Build back worse?

Your contributor of Dec. 15 from Long Grove thinks the country would be better off had the Keystone XL Pipeline become reality instead of the Build Back Better infrastructure program, insisting 43,000 jobs were lost due to Keystone's cancellation. According to the State Department (and the company's president while under oath during congressional testimony), it would have created 3,900 temporary jobs if completed in one year or 1,950 temporary jobs if done over two years.

Keystone would have created a total of 35 permanent jobs in the U.S. Of course, that doesn't include the costs of the 1.3 billion tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions generated over its 50-year life span or the costs of its inevitable spills (directly over the country's biggest aquifer) - all costs borne by the U.S. taxpayer in support of a Canadian firm.

Yes, the Build Back Better program includes increased taxes on the wealthy, but then again, they just enjoyed a trillion-dollar tax cut. Build Back Better is projected to create 2 million good jobs in the next five years and, as an added bonus, result in the restoration of the nation's crumbling infrastructure - among many other plusses (universal child care, rural high-speed internet, fighting climate change, affordable home care, affordable housing, increased health care, et al).

How awful to do something for benefit of the American people when we could instead have 35 climate-destroying jobs.

Additionally, oil production is international. In 2018 the U.S. pumped more oil than Saudi Arabia and today pumps out 20% of the world's total. Oil flows to international markets and the prices are set there. If every yard in America had a well, it wouldn't change a thing - except for ruining a lot of lawns.

Patrick Lynn

Lake Zurich