Originally Posted by
boozehound
Couldn't you say a similar thing about the pro-Keystone XL crowd RE: the 'who will yell the loudest'? Honestly preserving a couple hundred (or even a couple thousand) jobs isn't really a reason to make a decision of this magnitude. I will say, that I don't really like the idea of this wild back and forth between policy - one President is all for the pipeline and another immediately kills it.
I don't really have a particularly strong opinion on the Keystone XL Pipeline as a single issue. I don't really care that much about the Caribou or whatever, but I do think we need to move away from a reactionary energy policy. Not even solely for the environmental reasons, but for long term economic ones.
1. Renewable / Sustainable Energy. This is the future direction for virtually the entire developed world, and I'd rather us try to lead in this space than deny the clear direction things are headed. I think there will always be a need for oil, but reducing that need would seem to be a good thing. Bonus: If Oil and Gas prices stay depressed countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran will have less money to spend on being a pain in the ass for the rest of the world.
2. Energy independence: Related to point 1 - more solar / wind / nuclear helps drive energy independence for the US. While we can get there for a while with domestic Oil, I'd rather see us do it with a mix of energy sources. Particularly since nobody really knows how much oil exists.