The short-term job gains from the construction of the pipeline are outweighed by the potential for severe environmental damage if the tar sand oil leaks from the pipeline. With oil prices down, there's also a reduced economic incentive of providing Canada with a pipeline to move their dirtiest form of oil across the Great Plains, over the Ogallala aquifer, and across the Yellowstone, Missouri, Platte, Arkansas, and Red Rivers to refineries in Texas, and then out to the world market.
And the number of permanent jobs created? A whopping 35.
(cartoon: Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via Gocomics.com)
