President Biden put politics over science and people

Printed in the Herald-Times, February 12, 2021

To the Editor:

When President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline and eliminated over ten thousand good paying jobs, he did not reduce our dependence on or use of oil. We will still be transporting oil to use in our vehicles, but we will be transporting it on ships or trains. Both of these options are far less safe than the Keystone XL Pipeline would be.

In fact, there have been multiple severe accidents with transporting oil on trains, including one especially terrible spill and fire that left 47 people dead in 2013. See http://bit.ly/2MNKKs0 for more on these accidents. One need only point to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 to realize the danger of transporting oil on ships.

The Keystone XL pipeline, meanwhile, will implement the latest technology to prevent these accidents.

Oil not going away any time soon, so we might as well transport it in the most efficient and (more importantly) safest way possible. President Biden decided to cater to his base instead of looking out for the American people, and has damaged our relationship with Canada in the process. President Biden put politics over science and people's lives. He should reverse this decision.

Scott Tibbs