As a spectator, I enjoy US politics as it’s so much more interesting than what we have here in Canada.  Anyway the Republican congress has said its first priority is to pass the Keystone XL pipeline legislation which when you look at it is pretty stupid considering all the other things the country has to deal with but anyway President Obama has come out saying that he will veto it, good for him.

The typical Republican line is that it’ll generate thousands of jobs and help with energy independance but there’s just one small problem.  All the jobs that will be created are simply temporary maybe lasting 18 months and the CEO of the TransCanada has publicly said that the pipeline will create only 50 permanent positions.  Next the oil going to the Texas refineries is not destined to be consumed in the US market but rather sold on the open market!  I guess it can stay in the US if they’re the highest bidder but with shale and other domestic sources, the vast majority of the oil from Alberta’s oil sands (which is heavy oil, the dirtiest type there is) will instead most likely go overseas.

Seriously Americans do you know anything about your energy policy?

Here’s what Senator Elizabeth Warren said (absolutely love her), it’s something everyone especially Americans should hear.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lit into Senate colleagues on Thursday for putting a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline ahead of legislation that would do much more for American job growth and infrastructure.

“Who does this new Republican Congress work for? Foreign oil companies or the American people?” Warren said.

Source: takepart

And Senator Bernie Sanders has a great bit too.

Let’s for argument’s sake say climate change is not real, I think we can agree there’s only a finite amount of fossil fuels available in the ground right?  Why not switch to a sustainable system like solar, wind, tidal or geothermal?  Yes there’s the required initial investment but once that’s done the energy is essentially free and all we need to worry about is maintenance.  Oh right that’s socialism, companies need to be able to profit and fix prices of things to squeeze consumers of every last drop of money.

I swear I hate capitalism, all it does is promote the worst in humanity.