Pipeline aftereffects will be felt for years

I am shocked and ashamed at the vitriol directed toward the president’s decision regarding the proposed XL Pipeline project. Advocates of the pipeline, who see it as a magic bullet aimed at our unemployment and energy problems, are deluding themselves and ignoring the tremendous risks this project entails.

The pipeline will create a limited number of short-term jobs. TransCanada has already admitted inflating job numbers in its original proposal. The highly paid, highly skilled jobs will undoubtedly be filled by employees of the company conducting the work. In short, we will be risking American lands to create Canadian jobs.

The oil extracted will not be American oil, either. It will be sold on the open market with some small impact on world oil prices, which will continue their inexorable rise. Meanwhile, we will be putting at risk a critical freshwater resource, the Ogallala Aquifer. The toxic goo pumped through those pipes will carry the threat of benzene and other chemicals poisoning the source of 82 percent of the drinking and 30 percent of the irrigation water for over 2.3 million people — forever.

Those in Congress who want to fast-track this project, even though agencies responsible for guaranteeing the health and welfare of this country have said they will not have time to evaluate the environmental risks, are clearly doing so to embarrass the president and achieve some quick payoff in an election year. Their crass politicizing of this issue is simply shameful. This is not only a question of jobs lost. It is the question of balancing risk and reward.

There is no question that this project will provide great monetary reward for investors and paid supporters of this project; recent history makes it also clear that the majority of us will bear the risk, which will carry forward for generations.

James M. Wisniewski

Roselle