Is the Keystone XL Pipeline "Inevitable?"

Here’s a good article on the Keystone XL pipeline – undoubtedly an ecological disaster of unprecedented scale– the equivalent of adding 51 coal-fired power plants, or adding 37 million more cars onto our roads.  The only reason for approving the project is that it’s inevitable.  But isn’t that the rationale for selling heroin to teenagers?  If I don’t do it, someone else will?

What’s the matter with taking the advice of so many of our top scientists and economists?

• Remove the subsidies to the oil companies

• Subsidize R&D for clean energy solutions

• Put a tax on carbon, further creating an incentive to migrate away from fossil fuels

• Create tons of well-paying jobs in the process

• Restore America to a position of technological leadership and economic prosperity

It seems so straightforward that is makes one suspicious that there may be some sort of unseemly power-politics behind our current approach to energy.  Hmmm.