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Keystone XL and Jobs: Just More Pipe Dreams
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Feb 24, 2012, 10:11:23 PM2/24/12
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Keystone XL and Jobs: Just More Pipe Dreams
By Robert Redford, Reader Supported News
12 December 11
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/8868-robert-redford-keystone-xl-and-jobs-just-more-pipe-dreams
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) became the latest source of
misinformation on this. He said Thursday that the Keystone XL "will put tens
of thousands of Americans to work immediately."
That's just not true.
The project would provide, at most, 6,000 temporary construction jobs, very
few of which would be local hires, according to an analysis performed by the
U.S. State Department.
"The construction work force would consist of approximately 5,000 to 6,000
workers, including Keystone employees, contractor employees, and
construction and environmental inspection staff," the State Department
concluded in the executive summary of the final Environmental Impact
Statement it published in August. Even that may be pushing it.
Cornell University's Global Labor Institute did its own evaluation,
concluding that the project would employ between 2,500 and 4,650
construction workers. "Most jobs created will be temporary and non-local,"
the institute concluded in its report, appropriately titled, "Pipe Dreams?"
Local hires hover below 15 percent, the institute calculated, based on data
provide by TransCanada, as much of this work requires special skills and the
workers capable of performing sophisticated pipeline tasks would likely be
brought in from outside the region.
"KXL will not be a major source of U.S. jobs, nor will it play any
substantial role at all in putting Americans back to work," the Cornell
report states.
Even TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline company that wants to build the
pipeline, has said it would create "hundreds" of permanent jobs. That's what
TransCanada's vice president for pipelines, Robert Jones, told CNN a few
weeks ago.
Overall, Cornell economists found the project would be a job killer, because
it would kick down the road the investment we need to drive renewable energy
and efficiency gains. That's where the real jobs are: jobs for carpenters
weatherizing homes in Ohio, steelworkers building wind turbines in Indiana,
tool and die makers manufacturing parts for electric cars in Michigan, and
on and on from coast to coast. And these are the careers of the future for
the workers of tomorrow, in trades and professions that already employ some
2.7 million Americans.
The real jobs in the region come from the ranches and farms, more than a
quarter of a million of them in the Great Plains states the pipeline would
pass through.
Why would we put these fertile croplands, and the wheat, corn, and cattle
they produce, at risk for the profits of the oil industry? It had, by the
way, more than $100 billion in profits during just the first nine months of
the year. Nothing wrong with profits, but let's not pretend this is about
anything else.
By Robert Redford, Reader Supported News
12 December 11
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/8868-robert-redford-keystone-xl-and-jobs-just-more-pipe-dreams
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) became the latest source of
misinformation on this. He said Thursday that the Keystone XL "will put tens
of thousands of Americans to work immediately."
That's just not true.
The project would provide, at most, 6,000 temporary construction jobs, very
few of which would be local hires, according to an analysis performed by the
U.S. State Department.
"The construction work force would consist of approximately 5,000 to 6,000
workers, including Keystone employees, contractor employees, and
construction and environmental inspection staff," the State Department
concluded in the executive summary of the final Environmental Impact
Statement it published in August. Even that may be pushing it.
Cornell University's Global Labor Institute did its own evaluation,
concluding that the project would employ between 2,500 and 4,650
construction workers. "Most jobs created will be temporary and non-local,"
the institute concluded in its report, appropriately titled, "Pipe Dreams?"
Local hires hover below 15 percent, the institute calculated, based on data
provide by TransCanada, as much of this work requires special skills and the
workers capable of performing sophisticated pipeline tasks would likely be
brought in from outside the region.
"KXL will not be a major source of U.S. jobs, nor will it play any
substantial role at all in putting Americans back to work," the Cornell
report states.
Even TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline company that wants to build the
pipeline, has said it would create "hundreds" of permanent jobs. That's what
TransCanada's vice president for pipelines, Robert Jones, told CNN a few
weeks ago.
Overall, Cornell economists found the project would be a job killer, because
it would kick down the road the investment we need to drive renewable energy
and efficiency gains. That's where the real jobs are: jobs for carpenters
weatherizing homes in Ohio, steelworkers building wind turbines in Indiana,
tool and die makers manufacturing parts for electric cars in Michigan, and
on and on from coast to coast. And these are the careers of the future for
the workers of tomorrow, in trades and professions that already employ some
2.7 million Americans.
The real jobs in the region come from the ranches and farms, more than a
quarter of a million of them in the Great Plains states the pipeline would
pass through.
Why would we put these fertile croplands, and the wheat, corn, and cattle
they produce, at risk for the profits of the oil industry? It had, by the
way, more than $100 billion in profits during just the first nine months of
the year. Nothing wrong with profits, but let's not pretend this is about
anything else.
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