Oil
Did we really just shut down our energy independence so we can buy oil from people that don’t like America?
So, for the last six months, we heard a lot about unity for America. You know America needs to heal and we need unity according to the media and a whole Presidential Campaign. We were never given plans on how to do this, just this is what we need, take our medicine.
So, did we unify America when we signed an Executive Order to stop the Keystone XL pipeline? I do believe Americans lost jobs as soon as the signature graced that document. Initially about 10,000 of them. That does not even account for secondary jobs that are used to support those 10,000 workers. Nothing unifies America more than taking away American jobs.
There have been some that have said, this was done for environmental purposes. Ok, I am all ears, let us hear those environmental purposes. I am waiting.
People like to use buzz words to their benefit, normally hoping to stifle the conversation or to divert the conversation. The environment is one of them. I can name a few others as well. Hey though, you know the deal we will unify as long as you agree with me and if you do not agree with me, we will unify by your submission. That is why we do an executive order for this. That presents a question. Why do we do Executive Orders? Each of the last President have signed them.
Executive Orders are done to handle something that has occurred that requires immediate attention, normally before Congress has time to act. Executive Orders are also done because you know your ideas would never pass Congress, hmmmmm sounds relevant right now. Finally, Executive Orders are done to satisfy your sponsor’s ideas to ensure you let them know you are grateful for their contributions, this may be relevant as well. Other than that, I am open to any other ideas on why we do Executive Orders. The first one I would hope would be used more often but common sense would tell us different. As a matter of fact, on October 15 th, President Biden was in an interview when he explained that Executive Orders is what Dictators do, any decision deserves consensus. My how five months changed his staunch stance. We are actually at the beginning of six days in office and we are on number 38 for such Orders.
Now back to the environmental issues, the pipeline itself lowers the carbon emissions. Not hauling oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast using trucks and trains immediately lowers that. In fact, the Obama Administration conducted an investigation on the environmental challenges with the Keystone Pipeline and they could not find any growth in Carbon Emissions. The State Department investigated it five times. Ok so what if it leaks? That is a good question. I would just refer to our nation’s history of pipelines, that millions of gallons of crude have traveled through. Have we had leaks? Yes, we have. Did we fix them, uh wait for it, uh yes, we did! We do have pipes all over North America to be honest so let us not be naïve about this. Oh, this Keystone one is the big bad one like no other I presume, at least according to some.
Maybe we should talk about the significance of this. Under the Trump administration we became energy independent. Something that had not existed in my lifetime. If gave us leverage throughout the world that we really have not seen. In the past if we disagreed with some country, we had to see how their alliance was with OPEC to see which avenue we would take with them. Once we gained energy independence, no country really had that leverage over us anymore. We maintained that leverage. Leverage is good.
On the second day of Biden’s presidency, he managed to piss off our physically closest ally. Remember the Biden administration was going to re-establish warm relationships with our allies. You know cozy back up to them. At least that is what they told us. I guess we will have warm relations unless their name is Canada. Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and then Canada has the largest percentage of world proved oil reserves in that order. 97% of Canadas oil comes out of the oil sands in Alberta. Want to take a guess where the pipeline runs?? You know it, Alberta.
So, what logical reason would we really shut this down for? I am waiting for the answer for that because right now I really do not know a logical reason for this. This Executive Order leaves many questions.
Why was this not debated on the floor of Congress where all points of view could be considered? I would suggest that any decision, that at the stroke of the pen in which would eliminate immediately 10,000 jobs, would merit this type of debate. The only hint of a debate I saw whatsoever was between Senator Ted Cruz and the former Mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, who faced trouble in the black community due to issues with the South Bend Police Department. So, when you cannot handle a city, what do we do? We make you the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, you know because he traveled a lot. I heard when all of Presidents Biden’s nominees where announced it was the most diverse and they are all qualified. It cannot be debated if you did then you are racist. That is another buzz word used to distort the details of the conversation. How is Buttigieg qualified to make transportation decisions? Just asking for a friend. This debate between Cruz and Buttigieg was actually for Buttigieg’s confirmation. But Cruz did ask Buttigieg about the dismissal of 11,000 jobs immediately. He responded with, “the answer is that we are very eager to see those workers continue to be employed in good paying union jobs, even if they might be different ones.” Really what he is saying with those rose-colored glasses on is those people will most likely have to relocate themselves and possibly their families, start over in a new career and work the next ten years to get even close to where they were before the President scribbled his Johnny Hancock on that Executive Order.
I hear the gentleman who had to inform his employees that they no longer have a job sum it up best. “The Federal Government never creates jobs all they can do is by the stroke of the pen is take your job away immediately.” In the military we have a general rule when taking over a new organization, that is do not make any sweeping changes for 30 days. This allows you the opportunity to absorb all aspects to the issue, which allows us to make sound decisions.
I believe the people who lost their job definitely deserves better. I believe the supporting role jobs that are not talked about also deserve better. Did we not elect officials to office to make sound decisions after considering the second and third order affects? Did we not elect officials to ensure we have a strategic advantage in the world? Did we not elect officials to make sure we have employment and not to end it by the stroke of a pen? I think we deserved better from our President through this transition time. This is not the time nor is there ever a time when we are pandering policy to appease our supporters. Are we unified now? Doesn’t America Deserve Better from our higher office?
The Vet
Originally published at https://shop.thecoachandthevet.com on January 28, 2021.
