KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE, IT'S DOMINATING THIS NEWS OUTLET!

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE, IT'S DOMINATING THIS NEWS OUTLET!

(Frazer Chronicle)

If the Keystone XL pipeline was a person, it would, like a cat, have 9 lives. A news source that I read every day, Google News on line, devotes 4 to 7 stories and coverage about "where" the proposed pipeline is" on a particular day. This morning, 3-4-12, at 4:45 A.M. there were 7 headlined and accompanying stories about the "fate of the project, why it would boost prices at the pump, why it would lower prices, a proposed land grab battle, the project being fraught with problems, and the use of common sense.

These headlines appear on the same week-end as news stories cover a massive billion dollar settlement between B.P. and some of the oil well spill victims from the April 2010 oil disaster out in the Gulf of Mexico. With regards to "timing" the news coverage on the on-line Google News web page was, ah, not to well timed.

Does the petroleum industry control what the Google news outlet post on its web.....of course not, that would mean that elephants could fly and that bears actually do use Charmin toilet tissue after they use the bathroom.

I have been tracking this news coverage "stance" that Google has taken on this issue every since President Obama nixed the project, citing a "lack of time to explore all the issues." The view points and issue are not going to go away, pro job makers, pro business makers and pro money makers simply see a "new" way to make more money and in the process, create new, well paying jobs.

But there is a down-side to this issue, as there is with almost every issue that depends on a segment of people having to "trust" the so called experts. As a people, we need to believe that nothing bad is going to happen with thousands of miles of pipeline, both above ground and some below won't spring a leak, bust, or become a target for some terrorist group and their evil plans.

We are also supposed to believe the oil experts who list as possible, "very probable" the aspect of up to 20,000 jobs connected to the XL and the support structure. There are 20,000 jobs that are well paying, not to mention the entire infrastructure that the project will need.

That's jobs, jobs, jobs and then.....jobs. How long will these jobs last.....well, that seems "not to be so clear." I can give you an example, a generation of workers time, from say 18 years old till the time of retirement, so to be 68 or even 70, would mean closer to 50 years. There was an oil field near Traverse City, Michigan which began back around 1960, and was over by 1990, that would be 30 years my friends.

I don't have any doubt that the Keystone Pipeline XL will happen, "some" jobs will be created, and some people will get extremely "richer." Will there be environmental accidents, you bet, will there be fines of restitution, absolutely, and in the end will people suffer for the XL, of course. Will the aquifer that part of the line goes over be breached, or in danger, of course.

Is the underground oil field called the Macondo, where the Deep Water Horizon disaster occurred leaking today? Absolutely. There is a visible oil "slick" out there today, a slick that is being monitored by environmentalists and scientists who care, are knowledgeable about these issues. They issue there reports, make speeches, appear before governmental committees to testify, and then retire.

As long as we are dependent on fossil fuels, oil will be drilled for, coal will be dug for; it's just a reality of life as we know it today. The sludge that will be pumped through the XL will cost more to refine, will probably spew more contaminants into our air and in the end, costing people more money.

Whenever you have the capability to search for, and drill for at more than a mile and a half under the sea floor, whenever you have the capability to send sludgy oil through a 3 foot round pipeline from Canada through the entire middle of the United States to sea ports in the southwest, the potential for accidental risk is great and.....with each passing year, the risk factor heightens.