Polluters To Be Rewarded With Oil Pipeline

Reversing President Obama's decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline, the State Department is reported to be poised to sign the cross-border permit with Canada to allow the pipeline as soon as next Monday, according to reports. The 1.200 mile pipeline would carry oil sands crude from Canada across the center of the U.S. to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, and on to the world oil market. The oil pipeline company TransCanada has sought construction of the project for a decade. It would move the crude oil across some of the most environmentally vulnerable parts of the U.S., including across major rivers and tributaries, and will likely boost oil sands development in Alberta, Canada with dire consequences to the environment in the form of increased carbon emissions.

Former Exxon CEO and recipient of Russia's Order of Friendship Secretary of State Rex "Rexxon" Tillerson recused himself from the decision to approve the pipeline, an empty gesture since sociopath and environmental predator Donald "Rump" Trump would have found someone in the State Department to approve the construction of the pipeline. Interestingly, Rump has recently promised to his gullible cult members that he would insist on U.S.-supplied steel pipes for the pipeline, a promise which he's already broken (not that his cult will notice or care about). Oil industry hacks tried to sell the pipeline on the basis of job creation, touting many thousands of jobs, a claim that fact-averse Rump was happy to repeat. In fact, the number of intermittent, temporary jobs created would be between 1,950 and 3,900, with only 35 full-time permanent jobs to manage the pipeline once built.

This is a big windfall for the big carbon polluters. Our environment will suffer in many ways now and in the future from this decision.