Fixing old water and gas pipelines would create far more jobs than building Keystone XL

[xchrom]

http://grist.org/climate-energy/fixing-old-water-and-gas-pipelines-would-create-far-more-jobs-than-building-keystone-xl/

?w=470&h=265&crop=1

In the coming months, President Obama will decide whether to approve the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude tar-sands oil from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. We know that the pipeline would greatly aggravate climate change, allowing massive amounts of the world’s dirtiest oil to be extracted and later burned.

The payoff, say supporters such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is a job boom in construction industries, which are currently suffering from high unemployment. Earlier this month, Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue called on the president “to put American jobs before special interest politics.”

If you believe headline-grabbing challenges such as Donohue’s, the president is painted into a corner on the KXL pipeline — trapped by a stagnant economy and an ailing environment.

The president knows KXL’s jobs promises are way overblown. In July, he explained it this way to The New York Times: “Republicans have said this would be a big jobs generator. There is no evidence that is true.” The most realistic estimates, said the president, show that KXL “might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline, which might take a year or two.” And after that, “we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs in an economy of 150 million working people.”

[liberal N proud]

1. 40 - 80 years old

That is the average age of our water pipes in the US

To get an idea of how old the nation's water pipes are, 30% of pipes in systems that deliver water to more than 100,000 people are between 40 and 80 years old, according to the EPA. About 10% of pipes in those systems are older.


<snip>

During the past couple of decades federal money for water systems has been cut significantly, he said. Economic stimulus legislation in 2009 was a "drop in the bucket," said Goldstein, who said about $10 billion was aimed at U.S. water infrastructure projects -- out of $787 billion in total stimulus.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/20/water.main.infrastructure/

But what is their answer? Privatize the water utility system.

[shenmue]

2. True

We need things like this.

[SamKnause]

3. The Keystone Pipeline

is not about creating jobs.

The Keystone Pipeline is about money.

The Keystone Pipeline will top off the wallets of the Koch brothers and all the politicians that are invested in it.

The politicians can use their "legal" access to insider trading to boost their profits. (This "legal" courtesy extends to their staff.)

The oil will be refined in Texas. (Koch Brothers)

They will ship the oil to foreign countries.

They sell it to them at a higher price to cover shipping cost.

In return it will raise the price in the US.

Everybody wins, except the consumers and the environment.

They would use robots to build the pipeline if they existed.

The only labor the "job creators" are interested in, is slave labor.

They love prison labor.

They love slave labor in foreign countries.

They have lost interest in the American worker.

Our wages are to high for the slave labor lovers.

Everything that is happening is INTENTIONAL.

The CORPORATIONS OWN the PLANET !!!!

Americans are having a hard time accepting this.

Americans never thought the corporations would rape the US like do to numerous countries around the globe.

That is why the US has implemented a militarized police force.

Prepare for low wages and environmental disasters.

[truedelphi]

13. We the People are expected to hand over the entire eco system without

A single complaint about doing it, so the One Percent yet again skim off the top.

[Progressive dog]

4. The Keystone is intended to ship Canadian tar sands oil

from Canada to the world. It is a bad idea for America but it may go through anyway. The government of the US is not paying for this pipeline, not only is it not government money that actually pays for it, it is a Canadian corporation. That money is not available for other things, even for fixing water pipes.
Congress needs to pass a jobs program now, and to pay for it with higher taxes on the wealthy. We need a new Congress to do this. Our first chance is 2014.

[pipoman]

5. And bridges, and highways, and airports, and mass transit...

[TransitJohn]

6. Where's the profit in that?

eom

[G_j]

7. Of course it would! nt

[yellerpup]

8. Yes, let's repair and rebuild.

Keystone XL is exactly what we DON'T need. Shut them down before they poison us all.

[heaven05]

9. you're talking sense

what's wrong with you??!!!

[ancianita]

10. Pity how disaster capitalism is another racket with the plus of 'creating' jobs, when they're really

only temporary cleanup.

[valerief]

11. Duh, but how does that make rich people richer, which is the whole point of existence?

[Plucketeer]

12. Instead of establishing outposts on distant orbs

how about building a national viaduct grid to move water surpluses to areas ailing from drought.