While labor leaders weigh the pros and cons of building KXL, they should
keep in mind that the pipeline is as much a threat to our economy as it
is to our planet. After a year of extreme weather — at an extreme cost
to the economy — this age old jobs vs. environment debate is emerging
as a false choice. Hurricanes, floods, and droughts are already having a
devastating effect on American jobs, and that is nothing compared to
what will happen if we throw open the spigot to the tar sands from
Canada, considered the dirtiest oil in the world.
There is no good balance sheet for the KXL, either environmentally or fiscally.
The KXL is another dolt project. The price of oil collapse alone would assault the Saudi Arabian economy.
Green energy is cleaner and safer when it comes to work. There aren't physical maladies to the Green Industry that is found in the petroleum industry. There are no explosions and deaths. People actually live to collect their pensions.
There are no earthquakes or deadly water supplies. The jobs are sustainable. The Green Energy jobs are not temporary. It is a growing market.
The Green Energy Revolution is bringing back local economies.
May 7, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Christina Rogers
The Detroit News
The
latest auto industry downturn had nearly halted production on the
factory floor. The plant, which made high-tech machinery for car and
truck plants, was limping by with only five workers. And parts orders
were drying up.
But today, the cavernous,
two-story factory is ramping up production of another sort, churning out
wind turbines to meet a fast-growing demand for this renewable power
source. MasTech has restored its workforce to more than 40 employees --
hiring many former auto workers -- with plans to grow as the firm seeks
to meet a 2,500-unit back order.
"If we
didn't have these wind turbines," said John Holcomb, the plant's
manager, "we wouldn't be here talking today. The doors would be closed."
The small factory in Manistee, a former
industrial stronghold on the shores of Lake Michigan that once served as
a hub for salt mining and lumber mills, is helping usher in a new,
greener era for Michigan manufacturing, one state officials hope will
transform the Great Lakes State into a hub for milling parts for the
nation's growing number of wind farms....
2. The same fossil fuel interests pushing the Keystone pipeline have been cutting, not creating, jobs:
Despite generating $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010,
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP reduced their U.S. workforce by
11,200 employees over that period. In 2010 alone, the top five oil
companies slashed their global workforce by 4,400 employees — the same
year executives paid themselves nearly $220 million.
3. Unemployment will rise: According to Mark Zandi, the
Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics: “Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc
on the job market in November, slicing an estimated 86,000 jobs from
payrolls.” In the wake of Hurricane Irene, the number of workers filing
unemployment claims in Vermont went from 731 before Irene to 1,331 two weeks afterwards. Hurricane Katrina wiped out 129,000 jobs in the New Orleans region — nearly 20 percent. For the U.S. economy as a whole, 2011 cost US taxpayers $52 billion.
4. Poor and working people will be disproportionately affected:
KXL and projects like it result in disproportionately negative impact
on already struggling working families. According to a recent report by
the Center for American Progress called “Heavy Weather: How Climate Destruction Harms Middle- and Lower-Income Americans,
lower-and middle income households are disproportionately affected by
the most expensive extreme weather events. Sixteen states were afflicted
by five or more extreme weather events in 2011-12. Households in
disaster-declared counties in these states earn $48,137, or seven
percent below the U.S. median income....
...Research by the Solar Foundation shows a 13 percent growth
in high-skilled solar jobs spanning installations, sales, marketing,
manufacturing and software development — bringing total direct jobs to
119,000 in the sector. And according to the Political Economy Research Institute
at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, investment in a green
infrastructure program would create nearly four times as many jobs as an
equal investment in oil and gas.
Advocating for KXL is the same as advocating fiscal, environmental and citizen death. The reasons to refuse to build this disaster far outweighs any other. It is stupid project. It is a project of "Greed, not Need."
The unions are wrong about this. They need to expand their interests into the Green Energy Industry rather than holding on to old energy paradigms. Unions are successful in Michigan. They need to talk to the folks at MasTech Manufacturing. The unions need to promote the new technologies. They need to be a friend as well as a support.
A study by Synapse Energy Economics
developed a Transition Scenario for the electric power industry based
on reducing energy consumption, phasing out high-emission power plants,
and building new, lower-emission energy facilities. The study estimated
the number of “job years” — one new worker employed for one year — that
would be created by the Transition Scenario over a decade:
- 444,000 job-years for construction workers, equivalent to 44,400 construction workers working full time for the entire decade.
- 90,000 job-years for operations and maintenance workers, equivalent to about 9,000 full time workers employed over the decade.
- 3.1 million indirect jobs for people designing, manufacturing, and
delivering materials and jobs in local economies around the country
induced by spending by workers hired in the Transition Scenario.
Organized labor is right to demand that public policy pay attention
to our desperate need for jobs. But the Keystone XL pipeline will only
make our jobs crisis worse by making our climate crisis worse. Plus,
there are lots of pipelines that need fixing. Construction workers can
be put to work rebuilding our crumbling natural gas transmission
pipeline system — this will create good union jobs and cut carbon
emissions. And these same workers can rebuild our crumbling water
infrastructure. If labor is going to fight for jobs, let’s fight for
jobs that build the future we want for ourselves and our children, not
ones that will destroy that future.
The climate crisis and the minimum wage are unrelated and should stand on their own. I find it interesting though that the Republicans are willing to vote for the minimum wage in exchange for a vote on KXL. I thought the minimum wage was going to set the country into the next Great Recession.
