January 15, 2015
Today, January 15th, we examine a January 15 column by George Will, a famous right-wing intellectual. Mr. Will titles his effort, “The catechism of the keystone XL pipeline,” and he uses it to snarkily remark on President Obama’s apparent obtuseness about comprehending the splendid economic opportunity the pipeline presents for employment. He points out that Obama said that the pipeline would move oil to be sold everywhere else. “…that doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.” This egregious error was finally corrected some weeks later when Obama “said, correctly that keystone would have a ‘nominal’ impact on oil prices.” This is a distinction with a very minimal difference and it amounts to nonsense when the collapse in the price of oil is considered, a collapse well underway before Will’s column appeared.
Today, January 15th, we examine a January 15 column by George Will, a famous right-wing intellectual. Mr. Will titles his effort, “The catechism of the keystone XL pipeline,” and he uses it to snarkily remark on President Obama’s apparent obtuseness about comprehending the splendid economic opportunity the pipeline presents for employment. He points out that Obama said that the pipeline would move oil to be sold everywhere else. “…that doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.” This egregious error was finally corrected some weeks later when Obama “said, correctly that keystone would have a ‘nominal’ impact on oil prices.” This is a distinction with a very minimal difference and it amounts to nonsense when the collapse in the price of oil is considered, a collapse well underway before Will’s column appeared.
Then we have
the issue of jobs: Obama maintains that the pipeline jobs are temporary. Mr. Will asserts that, “outside of government,…all
jobs are ‘temporary.’” Oh, come now, Mr. Will; how long have you made a
comfortable living as a columnist/speaker? You began about 1976 and continue to
this day, would you call that a “temporary job”?
He points
out that Borders had 10,700 employees until Amazon came along. Of course he
does manage to mention that Amazon employees 150,000 people. That seems like a
fair trade but not apparently to Mr. Will. One government agency (Note that Mr.
Will appears to credit the accuracy of government bureaucrats when their
figures support his position.) has estimated 42,100 jobs will be created. How many of these are well paying
construction jobs and how many are minimum wage ancillary jobs Mr. Will does
not tell us; no need to mention potentially embarrassing data.
Once the
pipeline is completed and the construction process stops, how many jobs will be
required to maintain the pipeline? Mr. Will is silent about that, possibly
because, according to him, all jobs are temporary anyway. One estimate is that
50 jobs will remain after the construction phase finishes. It’s easy to see why
Mr. Will left that number out this estimate.
So should
the pipeline be approved? Of course it should be approved…certainly not for the
reasons given by Mr. Will. The jobs data are not compelling, what is compelling
is that the pipeline is a far less risky way to get this sludge form the
Canadian border to the gulf than the present methods of rail and truck
transport. The pipeline will be less hazardous to the health of this country
and the planet than any other method of transport. Ideally we wouldn’t need to
transport it at all because no one would want it, but that ideal day is not
now.
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