By Peter Galuszka
One has to laugh at just how fantastic the debate over energy has become.
Conservatives are trying to make President Barack Obama a goat for not bowing to the propaganda about the Keystone XL pipeline which would take unusually dirty oil from Canadian tar sands all the way to the U.S. Gulf Coast for refining.
Here’s a gem from a Jan. 18 editorial by The Washington Times: “The White House’s pre-emptive strike on the Keystone XL oil pipeline is a disaster for American workers and consumers. President Obama continues to demonstrate that he has no idea how real jobs are created or how the economy works.”
The propaganda campaign has trickled down to the Virginia level, which would get absolutely zero from the pipeline. Barry E. DuVal, the president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce has trashed Obama for his decision as has Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who is maneuvering to get a vice presidential spot with Mitt Romney.
So, it is unusual to pick up today’s Wall Street Journal and see this front page piece: “Oil and Gas Boom Lifts U.S. Economy.” The report states that U.S. oilfield jobs are up to 641,000, a 33 percent increase over the past five years.
Fueling the petroleum boom are new ways of reaching hard-to-tap oil and gas reserves such as hydraulic fracking. Gas from the Marcellus Shale deposit in the Northeast and Midwest has greatly boosted gas supplies. North Dakota’s once played-out oil fields are seeing a boom (not the “Boomergeddon” kind) as oil workers flock in, boosting $300-a-month rents to $2,000- a- month.
To be sure, the boom doesn’t address longer-term problems such as weaning the world from irreplaceable fossil fuels, their impact on climate change and the environmental challenges of fracking.
Rather, it shows the disconnect between the reality out there and the DuVals and Moonie papers of the world. One wonders why any respectable blogger would want to write for The Washington Times.
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