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Thune Wrong: Keystone XL Will Not Bring Economic Boost or Energy Independence

Senator John Thune stinks up yesterday's Black Hills Pioneer with bogus boosterism for the unnecessary and un-American Keystone XL pipeline. Time for corrections:

After nearly three years of gathering input, holding public meetings, and an extensive review, the U.S. State Department recently issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline that would run from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Despite this lengthy and thorough review and the final statement, President Barack Obama recently announced that he would not be making a final decision on the pipeline's future until after the 2012 election. The president's decision was based purely on political calculations as he risked losing support from two key voting blocs, the anti-pipeline environmentalists, or the pro-pipeline unions [Senator John Thune, "Keystone XL Delay Costs Jobs, Revenue," Black Hills Pioneer, 2011.12.06].

Senator Thune praises as "thorough" a State Department review process that was rife with favoritism and inadequacy. Other Senators found the final EIS so tainted they called for President Obama to throw it out and start over.

The President responded to far more than the "purely" political calculations Senator Thune alleges. The President responded to grass-roots protest and environmental concerns about the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Ogallala Aquifer, concerns that, when pressed, Keystone XL builder TransCanada has finally acknowledged as valid.

The benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline are clear.... The $7 billion project is expected to create more than 20,000 direct jobs nationally during the construction phase of the project [Thune, 2011.12.06].

The benefits are clearly exaggerated. The "20,000 jobs" claim has been thoroughly refuted, as have TransCanada's exaggerated long-term job projections. TransCanada itself has acknowledged actual jobs along the pipeline would be measured in hundreds, not thousands. Add in another fact that Senator Thune ignores, the higher gas prices Keystone XL would bring, and the pipeline might end up killing more jobs than it creates.

In addition to creating jobs, the pipeline would reduce need for foreign oil imports from countries like Venezuela, while strengthening our trade relationship with Canada [Thune, 2011.12.06].

There is enormous doubt as to whether the United States will ever burn one drop of Keystone XL's oil. TransCanada not only refuses to guarantee that the oil it ships will be used in the U.S. but appears to agree with market analysts that the viability of the pipeline depends on the ability of refiners to export that oil to China and elsewhere.

South Dakota's economy would directly benefit from the pipeline. Keystone XL is expected to produce increased personal income by $319 million, and create hundreds of construction jobs in South Dakota [Thune, 2011.12.06].

We've heard that one before. When TransCanada built its first tar sands pipeline across eastern South Dakota, the Keystone 1, it promised all sorts of jobs for local workers. South Dakotans filled barely 1 in 10 of those temporary jobs. Any economic impacts of the construction project were fleeting and offset by the damage done to local roads and the ongoing risk of costly oil spills.

Further, it is estimated that once the pipeline is operational, South Dakota could see over $600 million in property taxes to county and other local governments during the operating life of the pipeline [Thune, 2011.12.06].

We've heard that one before, too. TransCanada exaggerated the property tax benefits of the Keystone 1 pipeline by a factor of three. TransCanada and its boosters appear to have a chronic inability to do math.

Senator Thune advocates legislation to force the President to make a decision on Keystone XL in 60 days. Thune is pushing the same sort of hasty, ignorant decision for which his protégée Rep. Kristi Noem voted this summer. Rather than thoroughly study the proposed alternative routes for Keystone XL and give landowners and other citizens a chance to participate in that review process, Thune would rush the President toward a decision on the basis of benefits that don't exist.

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