Hanging On to Fossil Fuel

PRESIDENT OBAMA is set to veto the Keystone pipeline, and the fireworks are set to begin. He'll veto it because he's a solid environmentalist, and not so solid a corporate capitalist, who thinks the pipeline isn't worth the effort for two reasons. One, it would transport Canadian oil to U.S. ports to be sold to and shipped to foreign countries, which means that direct economic benefit to America would be somewhat limited. Secondly, the jobs thus provided for Americans would be temporary. The price of oil is down, and the price of coal is down, but presumably there will be, one day soon enough, a resurgence in price as the corporations garner one final payday before fossil fuels are relegated to the past. Once there were nearly a million coal miners in america, now there are fewer than one hundred thousand. Strip mining has taken over, in a process which greatly reduces labor costs and sheers the tops off previously beautiful mountains, causes coal sludge to accumulate in storage ponds, and results in trailer people being crushed, by runaway sludge and cascading boulder, in valleys in Appalachia. Even now federal litigators are going after coal companies who scrimp on mine safety, profit over people. Since federal regulators of every industry tend to be close friends of the companies they are mandated to regulate, federal litigation rarely accomplishes much, and the corporations either get away with murder, or declare bankruptcy, then soon reemerge with a new name and a clean legal slate. Big fossil fuel business has gotten yet another reprieve; the republicans are back in town, but only, we can hope, for a couple of years.