Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Gaye Symington of Jericho, executive director of the High Meadows Fund and a former Democratic speaker of the Vermont House.
Several weeks ago I signed up to get arrested. I was inspired to sign up for a protest at the White House after listening to author Bill McKibben articulate the dangers of the Keystone XL pipeline. If approved by President Obama, it would pump crude to Texas, after extracting it from Canadian tar sand deposits using massive amounts of energy to mine, process and heat the crude so it will flow in a pipe.
They say we need cheap oil. Who’s kidding whom? If oil prices hadn’t been rising so reliably, would it be financially viable to extract, process and heat this crude and pipe it the length of our country to refineries, and then pipe or truck it to our homes?
They say Canada is our friend. Sure, why wouldn’t they be friendly when we’re considering dumping zillions of dollars from the U.S. economy into the Canadian economy?
They say the pipeline creates jobs. So does heroin. Rather than create jobs pumping poison-laden crude into our economy and destructive emissions into the atmosphere, let’s instead create jobs at home, insulating and air-sealing existing housing stock and designing new homes that are more affordable to heat and cool year round. Let’s create jobs-building clean renewable power generation. Let’s carpool or telecommute.
Jim Hansen, who directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, has said: “If we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate “the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground.” … “if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over.”
After work last Thursday, I drove to New York from where I planned to take the train to DC for the protests. But as I drove south, I listened to Northeast governors and mayors plead with residents to evacuate areas during Hurricane Irene and to prepare for disruption after the storm passes. I eventually heeded their pleas and headed home Friday morning. Back in Vermont, I watched the destructive power of Irene’s heavy rains: lost lives, hundreds of road cave-ins and destroyed bridges, crops, businesses, community landmarks and homes.
I’m not a scientist, but 97 out of 100 climate experts agree that changes in the earth’s climate (more frequent extreme weather events, higher sea levels, rising global temperatures, warmer oceans, melting glaciers and ice caps) are attributable to human activity.
I’m not an economist, but when I learn that Vermont is spending more to heat our buildings than all the revenues brought in by our dairy industry, I know that represents a drain our economy cannot sustain.
I am a mom of young adults. Irene’s torrents of water destroyed farms recently established by young entrepreneurs intent on contributing to Vermont’s new agricultural economy. A pizza parlor landed in the middle of the road. Covered bridges that have stood through, literally, centuries of previous high water events were carried downstream.
What economic straightjackets are we putting this new generation into as they build new businesses in a natural environment that can turn on them so violently?
It is not in our national interest to build a pipeline that would tighten this straightjacket. President Obama needs to break, not feed, our addiction to fossil fuels. He should help build economic opportunity, not stifle it under the constant threat of destructive climate events.
