Elizabeth Warren and the Keystone Pipeline

One issue that I haven't heard much about has been the Keystone pipeline. As I understand it this is the deal:

Canada has a bunch of oil. They need to refine this oil. We have one of the world's largest refinery complexes in Houston, TX. Accordingly, a company in Canada would like to partner with some private companies in the USA and build a pipeline (with their own money) to get the oil from Canada to Houston. However, before they can build the pipeline, they need the US Government to agree to let them do this. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

However, the Democrats (in control of the White House and the Senate) are opposed to having the pipeline built. Their argument is that building this pipeline will be a climate-change disaster. Apparently, the benefit of the jobs created, the lowering of the price of oil, and the reduction of our reliance on imported oil from the Middle-East is not enough to offset the danger to Gaia that will result from building a pipeline through the mostly uninhabited great plains.

Even the Boston Herald is starting to see the sheer lunacy of the resistance to this project. They have a new article out criticizing Elizabeth Warren's opposition to this pipeline, who all the Democrats like to think of as "the smartest person in the room".

Here's my favorite part of the article, which perfectly sums up the current Democratic energy policy:

Instead, the Liz Warren left starts with “No war for oil,” then “No oil from Canada,” “No nukes,” “No coal” and then the inevitable, “Hey — wait! My iPad just died and there’s no electricity to charge it. Where’s my oil?!”

Remember: They’re the smart ones.

Just to review: The pipeline will cost zero government dollars; it's being built by private companies. It's the perfect kind of infrastructure we need right now. It will create jobs. It will lower the price of oil. It will reduce our dependence on oil from the middle-east. Oh, and if you think that not building the pipeline is going to thwart Canada from refining the oil - think again. So the oil is going to get refined one way or another. The only question is who do you want refining it: the USA or China?

On a final note: Everything still runs on fossil fuels, so until Elizabeth Warren invents a car that runs on oatmeal and will do 0-60 mph in 7 seconds and will drive for about 400 miles, we're going to still need oil. That's just a damn fact.

My reaction to the Democratic energy policy.