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Keystone XL: A Lost Economic Opportunity

Last January, President Barack Obama vetoed construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from the Alberta oil sands...

Last January, President Barack Obama vetoed construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from the Alberta oil sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. However he did invite TransCanada, the company that would underwrite and construct the 1,700 mile pipeline, to reapply for a permit using a different alignment. Alberta’s oil sands contain the second largest reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia. The anti-carbon crowd wants to kill the pipeline project, not because there are any serious issues regarding safety but because they believe that by stopping Keystone XL they’ll kill development of the oil sands. This is nonsense. If Canada can’t sell their oil to us, they’ll sell it to the Chinese and Japanese. It’s quite probable that the pipeline will eventually be built, though no decision will be made until after the November presidential election. In the meantime America is forfeiting a “shovel-ready” project that would have a tremendous economic impact while at the same time enhancing our energy security. The $7 billion construction budget would have boosted gross domestic product this year by almost $20 billion as this new spending turned over in the economy. More important, about 13,000 construction jobs and 7,000 manufacturing jobs would have been created directly while indirect and induced employment growth stimulated by the project could easily have reached an additional 50,000. During a time when good paying jobs are scarce, this influx of blue-collar work would have offered a lifeline to the unemployed.