Pipelines For America

Posted on by rogerthat2017

Monday President Trump signed an executive order supporting the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.  In his order, President Trump was correct to require that these pipelines be built with steel produced in the United States but he did not make several other key requirements to make sure the pipelines work for America.

I support building pipelines for the transportation of oil for the simple reason they are much safer than using railroads.  The likelihood of spills and accidents is much higher with rail transport of oil than with a well constructed pipeline.

This being said, we need to make sure that the pipelines are built to serve the needs of America and not for the needs of other countries.  This is not the case with the Keystone XL pipeline.

The destination of this pipeline is a Texas Gulf refinery complex.  The final destination of the oil transported over this pipeline will likely end up supplying China and not America.  TransCanada, the company building the pipeline is in a partnership of China’s PetroChina LTD.  This company operates under the name Phoenix Energy Holdings in North America.  If we think that the Chinese are building a pipeline for us, we are dreaming.

Further, concentrating the refining complex in the Texas Gulf area makes our national refining infrastructure even more attractive and potentially disruptive target for terrorists.

A better terminus for the XL pipeline is a new refining facility built in Kansas or Missouri with distribution pipelines connecting to supply refined oil products to America.  This further reduces our dependence upon foreign oil.

For these reasons, I ask we all demand Congress that any approval for pipelines built for Canadian oil be used only for American customers.  Transit of Canadian oil across the United States and eventual export must be restricted.

Since there is a small risk of a pipeline failure, we must also demand that the any pipeline operator has sufficient liability insurance to fully cover any and all pipeline failures and resulting damage to individuals, the environment and public lands and rivers.  We have seen too many examples of where the taxpayers are left paying for the failures of companies that operate with little regard for safety and accountability of their operations.

Lastly, I remain concerned about the use and abuse of eminent domain by the government to  effectively take away a land owners private property.  The rights of property owners are continually being eroded.  While many infrastructure projects require the acquiring land rights, I think we are a slippery slope of government overreach in this area.  I admit that I do not have a specific recommendation for action.

I ask that you contact your Representative and Senator with your demand that our pipeline infrastructure is built for Americans and not for foreign interests.

 

Welcome Post

Posted on by rogerthat2017

Welcome to my new blog.  Cathy has been asking me to start writing a blog for a couple of years.  I think she has tired of my frequent fits of analysis and commentary and now wants to share her torture with the world.

The Populist(the medias word—not mine) movement of the past year and our new President’s Inaugural Speech has stirred me to write in the hope that I can add something positive and motivating to all of my friends.

This blog will not focus on personalities and politics.  It will focus on the critical issues facing our great nation and how we citizens will have to work hard to turn the rhetoric into action.

In his inaugural speech, President Trump said he was giving the power back to the people.  But just saying this does not make it so.   The swamp in our legislative branch is still full of politicians owned by the special interests and multinational corporations.  We know that they will act only in the interest of their lobbyists and not in our interests unless we commit to work tirelessly to demand the results we the people want. 

So this blog will frequently call on you to relentlessly call your legislators expressing your support or your disapproval of specific legislative actions.  The general promises that motivated many citizens to support President Trump need to be filled out with specifics.  We cannot allow the legislative swamp dwellers to spin these promises in ways that do not result in the outcomes that I believe most Americans want.

So get ready to do the work that we must do as citizens to Make America Even Greater.

Update 2/16/2021

Well it is a new year and a new President. t

When I started this blog, it was clear that Trump would need much guidance. Many of the basic issues that brought him into office were the result of the take over of our country by special interests, wealthy donors, multinational corporations, media companies and internet personalities more interested in clicks and money than in the citizens.

We all know that Congress is infested with politicians who claim to be for the people but are beholding to those with money and power. Virtually all legislation written over the last fifty years was bought and paid for by wealthy individual, dark money PACs, lobbyists and greedy corporations. The average working American has been forgotten and sold out.

Yet, after four years, most of the fundamental problems still face average working Americans. Our healthcare system is expensive and broken. Our tax code favors the wealthy and corporations while temporarily tossing a few crumbs to keep the voters sedated. Fixing our broken immigration policy was not even addressed even when the Republicans controlled everything. Infrastructure continues to crumble. Workers rights continue to be diminished. Opportunity for the disadvantaged remains out of reach. Accountability and transparency by our corporations and politicians is a myth. The big lies continue and insane conspiracies now dominate while critical thinking and science are ignored.

I think two critical changes are needed to our legislative process. One is a one issue one bill requirement. Our present bill writing method is to create a garbage pail of legislation in one bill that is thousands of pages long and full of pork for Senators and Representatives wealthy friends, lobbyists, special interests and corporations. It is time to break the complex problems into individual issues and write simple bills to address the specific issue. For example, what is the penalty for hiring illegal immigrants? Write the bill and then vote. That way we clearly know where every legislator stands.

The next is to require an immediate vote of every simplified bill submitted by one house of Congress to the other. When the House of Representatives passes a bill and sends it to the Senate, a vote is required. Likewise, when the Senate passes a bill and tosses it to the House of Representatives, a vote is required. No more of McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi and others ducking and delaying. Require our politicians stand up and vote. Put on record where every Representative and Senator stands on every issue. This will force negotiation and agreement but more importantly it will force real accountability and transparency.