Perhaps the main objection to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline as well as the use of "fracking" to extract natural gas from the Marcellus shale deposits is that these carry with them a risk of introducing pollutants into the landscape and the water supply. Of course, there is some potential for harm in any man-made project. Building skyscrapers results in the deaths of migratory birds. Building high speed rail lines fragments ecosystems. Building dams impedes the movement of migratory fish and changes the ecosystem of the river. The questions are how great are the risks, do the risks outweigh the potential benefits, and can the risks be minimized?
In the case of the Keystone pipeline the benefits seem so significant and the risks seem so low that a lot of people are stunned that the President has elected not to build it.
Construction of the pipeline will generate thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue. It will cement our relationship with Canada. It will increase our energy resources and make us less dependent on foreign petroleum. It will deny a global advantage to China who will become the chief beneficiary of our refusal to accept Canadian oil. An American market will result in less pollution than if the oil is shipped to, and consumed by, the Chinese, and it will keep fuel costs down which keeps the cost of everything else down, thus presenting a boon to the American consumer, especially the poor.
None of this seems to matter, though, to our environmentalist friends who maintain that almost any risk of pollution outweighs whatever benefits accrue from the pipeline. Their goal is to do away with the use of fossil fuels altogether, and replace them with green energy like wind and solar. They oppose the pipeline and increasing the abundance of oil because it just delays the day of green energy nirvana. It's somewhat like a Christian believer in the eschaton refusing to pray for peace on earth because achieving it, however imperfectly, might delay the second coming.
The environmentalist is like a man walking down a city street who encounters a cluster of hungry children huddled together on the sidewalk near a hot dog stand. The shivering children ask the man if he would purchase for them some hot dogs so they can fill their bellies, to which request the man launches into a disquisition about how hot dogs contain carcinogens which could some day cause them to develop cancer, and how they contain fat which might some day clog their arteries, and the rolls are made of processed flour which provides no real nutrition anyway.
The children would be much better off, he pontificates airily, to eat green vegetables instead of hot dogs, and if they'll do that he'll buy the vegetables for them. "But there are no vegetable stands around here," the hungry children protest in dismay, "and we're too hungry to walk until we find one. The hot dogs are right here."
"Maybe so," replies the man, "but for your own future well-being, you must try to find a vegetable market. Hot dogs are not good for you." With that he pats them on the head and walks away, leaving the poor children still hungry and shivering in the cold.
