An apocalyptic crisis in global warming will inevitably occur if President Obama approves the Keystone pipeline, writes Donald Bellinger in his May 17 letter. Even if you accept his premise about global warming, tar sands oil will be carried somehow for processing somewhere and will not change his predicted outcome for global warming. What will change is the jobs and economic boom that will never have materialized if the pipeline is nixed.
He also claims that the State Department's report on Keystone acknowledges the harmful effects to the environment if the pipeline is approved. True, but the impact was deemed insignificant and the report removes the last stumbling block for a presidential decision. Will President Obama continue to appease his green voters or listen to the State Department and proceed with the pipeline? As a state senator, his favorite vote on controversial issues was "present," so now he has a chance to show some courage: buck the green zealots and overrule their dogma, stop demonizing "Big Oil" and endorse the Keystone pipeline.