I know that opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline love to use the talking point that the project will only create 35 permanent jobs, all aimed at maintaining it. It strikes me as a ridiculous figure, however, and if true a major problem. The project envisions a pipeline that would traverse parts of nine states. Could it be maintained with an average of less than four people per state? The thing is going to need routine maintenance, which ought to require more than 35 people to carry out, and what about when it springs a leak? And what about the people who have to monitor the flow and the people who have to offload the tar sands? And the people who have to oversee it all. And the folks that have to worry about legal compliance issues in nine states plus with the federal government?
Whatever you think of the environmental impact of the project, it will involve the movement of very valuable materials that will sell for billions of dollars. Even if almost all the money is sucked up by foreign owners, there ought to be at least some pittance left over that would create some downstream economic activity that creates some jobs.
If the point is that the pipeline is not going to create enough jobs to make any dent in the unemployment rate (certainly not 42,000 enduring jobs) and that it isn’t worth the risks and costs, then that’s fine. But when you are using a talking point repeatedly that even makes my eyes roll, I’d suggest that you aren’t convincing anybody.
The proper counter to a ludicrous claim is not another ludicrous claim. Make the claim work for you. Try this:
“Can you believe that TransCanada only plans to hire 35 employees and fifteen contractors to protect a 2,151-mile pipeline that traverses nine states?”
“What about the terrorists? If we can’t keep Ebola out of Texas how can we expect to keep ISIS from blowing up the pipeline? Unless those contractors are Navy Seals, we’re screwed.”
In other words, the problem with the project is that it will kill us all. And not because of the environment.