This is why Donald Trump is dangerous. Today, he signed executive orders approving both the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline: two completely different things with two completely different purposes and two completely different sets of objectionable qualities. Lumping them together, albeit in two separate executive orders just demonstrates his wholesale ignorance and the fact that he won't let it get in his way. The Keystone XL pipeline runs from the Hardisty terminal in Alberta, Canada to another storage depot in Steele City, Nebraska. It cuts a corner in the extant pipeline system, but Hardisty and Steele City are already connected by a pipeline. Thus, all the Keystone XL does is increase the volume of petroleum that can be shipped from Hardisty to Steele City. So, why is the TransCanada pipeline company so interested in the Keystone XL? For the same reason that our oil companies are interested in building more refineries on our Gulf Coast: to export oil to other countries. The oil coming from Hardisty is troubling for a different reason as well. It is derived from Canadian tar sands, and it is among the dirtiest kinds of oil pumped from the ground. In addition, it is even harder to clean up when it leaks onto the ground, and last year alone, the EPA reported approximately 3,300 pipeline leaks in this country, so the Keystone XL, no matter how carefully built, is likely to cause environmental damage of some kind in some amount...for what. The sole purpose of that segment of our pipeline system is to expedite transport of Canadian tar sands oil to gulf coast refineries, and then for export. We are taking the risk so that Canadian big oil can make more money exporting oil while we are importing 20% of the oil we use. So, if Trump really means it when he says America first, why is he risking the American environment so that Canadian companies can make more money?
But the Dakota Access pipeline is different. It is intended to link the Bakken oil shale fields in North Dakota to the refineries and transport hubs in Illinois. There, the American produced oil will be refined in America for use in the American Northeast and Midwest, and yes, some of it will be sent to the Gulf coast as well. There are some environmental issues involved as the section of the pipeline in controversy is planned to cross under the Missouri River, which supplies drinking water to a Sioux tribe with a reservation downstream, and there is a sacred burial ground where the pipeline is supposed to be laid. But, despite the objections to this pipeline, it is at least intended to benefit Americans, and I don't mean just the bottom lines of American corporations, whom Mitt Romney pointed out "are people too," at least under the law. And I bring this up not because I don't care about the Sioux or the environment, but because energy independence is also an American priority, so there is at least an excuse for slogging through the debate and building the Dakota Access pipeline. There is none for the Keystone XL. Besides, these executive orders are noting but political showboating by the most egotistical president I can remember, and I remember quite a few.
The order regarding the Keystone XL suggests to TransCanada that it resubmit its application; the original application is no longer pending. As to the Dakota Access pipeline order, it instructs the Army Corps of Engineers, which must study and approve or disapprove some newly proposed route, that it do so expeditiously, but only as permitted by law. Thus, neither order means anything, nor does it bind anyone to do anything, so why issue them, and why lump them together in one day's transactions. Well, the answer is that he promised to reduce energy regulations, which he has no power to do, so he wanted to make a show of doing nothing as if it were something. It was just like the dog and pony show he ran with the executives from Ford, Chrysler and General Motors when he summoned them to his conference room in Trump Tower. He just reiterated that any cars manufactured by any of them in other countries and shipped back to this country for sale would be taxed. He didn't say how he was going to manage that since congress is usually, admittedly not always, involved in tariff and tax levies. It's all shobiz. Our president thinks he's still on The Apprentice.
So, before anyone gets excited about all these "executive orders," we should all remember that so far, they are "much ado about nothing," to quote The Bard: tempests in his little tea cup. But for all their insignificance, there is this. When Donald Trump makes these gestures in the future, some of them will be to some hapless effect. And since his thought processes stop as soon as he comes to the part where he determines that doing something makes him look good, these orders could bode ill for the future, not because of oil, but because of Trump. Lookout America. He's loose!
Your friend,
Mike
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