preview

Keystone Pipeline Pros And Cons

Good Essays

In addition to its detrimental environmental effects and commitment to furthering the use of unclean energy sources, the Keystone XL Pipeline does not offer significant benefits to the American economy or oil industry. When the Keystone XL pipeline was first proposed in 2008, there was a much higher need for more crude oil. America had just gone into a recession, gas prices were high, and many people thought that the pipeline was the answer to making this country money. However, as of January 2015 oil prices have dropped 50%, therefore resulting in cheaper gas prices (Cappiello 2). The President of the United States, Barack Obama, stated that “…the oil is going to be piped down to the Gulf Coast to be sold on the world oil markets, so it does …show more content…

President Obama stated that “…this might create a couple thousand jobs during the construction of the pipeline – which might take a year or two – and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in an economy of 150 million working people” (Swift 4). The most direct jobs are related to construction in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. There will be between 2,700 and 4,00 one or two year construction jobs, and then after that only around fifty permanent operating jobs will be created. Those small numbers are largely insignificant when the American economy is made up of over 150 million working people. The idea tossed around that 42,000 jobs will be created is vastly inaccurate. That statistic is based mostly on jobs that are indirect (such as people employed in towns where workers would live) and far from the construction site (Kessler 2, 4). 40 percent of those indirect jobs are composed of minimum wage work at gas stations (Smith 3). Even if the Keystone oil is not shipped overseas, which is most likely, the only way that the project supports those minimum wage jobs is by supplying the dirty oil that is available at the place where those people work. Glenn Kessler, who has reported on domestic and foreign policy for more than three decades, said that “even …show more content…

In fact, in addition to being environmentally friendly, the renewable energy industry is actually a much larger factor in the United States economy than the oil industry. The job growth in the solar industry alone has been six times more than the overall job market. A solar foundation study found that there has been a thirteen percent growth in higher skilled solar jobs including development and manufacturing that brings the total direct jobs up to 119,000 in the solar energy industry alone – a much higher number than the incorrect figure of 42,000 indirect jobs from the Keystone XL Pipeline (Smith 3). In addition, the pipeline would employ mostly low-wage construction jobs, whereas the renewable resource industry utilizes advanced engineering and marketing skills that pay higher salaries (Kessler 2). If the evidence that Keystone does not in fact create 42,000 jobs has not deterred many people from supporting the project, than the fact that the renewable energy industry creates thousands more most definitely will. An industry that is growing, successful, and environmentally friendly should be invested in substantially more than a pipeline that offers minimal benefits and a long list of negative

Get Access