Barry Smitherman is the publisher of this opinion piece in the Austin-American Statesman on the Keystone XL pipeline, which he obviously strongly supports. Smitherman is the Railroad Commission of Texas (appointed by Governor Perry), chairman of the Public Utility Commission and serves on various other committees/boards, he has an impressive resume. Smitherman claims this pipeline is completely privately funded, will create jobs, have no significant negative impact on the environment, and help the US dependence on foreign oil. He attempts to back this up by stating “Keystone XL has been subjected to an exhaustive three-year federal review of a project that's destined to deliver the jobs, investment and energy security our country needs — right now.” This all sound nice the way he writes for the general audience (no big words, yeah!) but I remain skeptical about this pipeline because it’s just the way I am. I need to hear other sides to this story, the ones who strongly oppose this pipeline being built and why.
Do I like the idea of more jobs for Americans? Of course I do!
Do I like the idea of no more foreign oil dependence? Duh! Of course!
I agree with Smitherman in those two areas, Americans need jobs and the United States needs to be less dependent on the Middle East for oil. Whether I agree with building the pipeline still remains to be figured out. I just know that after reading this commentary I have lingering questions about this pipeline, like…
Who’s going to regulate/enforce the maintenance of these pipelines? Who will ultimately be responsible? (I don’t want another blame game fest, like after the oil spill in the Gulf) And, what does “will not have any significant negative environment impacts” actually mean? Is this “not have any significant negative environmental impact” like saying we’re killing off some feral hogs or is it bigger than that? I want to know because this could mean different things to different people.
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