E. Bruce Preece’s Dec. 23 letter, “Pipeline jobs are needed,” dropped the job projections for Keystone XL Pipeline down to a more realistic number, but still high. A State Department report concludes between 5,000 to 6,000 temporary jobs. Many of these large job projections will be spin-off jobs. Among those on the list are dancers, dentists, librarians, stenographers, barbers and hairdressers.
Concerning President Obama’s pandering to far-left environmentalists, there are environmental concerns on the proposed route. Even more worrisome, there is already excess pipeline capacity coming out of Canada.
Why another pipeline into the United States? Simple — many current pipelines end in the Midwest with only one buyer, the United States. Keystone XL will be Canada’s first step in diversifying its energy market by moving oil to the Gulf Coast. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian exports are to the United States; Keystone XL will take oil from existing pipelines and send it to the Gulf Coast.
No surprise that many refiners on the Gulf Coast are in free-trade zones, allowing Canadian oil exportations into the world market without paying United States taxes. The result will be lost jobs, increased oil prices, no tax revenue, temporary jobs and environmental damage from pipeline spills like those in Montana and Minnesota in 2011.
