The Keystone Pipeline and the Political Theater of the Absurd
Posted By RichC on March 12, 2014
I keep thinking that something has got to give in Washington DC when it comes to the how the Obama administration and many in congress bog down the greatness of our country. The lack of an economic recovery is hurting the middle class and there isn’t a commonsense reason for it. Take the debate over energy. We drive cars, heat our homes and generate electricity for everything from light to industry, yet regulations, red tape and politics hamstring the companies which explore, extract, transport and refine our nation’s natural resources. It is costing every American in higher prices and decent jobs … not just in the energy sector, but the economic expansion that occurs when companies expand here rather than overseas. We don’t need to borrow trillions of dollars for additional impotent government stimulus packages.
Events in the Ukraine and an all-night “hot-air” talkathon by Democrats in congress have brought energy back to the front burner again. Europe is so reliant on natural gas exported through the Ukraine that they find it 
difficult to unite with economic sanctions against Russia’s annexation of Crimea … while in the U.S. we sit on an abundance of extraordinarily clean burning natural gas which face constant roadblocks based on political alliances.
The Keystone Pipeline is another ridiculous argument. I’ve been to Alberta where shale oil is being extracted (yes it is ugly) and to North Dakota where the landscape is dotted mile after mile with new oil and gas well. This energy will be used, whether today or tomorrow, and by us or someone else. It needs to be moved and what better way to do it than a pipeline? If the environmentalist goal is to protect the world in which we live, the pipeline is by far the safer and more efficient method to do this. Last year, I witness – truck after truck lining the roads heading south from Williston, ND. Train tankcar after tankcar is being being loaded and unloaded. In my opinion, doing it this way is just an environmental accident just waiting to happen.
Do people really think the world is going to stop using fossil fuels today … or in the next decade? Transporting by this method is so inefficient that Canada may just as well ship it across the Rockies and put it on tanker ship to China – do you think they are environmentally conscientious? If you’re really an environmentalist, support the pipeline and continue the good fight in developing alternatives that can sensibly and economically replace fossil fuels.
T. Boone Pickens was short and to the point Tuesday morning on CNBC’s Squawkbox (video below).
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