I'm Right Again Dot Com

A new commentary every Wednesday   -  March 11, 2015

SENATE FAILS TO OVERRIDE THE VETO OF THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE BILL

    By a "smidgen"... that is five more Senatorial votes were needed to override the Presidential veto of the bill approving the 1,179 mile pipeline from Canada and through western United States to refineries on the Gulf Coast. 67 votes were needed to override President Obama's veto, The score was 62 to 37, even with eight Democrats voting to override. Though it can be expected that the measure will possibly be tacked on as an amendment to an infrastructure or defense-spending bill in the future, the ball is now back in Canada's court, even when one considers the extremely narrow victory achieved by the present administration.

    There are several other issues that may very well hit the desk in the oval office before the current terms ends, but let's stick to the subject. 

    Will Canada elect to build their own pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia or use rail to convey the present 830,000 gallons a day oil-sand output to ports on the Pacific? China would probably outbid all other consumer nations for the entire output—and certainly would cause an increase in the price of petroleum products.  And therein lies an enormous amount of ambivalence for Americans, including your humble blogger. From an environmental perspective, whether we build it or not, there is a fabulous market just waiting for Canada to produce more oil sand and fracking field petroleum. They will certainly exploit it.

    Since many believe that there is a man-made global warming with which to contend, the Canadian factor is not conducive to lowering the temperature, in the oceans or in Washington. Just follow the money.

    We also feel that pipeline investors who contributed so many millions to the campaigns of Republican Senators—reportedly an average of $250,000 to each campaign—were afforded an unfair advantage in the contest by the Supreme Court.

    Despite the billions of dollars to be spent on materials and people-power payrolls to be met by investors, the pipeline will present an ever-present danger to people and animals, but possibly no more or less than ships and oil platforms. Need I mention "Exxon Valdeez" or "British Petroleum." 

    The one factor that sways one toward its eventual construction is that long umbilical cord that continues to tie all Americans to the most volatile area on our planet, and at the moment, the unrelenting turbulence seems, at least to this observer, to be increasing in the Mideast. This, despite all that we have invested there in blood and money over the past half-century.

    Could the Keystone XL pipeline give us, at long last, Energy Independence, or must it come from other sources? Could Keystone be a safety valve until sufficient sun and wind plants exist?

-Phil Richardson, Observer and Storyteller.

THE PROSPERITY COAL COMPANY: My book about hard times and union wars in the coal fields, in times past.      $9.95, plus shipping  For details on the novel, click: http://www.Amazon.com  and enter "Prosperity Coal Company" in the search window.

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