Keystone: Pipeline or Kops

Sometimes you have to scratch your head and wonder if anyone in the U.S. Congress has the brains of a Keystone Kop. The incompetent bobbleheads in Washington are reminiscent of the rag-tag fictional police force of 100 years ago. All combined, they appear to lack the common sense of a headless barnyard chicken. If anyone has been listening, the answer to the fourth and final phase of the Keystone XL pipeline is simple. Keep it in Canada.

            About 40% of the pipeline has already been completed with segments in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. The remaining 60% is creating outrage on both sides. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota has made it clear they consider any invasion of their treaty lands as “an act of war.” The pipeline is a threat to sacred burial grounds and the Ogallala Aquifer, destruction of which would permanently impact the tribe’s water source.

             Those paragons of greed, the Koch brothers, hold significant leases in northern Alberta tar sands oil fields and stand to increase their wealth from the pipeline. Although their names are rarely mentioned, they are perhaps the strongest driving force behind this project. The more they grease the hands of politicians of both major parties, the more likely the pipeline completion.

It is possible two rich brothers will decide the fate of millions of Americans who have no idea what the pipeline entails and have bobbled their heads “in favor” of the project due, in part, to the relentless Fox “News” propaganda machine. Canada has said from the inception the oil traveling to Gulf Coast refineries will not necessarily benefit the U.S. Our State Department predicts a mere 50 permanent jobs will be created. No one disputes this number.

            Let’s recap. An American Indian tribe is threatening litigation. Environmentalists are cautioning a pipeline rupture would be equivalent to the 2010 BP Gulf disaster. A Cornell University study reported U. S. gas prices will increase because Canadian oil now going to the Midwest will be diverted to Keystone. Extracting the oil may not be economically sound for investors. Nobody knows the final export destination. Focus is shifting from the merits of the pipeline to the ability of Congress to flex political muscle and override a presidential veto.       

            Who ultimately benefits from Keystone XL? As oil prices temporarily drop, it seems no one in the short run and there’s the rub. Koch boy capitalists have an eye to the future. The long haul predicts Keystone will make them richer than King Midas. Remember him? Everything he touched turned to gold. Even the dirt beneath his fingernails matched the golden nails in his coffin.

            Greed, whether for power or money, is an insatiable master.