A No-brainer? - by Andrew Rosenthal

President Bush Weighs in on Keystone XL
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By ANDREW ROSENTHAL*

When a politician tells you something is a “no-brainer,” exercise caution, especially if he’s talking about energy supplies and energy prices. If there were no-brainers in this area, Americans wouldn’t be so dependent on foreign oil and so worried about rising prices.

Relatedly, former President George W. Bush called the Keystone XL pipeline proposal a “no brainer” on Tuesday.

Mr. Bush discussed the pipeline, which would carry heavy oil extracted from shale in Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast, at an American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers conference (which of course was eager to hear dissenting views about the importance of bringing American fuels and petrochemicals to market).

He said the proposed $7.6 billion project would create jobs in the United States and bolster the economy, and that it would help reduce the government’s current budget deficit (which he actually created with two wars and unnecessary tax cuts for the rich). “The clear goal ought to be how to get the private sector to grow,” he said. “If you say that, then an issue like the Keystone pipeline becomes an easy issue.”

Many other supporters of the pipeline project have made the same argument – that it would create jobs and give a jolt to a dragging economy. House Speaker John Boehner said it would result in 20,000 jobs, and Jon Huntsman prophesied 100,000.

But these claims are greatly exaggerated. The federal government estimates that it would create 6,000 to 6,500 temporary construction jobs at best, for two years.

Keystone would also do little to bring us closer to energy independence, since almost all of the gas refined on the Gulf Coast would be sent abroad, probably to China.

What pipeline supporters don’t mention is that it would create the risk of environmental disaster, since a leak at some point seems inevitable.

Ever since the president rejected Keystone—while leaving open the possibility of building the pipeline along a different route—the Republicans have been trying to sneak amendments into unrelated bills to overturn Mr. Obama’s decision. It’s all part of an election-year effort to blame him for rising prices at the pump – which he has almost nothing to do with – and to promote the industry-pleasing Republican solution, which is more drilling in more places.

Here’s why that policy makes little sense: The oil industry is not short on leases. It’s currently sitting on thousands of permits not in production. If the U.S. oil industry sucked up all its proven reserves – about 22 billion barrels – and put it on the market, it would last this country about three years. Some people say about 135 billion barrels are technically recoverable, and that we should add those to the tally. OK, let’s count them all, and that gets us to 25 years at current consumption. Not a long-term solution in my view. We cannot drill our way to energy independence. That’s a no brainer.
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* "The Loyal Opposition"
-From The Desk of Andrew Rosenthal-
New York Times - Opinion Pages
March 14, 2012