Random Update On Enbridge Line 61 -- January 17, 2015

An op-ed in The New York Times:

Enbridge is seeking to increase Line 61’s capacity threefold, making it a third larger than the projected Keystone XL. The last real line of defense against this expansion is an obscure zoning committee in Dane County, Wis., which is scheduled to meet on January 27, 2015, to decide whether to attach conditions to Enbridge’s permit for a new pump station. Voting to do so would risk a lawsuit from Enbridge, which maintains that the county has no legal right to impose such conditions.

I track "pipelines of interest" here.

Meanwhile, being the "fair and balanced" newspaper it is, The New York Times also had an op-ed piece on the Keystone:

Even as the Keystone debate reaches its current crescendo, all that is left, really, is the symbolism. The Republican right claims that Keystone will create jobs. It won’t, not to any significant degree. The Democratic left says that the oil Keystone will bring to the Gulf is so dirty, so carbon laden, that it will wreak havoc on the climate. It won’t do that either. If the president ultimately decides not to approve Keystone, he will do so knowing full well that he has not stopped the tar sands oil in any meaningful way.

I particularly enjoyed the writer's honesty in qualifying his statement that the Keystone won't create jobs. Two comments: "significant" is in the eye of the beholder. In general, having a job is better than not having a job, I suppose. Considering that the Obama administration has created no new jobs, just the fact that TransCanada might create any jobs is noteworthy.

The second comment has to do with welders.

Had the Keystone been approved years ago, there would have been a huge shortage of welders, exacerbating the boom in the Bakken. I'm not saying the shortage would have stopped/delayed the Keystone but it would have competed for welders working in the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian oil patches.

There's a real concern with the slump in oil prices about the jobs for blue collar folks like welders. Wouldn't it be interesting if the Keystone was approve and welders got their jobs back?

[An aside: I find it interesting that the Al Sharptons and the Barack Obamas of the world keep making stump speeches on the need for more jobs, and then in Washington put out press releases and veto threats to stymie job creation. The stump speeches get limited press coverage; the press releases get full press coverage.]