Most of you know that within the last week, president Obama decided to delay any decision on approving the Keystone XL Pipeline which is supposed to bring oil from the Canadian oil sands across the USA to refineries on the gulf coast. The announced reason for the delay was to study an alternate path for the pipeline so as to avoid crossing the Ogallala Acquifer, the source of drinking water in parts of seven states. There have not been any pipeline leaks of note in North America that would give rise to such a concern, and it seemed to me that the fear of potential leaks was ridiculous. I have said so previously; the Ogallala Acquifer has nothing to fear from the pipeline. Now, however, more evidence has been put forward that makes certain that Obama's action had nothing to do with saving the acquifer and everything to do with helping his re-election campaign. From all the rhetoric, any rational observer would think that the land above the Ogallala Acquifer was pristine prairie, not sullied by other pipelines. Today, however, I saw a map in the Ottawa Citizen that shows all of the other pipelines running across the acquifer. You can see that map by clicking on the title to this post. There are already so many pipelines across the entire area that it looks like a spider web on the map. Obviously, there is no real concern that one more pipeline will somehow harm the acquifer; that is just the excuse being used to placate the environmentalists who do not want any further development of fossil fuel resources in the USA.
The simple truth is that Obama has been wholly dishonest. He has put his political fortunes ahead of the good of the country. He deserves to lose the next election for this reason alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment