Keystone Pipeline Has "Jumped the Shark"

By RM Allen for Exeter NH Transition-Town, January 11, 2015

The first item the new congress is working on is the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been stalled for six years now. In a much over-simplified statement, Keystone XL is this: a private Canadian oil project which puts US lands and waters at risk of un-cleanable spills to transport a very noxious form of oil across our entire country to Texas be shipped out and sold on the world market to global buyers.

From my home in Exeter, NH I watched the entire US Government Energy Committee hearing on C-SPAN before the vote this past week. These are the facts I gleaned:

· This project is not about jobs. After a one-time construction project is over, some on seized Nebraskan lands, only 41 permanent jobs will be created. (In contrast, the US government reports that due to our stronger economy, 252K US jobs were created last month alone.)

· This project is not about US energy independence. This Canadian oil will be sold on the world market to the highest bidder. (A better way to attain US energy independence would be to encourage the rapidly growing alternate energy sector and let it take its rightful place in our energy mix and to also encourage energy efficiency.)

· This project is about corporate greed. Who actually stands to win is Canadian “Big Oil”, and in the US it is alleged to make billions for the various Koch brothers’ holdings. (Those who have already lost include the First Nations of Alberta, Canada as well as folks along the Kalamazoo River who all have tar-sands poisoned waters.)

· This project is about Climate Change. Burning carbon fossils puts carbon in the air. Charts show the amount of carbon in the air was relatively stable over the millennia at 350ppm until now – there is an off the charts spike to 400ppm and it is causing the planet to warm. (This causes radical weather which causes crop failures, sea-level rise, and climate migrants.)

President Obama has said he will veto this bill because it is not good for America or for the planet and I am thankful. Thankful for both myself, my children, and my unborn grandchildren. Keystone XL is a symbolic turning point. Keystone XL is like the old (dead of cancer) Marlboro Man of the tobacco industry. Fossil fuels, like the Fonz, have “jumped the shark” and are on a downhill slide. Oil stock prices and prices at the gas pump reflect this. Common people are realizing that there is a better way forward, and Keystone is so yesterday.

Please join me and others in a Portsmouth on Tuesday, January 13th at 5:30pm in Market Square for a 350NH.org public demonstration against the pipeline, and to thank President Obama for his promised veto. If you can’t be there, why don’t you give him a call and thank him on the phone. Thanks!

Call the President

Phone Numbers

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

SEE YOU ALL IN MARKET SQUARE!