Our Misplaced, Undemocratic Budget Priorities: The Case of Keystone XL

[marmar]

Our Misplaced, Undemocratic Budget Priorities: The Case of Keystone XL

Saturday, 18 January 2014 09:04
By Eleanor J Bader, Truthout | News Analysis


Several years ago, political economist Robert Reich asked a rhetorical question that bears repeating: "Wouldn't it be better to have a jobs program that created things we really need - like light-rail trains, better school facilities, public parks, water and sewer systems and non-carbon energy sources - rather than things we don't, like obsolete weapons systems?"

For many of us, the question of government priorities seems like a no-brainer. After all, shouldn't ending poverty - estimated by the Census Bureau to affect 15 percent of people living in the US - be a paramount concern? Shouldn't caring for the sick; building low-cost housing; creating jobs; educating children, teens and young adults; making clean water and nutritious food available and affordable; promoting the development of clean, renewable energy; and ridding the environment of toxins and hazards trump everything else?

Depends on who you ask.

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline is a case in point. As projected, the TransCanada Corp.-owned Pipeline will transport 800,000 barrels of crude tar sands oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, a total distance of 2,100 miles. While supporters tout the plan as decreasing US dependence on Mideast oil and say that it will create hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs, environmentalist are skeptical. They argue that the risks outweigh the benefits and say that the money to construct it would be far better spent on supporting the nation's essential infrastructure.

In fact, two environmental justice groups, The Labor Network for Sustainability and Economics for Equity and Environment, better known as the e3 Network, contend that the government should nix the proposed Pipeline and instead rebuild and maintain the nation's crumbling bridges, tunnels, roads and railways. In a report released in late 2013, The Keystone Pipeline Debate: An Alternative Job Creation Strategy, researchers assessed the proposed Keystone XL. Widely criticized by environmentalists - they believe it will exacerbate climate change by escalating emissions, raising sea levels and increasing global temperatures - its proponents repeatedly stress that it will provide decent jobs to people desperate for them. ..........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/21233-our-misplaced-undemocratic-budget-priorities-the-case-of-keystone-xl

[Progressive dog]

1. Keystone is not part of our budget,

misplaced or otherwise. It is not a government project. It is not a job creation strategy.