Power Nixing Power

"The shale became a lifesaver and a lifeline for a lot of working families. It has created more work for our business. There's jobs here for the first time in many, many years. Legitimate, good-paying jobs."
Dennis Martire, mid-Atlantic regional manager, Laborers' International Union, U.S.

"I've probably worked 15 jobs, and none of them nearly as stable as this one, or nearly as interesting. It's definitely changed the way I see my future. I see this as long-term employment."
Amy Dague, Wheeling, West Virginia

"The unions are powerful and influential. I understand the dynamic at play. It feels fairly short-sighted. This could leave the same sort of legacy as coal."
David Masur, director, Penn Environment

Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Mégantic, Que., Saturday, July 6, 2013.     Photograph by: Paul Chiasson, THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

Amy Dague of Wheeling, West Virginia is working for a pipeline construction and maintenance company. She's more than content with the opportunity her year-old job has given her for independence and job security. Environmental groups are not pleased, not one iota. They cringe at the very mouthing of fracking as the new release mechanism for America's vast stores of gas and oil.

They see the Marcellus and Utica shale fields with their rich abundance of natural gas and oil lying deep underground in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia where over 6,000 new wells have been drilled in the past five years as a repetitive struggle reflecting that of their battle over the Keystone XL pipeline. Over which green groups and major unions have staked out opposing sides.

Native American tribal leaders host a traditional opening ceremony to begin a horseback ride as part of a demonstration against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool on the National Mall April 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. As part of its "Reject and Protect" protest, the Cowboy and Indian Alliance is organizing a weeklong series of actions by farmers, ranchers and tribes to show their opposition to the pipeline. (Getty

David Masur, for one -- and he is one with a multitude clamouring behind him for the U.S. administration to pay heed -- feels government and industry should invest more and create jobs through expanding wind and solar power. Biofuels like corn have just recently been given a partial thumbs-down for their worse-than-oil carbon emissions. Wind and solar have been proving to be not quite as efficiently useful as had been hoped.

And nor do the environmentalists swoon over energy provision through nuclear power. But it is Canadian 'dirty' oil in particular they gnash their teeth over in frustrated fury that there might be a chance that President Obama might give it the long-coveted green light to proceed with the building of the pipeline. Volatile fuels without the pipeline will continue to move via freight train option, a less safe alternative than pipeline.

It continues to move because nothing will stop the juggernaut of natural fuel exploitation to satisfy the needs of industry and the production, travel and shipping requirements of an industrialized economy. The U.S. imports more gas and oil from Canada than from any other single source, but a large amount of crude oil from Venezuela, along with a reduced amount of oil from the Gulf States. The United States' carbon footprint is huge, thanks largely to its coal-belching chimneys.

According to The New York Times, Canada makes hardly a dent in the global carbon-emissions issue. Statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that global emissions come in at 32.6-billion metric tons. China's output is the largest of any one country, at 8.7-billion, leaving the U.S. second at 5.5-billion. Coal-driven electric power plants were accountable, in 2011 for 2.8-billion tonnes, automobiles, 1.9-billion in the U.S.

And Canada? Total emissions for the year 2011 came to 0.6-billion tonnes. Estimated emissions annually from the 830,000 barrels of oil expected to move through Keystone XL should the pipeline eventually become a reality would amount to 18.7-million tonnes, an amount scarcely noticeable within the larger picture of worldwide emissions, let alone that of China's total or of the United States' carbon emissions.

American Republicans and some Democrats consider the pipeline to be a done deal, something that should logically not be in question. The thousands of construction jobs alone provide a convincing argument for its completion. American labour unions are champing at the bit, while environmental groups are hysterically trying to burn the bit.

Considering the newly-strained relations with a conflict-roiled Middle East and an irredentist Russia, either of which would be happy to issue an economic warning, a slap of political resentment, a crippling blow to the American economy, the outright reasonableness of acquiescing to the building of the pipeline, and a closer tie-in with Canada over the energy sector might seem a foregone conclusion.

It would be a hasty one, however, since it doesn't appear to be in the cards under the Obama administration, alert to the hue and cry raised by the very demographics that helped put Barack Obama into power.