Keystone Pipeline Research Paper

Keystone XL: A Pipeline Fueling Debate The Keystone Pipeline XL, a large pipeline that has been proposed to transport oil from the Canada to the United States, has led to controversy recently. Why is there so much debate, you may ask, when it has, “the support of an increasing number of Democrats, as well as the vast majority of Republicans in Congress” (Steinhauer, 2012)? There are many disputes between political parties and groups in the U.S., but what is special about the Keystone Pipeline is that the support is not one sided. While a political party may share similar interests, core belief groups lie within these parties that separate them even more. To understand this and why there is not one hundred percent of either party approving, …show more content…
He agreed with classical liberalism and their view on limited government involvement. He also shared the belief that economic inequalities are inevitable by stating, “those who attempt to level, never equalize”(Burke, 1982, P. 55). The government should not try to make society equal, because it can never fully be equal. Burke (1963) broke away from classical liberalism by stressing the importance of family units, values, and traditions explaining that, “the individual is foolish…when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise…a species it always acts right”(P. 540). Burke believed that there is never a bad decision (according to the actions and mind of people), because people can just reason through it. According to Burke that is why we need traditional values, from churches and families, that are passed down from one generation to the next as a standard to compare your decisions too. For example, the Ten Commandments states that stealing is wrong. People look to this to decide if their decision to steal is right/wrong. Burke also stresses that traditional morality is more important than individual liberty, so that no one has the freedom to violate these morals. Traditional conservatives have sent mixed signals when it comes to the environment and the Keystone XL. Although traditional conservatives share a substantial chunk of belief with …show more content…
Ken Winston, a member of the Nebraskan Sierra Club—an environmental group—boldly opposes the pipeline stating it will be one of the most, “environmentally destructive activities on the planet”(as cited in Sachs, 2014). This statement shows that environmentalists have no desire in seeing the pipeline built. They also have concern regarding the use of the pipeline—if it is built. A major concern is that “TransCanada forecasted the pipeline would leak no more than 1.4 times a decade. In reality, it spilled 14 times in its first year alone”(Wieners, 2014). Many environmentalists empirically view this as a reason to oppose the pipeline, as well as create trust issues with the company. Overall, for an environmentalist, the Keystone Pipeline, regardless of jobs and profit, is a terrible