Good oil or bad oil?

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: Good oil or bad oil?

It’s an old story — a big oil company wants to build a pipeline, and environmentalists do all they can to block it.

This time it’s the Keystone pipeline, which would link the oil sands of Alberta Canada to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas. And, according to the company CEO, create a lot of well-paid jobs.

“The tragedy is to the average American. This is a great opportunity to go back to work, and we’re throwing it out the door if we let this project die.”

Well, the Obama Administration isn’t throwing it out the door, but it is going to delay it — because the present route puts a pressurized pipeline full of oil right through one of the largest sources of water in Nebraska.

But it isn’t just the enviros — the State Legislature of Nebraska, a thoroughly Red State with a Republican Governor, is also worried. Ranchers and farmers — who wouldn’t dream of chanting hey hey ho ho, unless it had to do with actual hoes — are worried. They just seem to mistrust oil companies for some reason.

But we need the jobs AND the oil — so how about this:

Since Trans Canada promises this will be as safe as a pipeline can get, suppose they prove that by having every TransCanada executive sign a binding document stating that should any of Nebraska’s water be affected by the pipeline or its construction, their company and each of them individually is financially responsible.

I think you would end up with a VERY safe pipeline.

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