Keystone XL is a lesson waiting to be learned

If you’re at all plugged into the enviro news via Twitter, RSS feeds, or even blogs (how quaint!), you probably know that the hot news is that President Obama is set to reject the application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. As with almost anything that’s triggered this much emotion and clash of wills (or perhaps I say a clash of our wills against the throw-weight of Big Fossil’s sacks of money), it presents a learning opportunity. Whether anyone will avail themselves of it is another question entirely, of course.

Michael Levi is among those casting a cold eye on the whole affair, and he details Five myths about the Keystone XL pipeline. I think he has it just about right, but he’s overlooked the biggest and most important one of them all: KXL isn’t dead. At best it’s been delayed, and anyone who thinks it’s truly dead is engaging in wishful thinking and premature triumphalism.

In this vein, at least one unnamed source is suggesting that TransCanada could reapply with new pipeline route, “They could always submit a new application with a revised route.” This is barely hinting at the real situation: They could resubmit a new application with a Republican president.

Did I just suggest President Obama will lose in November? Not at all. In fact, I expect him to win a moderately close election. But I know a couple of things:

1. Eventually the US will elect another Republican to the White House. Maybe not this cycle or even the next (when President Cuomo is seeking re-election), but it will happen. The Republican party will not continue to crank out tiny cars that unload preposterous numbers of red-nosed, giant-floppy-shoe-wearing candidates forever.

2. Fossil fuel companies know time is on their side. That oil isn’t going anywhere, and neither is our planet-wide lust for it. Given that the on-road lifetime of a vehicle in the US is at least 15 years, I very strongly suspect that the shiny, new, living room-size SUVs we see ponderously rolling off lots today in the US (or China or India or …) will someday be fueled with gasoline made from crude oil transported via KXL-II, or whatever it’s called. (If the Republican strategists have any role in the naming, it will likely be named Freedom or Liberty or Eagle or Fuck You I’ll Drive Whatever I Damn Well Please You Commie Scum. OK, maybe that last one is a bit too on the nose, as they say.)

If it were my decision I would definitely reject the application for KXL, no matter how many times it was submitted and under which button-pushing name. Why? Simply because we have to start turning away from fossil fuels somewhere, sometime, and that’s as good an opportunity as any to pull the needle out of our arm, if only for a short while. Plus, I would dearly love to see a president use such a rejection as a teaching moment. Deliver a national address and quote all the top scientists and scientific organizations, and explain why this is what being the societal equivalent of a responsible adult looks like: Turning away from the cheap, easy alternative because we know it’s in our own best interest. That last part isn’t going to happen, but a greenie can dream, can’t he?