Teaching as long as I have, I’ve made friends throughout the country, and a number in Canada too. Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Virginia, New Jersey, Alberta, British Columbia, you name it. Phones, FaceTime and now Zoom keeps us connected. And in the past three weeks, almost everyone I’ve spoken to is annoyed. Over the stopping of the Keystone XL Pipeline.😠 I mean, really annoyed.😡 And, in truth, so am I.😤

Apparently, the new administration believes that banning the pipeline will be a boost for climate change. Really?! If that’s the case, why are other countries, which have signed on to the Paris Climate Accords, working aggressively to build pipelines which can provide them with oil and natural gas? Nations like Germany, Azerbaijan, southern Europe and Canada.

Germany currently gets 40% of its electricity from coal. Now, they’ve moved from black coal to brown coal, but at the end of the day, coal is coal, and it certainly releases a great deal more CO2 than gas. Chancellor Angela Merkel is moving forward with the NordStream 2 pipeline with Russia which will bring natural gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany.

Then there’s the Caspian National Gas pipeline. Completed on time (December 31, 2020) and under budget, it’s one of the first of a number of pipelines. The Southern Caucasus Pipeline, is underway, and countries including Turkey and Italy hope that the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, will provide gas to Southern Europe. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan forged a deal just a few week ago. Why? Because at this point, renewable energy provides only a tiny fraction of the electricity and fuel that these growing nations need. Gas is infinitely cleaner than the current alternatives and can provide what is necessary.

And what about Canada, our friend and ally for 150 years? When President Biden stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was openly upset. And so was Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenny, who called it a “gut punch,” and believes that it will definitely hurt our mutual working relationship. American and Canadian workers–10,000 workers–lost their jobs. But actually it’s more like a minimum of 60,000 direct and indirect jobs that will be lost in short order. Union representatives, starting with Richard Trumka, President if the AFL-CIO, many Governors and state officials, US Representatives and Senators all know that stopping the pipeline will be very painful for a very long time. Most importantly, everyday people who work for a living, are saddened, scared, and distressed.

We all understand that climate change is an extremely serious issue, but let’s think about this. Using gas rather than coal has brought down greenhouse gas emissions in the US to 1992 levels–leading the world in carbon emission reductions. But stopping the pipeline means that the oil or gas will have to go by trucks or trains, and that will seriously increase emissions. That is a wrong-headed idea on every level. Members of the EU and the Paris Accords are ready and willing to use pipelines rather than trucks because they understand the benefits. Our government, on the other hand, prefers to increase emissions and throw people out of work on the vague promise that they will find other jobs sometime in the future–possibly jobs making solar panels, most of which are made in . . . China, which is one of the worst climate offenders in the world.😳

The Canadians are assessing what they will do now, while still speaking to the Biden administration. Some union leaders say they are having discussions with high level government officials. Hmmm. State and local officials keep pressing the White House to keep the Keystone Pipeline alive. Right now things seem bleak. But as one of my former grad students told me—“we’re writing our Congressman, and we’ll keep writing till they fix it or we’ll vote for someone who will!“