A Pipeline To Where?

Well, it's my old friend the XL Pipeline that's back in the news again. So here we go again. The claims are that it will create tens of thousands of jobs and help to decrease our dependence on middle eastern oil. Okay, let's see about that. The owners of the pipeline, TransCanada, a Canadian company says about 6500 temporary jobs in construction. The State Department, which was about to approve it, agrees. Not ten thousand? Cornell University's Global Labor Institute says it will create about fifty permanent jobs. Where's the ten thousand? Maybe in cleanup for spills. The pipeline would lead to Texas Gulf coast refineries who have contracts that will require them to ship most of the oil overseas. So here's what the pipeline would mean for America. It would cross sensitive lands and aquifers where the residents, of both parties, don't want it, in order to tie up U.S. refineries in order for the refined oil to be shipped to foreign countries. Now tell me again how this thing is in our best interest? I don't mean to be a stickler for good decisions, but this just isn't the issue we need to hang our hats on. Let's face it, it's the dirtiest type of oil, which must be cleaned up before it can be shipped out. That means there will be more waste to get rid of. The waste won't be good for anything but pollution. It could work out pretty well for that use. So if you want to buy a barrel of pollution, they would be able to provide it. In fact, if you would like this waste stored in your backyard, maybe around the pool, have they got a deal for you. The other claim is that if we don't take it, they will just run a pipeline to Canada's west coast, which is much closer anyway, and refine it and ship it from there. If they can do that, why do they want to pipe it across America? Ya know what I think? I think they don't want it in Canada any more than we do here in America. And another thing is that they're going to have to destroy a whole lot of forestland just to get at it in the first place. Nope, if I were a smart politician, I wouldn't want my hat on it.