Harris's Pipe Dreams

December 15, 2011 at 3:11 PM

By RICHARD CALKINS 

A December 8 press release from Andy Harris says that he will support extending the payroll tax cut to the middle class only if the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline extension is approved by Congress.  He says that the pipeline extension will create 130,000 jobs.  We’re grown accustomed to his shameless falsehoods, but even by his standards this is a whopper.

The U.S. State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement (August, 2011) indicated that 5,000 to 6,000 temporary jobs, including current Keystone employees, would be generated.  The Global Labor Institute (Cornell), concluded that it would employ 2,500-4,650 construction workers, 85% non-local, based on data from TransCanada, the Canadian oil company involved in the project.  The study concludes “Keystone will not be a major source of U.S. jobs, nor will it play any substantial role in putting Americans back to work.”

Harris does not mention that the proposed pipeline extension would harm the drinking water of 2 million Americans, most of which live in Nebraska.  Nor does he mention that tar sands oil is the world’s dirtiest source of energy.  The real energy jobs are now being performed by 3 million Americans in states affected by the pipeline who are building wind turbines, weatherizing homes, building parts for electric cars, and generally involved in clean energy industries. 

Meanwhile, for Andy Harris and his big oil supporters, truth remains a stranger.

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