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Obama on Keystone XL: What Good Jobs If We Can’t Drink Water?

All right, now I'm really getting my hopes up. First Dennis Daugaard reverses himself and decides TransCanada's previous assurances of the safety of its Keystone XL pipeline aren't enough. Now President Barack Obama, whose State Department has been in bed with TransCanada, who himself has hired TransCanada lobbyist Broderick Johnson as a 2012 campaign advisor, says TransCanada's jobs claims may not trump our national interest in drinking clean water:

"Folks in Nebraska, like folks all across the country, aren't going to say to themselves, 'We're going to take a few thousand jobs if it means our kids are potentially drinking water that would damage their health,'" Obama said.

It would be another economic blow the country doesn't need, the president said.

"When somebody gets sick, that's a cost that society has to bear as well. So these are all things that you have to take a look at when you make these decisions," Obama said ["Obama Talks with KETV about Oil Pipeline," KETV.com, 2011.11.01].

Now you're talking, Barack! Let's take that thinking to its logical conclusion and tell TransCanada that Keystone XL is a no-go!

Hearing President Obama's explanation of rational priorities and a need to look beyond up-front job numbers to more complicated long-term economic and social impacts, Nebraska Republican Party chairman Mark Fahleson can only sputter non-specific canned responses from Speaker Boehner's office:

It is failed leadership where he has he been these last three years on this issue. He could have shown some leadership on this issue and made it a very decisive issue because, really, the sole decision lies and rest with the federal government. So it's unfortunate that he's playing politics on this issue so late in the game [KETV, 2011.11.01].

Speaking of failed leadership, the Nebraska GOP has failed to take a position on Keystone XL. But the Nebraska Legislature is meeting right now in special session to discuss what to do about this dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary pipeline. Bill #1 from my new sweetheart Senator Annette Dubas (District 34, Fullerton) is the Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act. MOPS (get it?) would give the Nebraska Public Service Commission authority over the routing of big oil pipelines. Pass that bill, and there's a strong possibility that Nebraska would order TransCanada to route Keystone XL away from the Sand Hills and the Ogallala Aquifer.

TransCanada, which just reported a 12% increase in Q3 revenues, would not like that. Those of us who drink water and live on the Great Plains would.

Update 20:07 MDT: Here's the video of the President's response to KETV reporter Rob McCartney's questions on Keystone XL:

3 Comments

  1. Stan Gibilisco 2011.11.02

    Earlier today I read somewhere that TransCanada has said that if we don't give them their way with the pipeline, they might not sell any of their tar sands oil to us, and sell it all to Asia instead.

    Has Barack Obama responded to that one yet?

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.02

    Stan, it could be that hindering the pipeline could make it easier for TransCanada to justify building a line to the Pacific coast... although domestic opposition in Canada is a big reason they're trying us first. As for refusing to do business with us later, I have trouble believing that. No matter what happens with the politics here, American refiners' money will remain as green as Chinese buyers' money. If American buyers offer the best price, TransCanada won't play politics with those contracts. Corporations by their charters and commitment to profit and stockholders aren't allowed to do such things, are they?

    Of course, since American oil demand is declining, they may never sell us their oil even if we do build Keystone XL.

  3. Steve White 2011.11.03

    I'll have to tell Sen. Dubas here in Nebraska she has a new admirer. I've visited her farm a handful of times. She just got done with harvest and now turns around and introduces this bill.

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