Greasing
the Wheels.
 A recent
vote in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for
the building of the Keystone XL pipeline passed 241-175.
Since supporters of the bill received six
times as much in campaign contributions from the oil
industry as opponents, $56 million total, that outcome
should come as no surprise.
Six times anything is a lot. Try playing baseball with
six times fewer players than the other team. That'd
be you and a guy without legs against nine other players.
Fox News once trumpeted the XL as providing over a million
jobs. Then the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said "Well, actually,
it's more like 250,000." But before the vote on the bill
last week House Republicans claimed it's really more
like 20,000. What's
the
real number?
Who knows. Probably a lot less that 20,000, which still
sucks as all the oil flowing through the pipe is destined
for China. All of it, that is, that doesn't inevitably
leak and poison the groundwater that the fracking industry
hasn't already ruined.
=Lefty=
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