Will H. Matson’s Dec. 18 letter, “Get rid of D.C. ‘spendaholics,’” claimed that the keystone oil pipeline project would create “a million” new jobs. While he is certainly entitled to his opinion, he his not entitled to exaggerate the facts.
TransCanada, the pipeline company, says the project would create only 6,500 temporary construction jobs. Cornell University conducted an independent analysis that concluded as few as 50 permanent jobs would be created, and even Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader from Kentucky, was quoted as admitting the number of jobs would only be in the thousands.
If Matson is truly interested in encouraging job growth in numbers that can restore American prosperity, he should urge his Republican friends to support President Obama’s jobs bill that might very well create a million or more new jobs.
George Curtin
Camas
