Pipeline narrative not the whole story

David Klamann, Las Vegas

Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

This year is on track to be one of the hottest on record and those high temperatures seem to have brought out the anti-science know-nothings like Assemblyman John Hambrick to shower their insanity on the rest of us.

I’m tired of hearing the lies about the Keystone XL pipeline creating 100,000 to 250,000 jobs in the United States; a research team from Cornell University puts a more realistic number at 500 to 1,700 temporary jobs, not all of them in the United States, and comes to the conclusion that in the end, the Keystone XL pipeline could cost the United States jobs. Wow. And what about the high carbon fuel that would be exported?

There’s no evidence that any of the fuel coming though the XL pipeline will lower the cost of gasoline at the pump, since most of it is for export.

I don’t know why there’s any hurry to finish this project, since the oil will stay where it is if we don’t approve the environmental boondoggle.

We do know that fuel prices are a function of supply and demand and that Big Oil is a master at artificially reducing supply.

Big Oil faked gasoline shortages in the 1970s, and they’ve done it recently with massive oil speculation.

Big Oil is an example of what’s wrong with politics today; corporations can purchase politicians wholesale and give themselves huge tax breaks and government giveaways, and stick the taxpayer with the environmental damages.

Destruction of the environment is costing everybody. Carbon producers aren’t paying for the damage they’re causing, and it’s a lot.

Sure, on the face of it, green energy is expensive, but oil and coal are too if you factor in the hidden subsidies that have been in place for decades, the environmental damage caused by pollution, and the wars for oil (the Iraq War has cost U.S. taxpayers $813 billion so far); in a true comparison, green energy is way less expensive and is getting even more affordable. Stop the Big Oil subsidies and see what the real price is.