Cutting Off Keystone

JOSEPH NEY-JUN
Staff Writer

It can be said that the world runs on oil, or at least our lives as we know it. Although it is not the most efficient energy source, the infrastructures of many countries have been built around it. According to TransCanada, the company who funds Keystone XL Pipeline, it is a system of pipes that would run from Alberta, Canada to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. The plans for the pipeline have been in the works since early 2009, but President Obama has vetoed the bill and continuously put it on hold since his first term.

With so much of our infrastructure built around oil, the pipeline seems like a lucrative project. However, a society built around oil is living on borrowed time as it is. The President is right to veto the pipeline.

If only money were taken into account the question of whether or not to construct, the pipeline would be answered with an obvious yes, but the long-term repercussions on the environment would be far worse than a lighter wallet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), crude oil can pollute bodies of water and also cause the degradation of soil it soaks into, not to mention that the method of extracting the oil from the sands in Canada is extremely harmful. The EPA has also noted that refinery emissions on the Gulf Coast would increase.

The pipeline would create jobs, but only so long as the oil flows. It is within our best interest to do whatever we can to slow climate change and reduce our impact on the environment, or in this case, prevent any impact at all. Socrates once said, “Society grows when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.” While the pipeline might increase our quality of life now and maybe push down gas prices a little, the consequences would affect our children and our children’s children.