Charles P. Pierce: The Environmental Hellscape - The Keystone Pipeline Is (Basically) On

Mr Pierce uses the language magnificently.

"Keystone XL pipeline, the proposed continent-spanning death funnel that would bring the world's dirtiest fossil fuel from the environmental hellscape of northern Alberta down through the richest farmlands on the planet all the way to refineries in Texas, and thence to the world."


The Keystone Pipeline Is (Basically) On
By Charles P. Pierce on February 7, 2014

Photo Illustration by DonkeyHotey via Flickr/Special to The Politics Blog

The ducks are lining up in a very pretty row regarding our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, the proposed continent-spanning death funnel that would bring the world's dirtiest fossil fuel from the environmental hellscape of northern Alberta down through the richest farmlands on the planet all the way to refineries in Texas, and thence to the world. Ed Schultz is running the bullshi...er...ball on liberal MSNBC. Progressive champion Brian Schweizer is on board; what the hell, they're not going to take his land to build it. The State Department's cheesecloth "environmental" study is being treated as dispositive, not least by former Energy Secretary Ken Salazar, and AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka's on board, as well, guaranteeing that the stupid stand-off within progressive politics between organized labor and the environmental movement will go on for another decade, because we all know how helpful that has been. And, just for entertainment's sake, here's Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post being baffled by the jobs numbers, which all have been fake from the beginning because TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline, cannot be trusted. And the State Department's numbers, as the National Resources Defense Council makes clear, are one big ball of fudge. You simply cannot make the case for this monstrosity on the basis of economic stimulus, unless you count the strippers. Are we counting strippers?

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I think the deal has gone down. Some late Friday afternoon, the president and John Kerry are going to stick their heads out the window and whisper, "We gonna build this sucker," and then blow town. This is what will happen next. There will be massive civil disobedience all along the length of the pipeline. It will get built. TransCanada, as is its historic pattern, will then neglect to maintain it and it will leak, badly. The environmental damage will be massive and lasting. All over western Canada, which has stood firm against running this creature through its territories, people will chuckle wisely at what suckers we all were. And important pundits -- and fact checkers -- will tell us nobody could have predicted this.


Read more:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Bag_Job_Is_Nearly_Complete