check.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.14

    Jana, that's the story we need candidates in 2014 to tell.

    Bret, didn't Michels build Keystone I?

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.14

    And now the Bakken producer says Keystone XL isn't necessary? Wow... but now how do we feel about running all that oil across the Plains?

  6. Hubba 2013.12.15

    That's Standard Operating Procedure in anything having to do with oil. No guns allowed, probably because of insurance, I don't know.

  7. interested party 2013.12.15

    "Continental Resources, one of the companies that has committed to ship crude on TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, now says the controversial pipeline is no longer needed." HuffPost.

  8. interested party 2013.12.15

    Sorry, Bret: didn't catch your link on Continental.

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.15

    South Dakota schools appear to operate the same way, with none of them taking the risk the Legislature offered them with the school gunslinger bill. Conservatives should be outraged: don't we need guns to keep hooligans from stealing that oil?

  10. Lanny V Stricherz 2013.12.15

    As tarsands oil began to flow through the Southern section of the Keystone XL pipeline this past week, it may make no difference if the northern section ever gets completed. And of course the rest of (that is the northern section) the Keystone XL pipeline is no longer needed is that the southern portion has already been completed unbeknown to most of us until just recently, and then that Warren Buffet has purchased enough oil tanker rail cars to haul the oil to the northern terminal of that pipeline.

  11. WR Old Guy 2013.12.15

    Things are not going well for tar sands oil.

    They are also trying to build a pipeline west through Canada to export the oil from a Canadian port. They are blocked by the First Nations so far. They do not want the pipeline crossing their property.

    A Chinese company wholly owned by the Chinese Government bought one of the Canadian producers for 15 billion dollars earlier this year.

    Refining the oil requires removing the additives injected to make it liquid enough to flow thru the pipeline. There is a byproduct called petroleum coke which is causing enviromental problems.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html?pagewanted%253Dall&_r=0

    Some refineries are now refusing the tar sands oil as the cost of refining is too high comapred to the oil coming out of North Dakota and West Texas.

    Oil is being moved in unit trains from North Dakota and other areas where pipelines are not available. The producers and refineries are finding that this allows oil to be sent to the refinery paying the best price or to the export terminals. I would not be surprised to see some proposal to run new rail lines south from North Dakota to tie into exixting lines in Wyoming and Nebraska.

  12. Jerry 2013.12.16

    Wow Les, what a proud moment in American history. An armed staff member at a school protected the students from rest of the students. Think of that for a moment, what kind of society are we running here? At the man camps, can we expect to see battles between the welders and the excavators? Who gets to be the armed staff member in those situations, and who decides who wins, last man standing?

  13. interested party 2013.12.16

    the only thing that stops a bad rich guy with a pipeline is a good rich guy with a railroad.

  14. Les 2013.12.16

    You said it Jer, it's a proud moment when we realize how badly we've failed our children? It should also be a new beginning if we do something about it .

Comments are closed.