Reprinted from Mike Malloy
The Senate today passed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, despite threats of a presidential veto. Thankfully, as noted by CommonDreams.org, the vote is largely symbolic as it's insufficient to over-ride Obama's promised veto. But even if the pipeline eventually is built, it's still such a positive; why, think of the massive number of (invisible) jobs that are soon to follow! To hear the Neocons talk, we could experience an employment boom unseen since the end of WWII. Right?
CommonDreams has more:
"Calling on his Senate colleagues to sustain Obama's expected veto, Sen. Bernie Sanders said: 'With the scientific community telling us loudly and clearly that we must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels if we are to combat climate change, it is totally crazy for the Congress to support the production and transportation of some of the dirtiest oil on the planet.'
"And several Keystone XL opponents said the vote illustrates who GOP politicians are really beholden to.
"'The Republican's Keystone XL obsession is about one thing and one thing only -- a direct payback to Big Oil, specifically to the Koch brothers who likely spent more than anyone else to elect the Republican Senate, and also happen to be the largest non-Canadian leaseholder in the Alberta tar sands,' declared Elijah Zarlin, senior campaign manager at CREDO. 'The American people oppose Congress forcing a decision on Keystone XL, and given the actual problems we are facing and the solutions available, the notion that Keystone XL should be the first or highest priority of Congress is literally insulting.'"
Think of the energy independence we could enjoy if we spent as much time and taxpayer dollars into developing alternative sources of energy, like solar, or wind farms, or underwater thermal currents, or biomass, or any number of other promising earth-sparing endeavors. But where's the fun in that? There's no benefit there to our corporatocracy. The wealthy modern-day oil barons would have to be satisfied with being in the 1% club. That ain't enough.
If the President keeps his promise to kill the bill, the Rapture Right will bemoan all the potential jobs (tens and tens of them) that will go to un-Americans instead. (Where were their concerns for the plight of the American worker when they were rubber-stamping the corporate exportation of jobs for our (once) middle-class labor force to China, Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere? But I digress...)
But perhaps the worst argument I've heard in favor of passing this legislation isn't the minimization of the potential environmental impact, but that "somebody's gonna do it, so we might as well get our piece of the petroleum pie." If we don't drill up the wilderness and ship that dirty sludge through our nation, some other country will! Editorials from the Washington Post to the Wetumpka Daily Dealer have used this backward logic to defend the coming destruction. It's like saying, "well, somebody's eventually going to pee in the swimming pool, why should I bother getting out to go to the restroom?"
But that's GOP logic for you. Somebody's gonna pump out all that carbon -- might as well be us 'mericans! Hell yeah!
Wouldn't it be nice if we were making an effort to be #1 in environmental protection, rather than pollution?
Nawwww . . . . .
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