BY DON NELSON

Energy independence. Job creation. Come on, Sen. Jim Inhofe, you have got to do better than that.

It is the worn out mantra of those supporting the Keystone XL Pipeline. It is a good example of the old propaganda tool – tell the lie often enough and it will soon be accepted as fact.

The best prediction on jobs to be created is that there will be an initial 3,900 to 4,000 or so temporary construction jobs. Perhaps lasting two years.

Permanent jobs have been said to be anywhere from 35 to 50.

As for energy independence, I really am at a loss to understand how shipping Canadian Tar Sand goop through a pipeline across the U.S. to the Gulf Coast where it will be processed at a greater expense than normal crude and then piped into tankers and shipped to other countries creates energy independence.

The end product will not be fit for auto fuel, so that argument doesn’t hold up.

The only people to benefit would be KXL and Canada. Guess who are major players in Keystone? Hint: They live in Kansas.

The biggest non-Canadian lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative brothers Charles and David Koch.

Now, Republicans can’t just go to the people and say that we need to make sure insanely rich billionaires need to be given an opportunity to become even more insanely wealthy, environmental impacts be damned. Of course not. Therefore, they need to go out and claim that the project will create tons of jobs, help the country’s economy and fulfill its energy needs. Or, in other words, lie. Lie through their teeth.

It stands to reason that the corporatists and oligarchs will rally round the flag of Kochland. They will decry any and all attempts to thwart their coveted pipeline. We will hear the shrill cries of the angry pachydermists, and a few jackasses, as they stumble and bumble around in search of an argument.

The U.S. does not need the KXL pipeline cutting its way from north to south for the benefit of the wealthy. It is not going to create sustainable jobs. It will do nothing to foster energy independence.

It will, in fact, create more discord and mistrust in the Native American population, the potential for environmental damage is palatable and, if nothing else, the fact that it is being promoted with false claims should nip it in the bud.

If there were to be thousands of permanent jobs and if the end product could be used as fuel for U.S. consumption, there might be a couple reasons to continue the debate. Those two conditions are not going to happen – and the preponderance of evidence points to the end of the debate.

– Don Nelson lives in Lawton, OK and is a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer