LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Deep-sixing pipeline will up emissions

OPINION:

The Biden administration’s self-defeating foolishness in canceling the Keystone XL oil pipeline can be illustrated by a similar problem that we are experiencing here in the U.K.

Recently the U.K. government authorized the opening of a new coal mine, Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria. It is the first in over 30 years. Predictably, the Green brigade have been fighting the mine tooth and nail with legal action, and interrupting council meetings. 

However, these protests fail to address the purpose of the mine: It will extract coking coal for the steel industry. This means that the new mine will actually reduce emissions, as coal that is currently being imported can instead be produced locally, thus saving millions of tons of fuel that would have been spent on wasteful shipping. The same is true in the U.S., with the loss of the pipeline forcing oil to come from overseas instead.

If our steel plants close down, emissions won’t be reduced; they will just be off-shored to plants in China, where environmental protections are near-nonexistent and even more damaging. 

Happily, on this occasion the U.K. government has held its nerve against the short-sighted tree huggers, and the mine looks set to go ahead. Hopefully Congress in the U.S. can do the same for the Keystone XL. 

 

ROBERT FRAZER

Lancashire, United Kingdom