The Republicans are calling it the Keystone Jobs Bill. Of course like many names of bills, the name isn’t accurate. The pipeline only creates 50 permanent jobs and eliminates as many as 3,000 because of losses in transportation. The pipeline is meant to allow Canadian oil to be piped across the US so that it can be shipped to foreign markets. It really is of very little value to the United States. It won’t be a net job creator. And it won’t help oil prices.

But those are the real issues. The potential damage to the environment IS the main issue. The Canadian tar sands oil creates more greenhouse gases than conventional oil because of the way it has to be extracted. And then they want to pipe it across America so that they can sell it to foreign markets.

Of much greater immediate concern is pipeline safety. The residents of Glendale, Montana are learning the hard way what the real cost of an oil carrying pipeline is. Cancer causing benzene in the water is nothing to mess around with. I don’t think it is worth 50 jobs. I don’t think that would be the 3,900 temporary construction jobs. Let’s not kill people for a few jobs and a few more dollars of profit for Canadian oil companies!

http://news.yahoo.com/cancer-causing-agent-detected-water-pipeline-spill-143731937.html