Known for his wry sense of humor and thought provoking commentary, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist Walt Handelsman attacks the pressing issues of the times. His entertaining and insightful cartoons cover topics ranging from national and local politics to social concerns.
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Ms. Ima said, 3 months ago
Mother nature put oil on earth for us to use. I’am amazed the dems are passing up this massive tax opportunity.
mickey1339
said, 3 months ago
It will be interesting to see how long Obama vacillates before making a decision on this. The EIR on this has most recently been documented to say that the pipeline will have no effect in the U.S. because the drilling is being done in Canada and whether we approve the pipeline or not, the drilling in Canada will continue. The unions want it approved, conservatives support it and now the EPA has given it “clearance.” The environmental lobby is against it. Obama is going to aggravate one of his core groups no matter what he decides.
Ms. Ima said, 3 months ago
If only the keystone people would pay O $500,000 for a half hour meetings all day long he might reconsider. That’s one poor white house occupier.
Gary Kleppe said, 3 months ago
@mickey1339
Or he could simply make a decision based on the actual merits of the proposal. There’s a novel idea. Start with the fact that it won’t create more than a handful of temporary jobs, won’t reduce gas prices in the USA, and could end up poisoning the water supply. On the other hand, it’ll make a lot of money for a few investors. Priorities.
coraryan
said, 3 months ago
@Gary Kleppe
Would you rather the Canadians sell the oil to China? That is what will happen. And how do you know it won’t reduce gas prices? Did it say so in your crystal ball? If the tree huggers would get over themselves and realize we need oil, coal and natural gas to survive, we would all be a lot better off. Solar & wind just will not do it. Eventually some brilliant person will discover something better, cheaper, “greener”, but that has not happened yet. And government needs to stop picking winners & losers. We can’t afford more Solyndras.
Wilbur Garrod
said, 3 months ago
is there not a refinery within 200 miles of Chicago?
Gary Kleppe said, 3 months ago
@coraryan
Chuckles, the whole point of the pipeline is to enable them to sell the oil abroad. That’s why they want to pump it down to the gulf and not somewhere closer like Chicago as Wilbur Garrod above suggests.
I know it won’t reduce gas prices because I possess a mysterious ability known as logical reasoning. No, we don’t need dirty energy, at least not in anything near the quantities we’re currently burning. Germany and other countries, even India, are proving that clean energy is not only possible but feasible. The only real problem with stuff like solar is that it isn’t monopolizable. If the public can’t be gouged for it then our corporate owners have little interest in helping produce it.
And I’ve got news for you: The government puts out huge amounts of money in order to maintain our system of travel by personal vehicle. Part of this is overt subsidies to oil companies, which I don’t hear your Republican buddies clamoring to end. But the bigger part is maintaining the infrastructure. When the government decides to build a highway instead of a rail line, it’s already picked winners and losers. Even if we had privatized roads, which would be an astoundingly dumb idea, the government still would’ve allocated the land. The same goes for power for home use. The government gives somebody a license to set up a power grid and to run power plants. If I don’t like it I can’t exactly open up a competing plant next door. The only way it could avoid picking winners and losers is to have everything involved with the process be under full public ownership. Sound like a plan?
Atma said, 3 months ago
Solar is actually beginning to be competitive at the high end of electric generation right now. Because of the fast pace of innovation, particularly in the USA, in 5-7 years solar will be aggressively competing with the low end of electric generation. And in 15 years all these solar naysayers will be saying, “Well I knew that.” while savvy investors will have made their fortune on it.
Atma said, 3 months ago
BTW, the pipes going into the ground for the Keystone have pinholes galore from substandard welding.