Keystone Jobs

     Have I weighed in on the Keystone Pipeline yet? I am too lazy to go read through all of my posts, but I am guessing I have at mentioned it at least once or twice. It's in the news again today, with Congress passing a bill to authorize its construction despite President Obama's promise to veto it. Republicans are trumpeting Keystone as a job creator, while the Democrats are saying it will not create that many jobs and poses a very real threat to the Environment. There are Global Warming and Climate Change implications, which shouldn't surprise anyone who understands this equation:

 Fossil Fuels + Burning for Energy  

= Increased CO2 in Atmosphere and Warmer Temps

     But this time, I think the Democrats have it wrong. (Maybe I should have told you all to sit down before I dropped that on you.) Here's why:

• Building Keystone will employ a few thousand people during construction. Everyone agrees on this. After construction, according to Democrats, the pipeline will only require a few dozen workers to monitor and maintain it while it pipes oil from the tar sands in Northern Canada to the oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. That doesn't make it a job producer on par with what BOTH parties are saying we need to help economic growth. 
• Republicans insist that increased oil production will create hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the Gulf Region and its respective refineries, and that Democrats are using the "myth" of Climate Change to disrupt a real money maker for the Koch Brothers- (sorry)- I mean the citizens of the United States. 
• No one is talking about the jobs that will be created once oil starts leaking.

     Democrats fail to recognize that the Keystone project will also provide the opportunity for another group of workers to find work: Remediation Specialists. You know, people that clean up the environment when oil gets spilled. Sure, many are volunteers, but many are paid workers. Just ask those who have tried to clean up the Duke Energy Coal Ash spill in North Carolina. 

     With all of those thousands of miles of pipeline and the normal lackadaisical maintenance practices of most oil companies, there is going to be A LOT of spilled oil to clean up once Keystone is operating. That should increase the number of jobs created by the Keystone project, and (somehow) benefit U.S. citizens. Supporters of Keystone should jump on this before the bill gets sent to the President.  How can President Obama veto a bill that will create Environmental jobs? He supports protecting the environment, right? What better way to clean up the environment than approve an oil pipeline that will create oil spills? If that isn't bipartisan compromise, what is? Republicans get their precious pipeline, and Democrats get to trumpet their environmental agenda. Its a win win! And everyone gets a job! 

     Lord knows, the President needs to create some jobs for this country. The tens of thousands he created with the Affordable Care Act just isn't cutting it.  

Happy Friday! And, as usual, the sarcasm in this post is free of charge.