XL Pipeline- Insane Jobs Program

Watching the primary debates one thing is pretty clear, in an election that is supposed to be about the economy, neither party is serious about holding Wall Street accountable for taking down the world economy, defending labor in America or changing our trade policies. So what is left to get the economy going? Both Democrat Langevin and Republican Riley agree, the solution is building the XL Keystone pipeline. As Einstein famously mused, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. In this case the result is deadly.

I strongly oppose the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump corrosive toxic sludge called tar oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, exacerbating the climate change caused by burning fossil fuels and accelerating sea level rise. In Matunuck where I live, we have already been forced to make the difficult decision of whether to build expensive protective walls that only delay the day of reckoning while diverting the erosion to other areas or whether to abandon the coastal road and the homes and businesses along it. Whether it’s erosion, or flooding, or both, every city and town in the state is paying the price of climate change, and the pipeline would only make the cost go up.

Republican Michael Riley enthusiastically endorses the building of the pipeline and Congressman Langevin, who acknowledges that Global Warming is real and manmade still somehow supports the pipeline as long as the US gets some of the oil and it goes through a “safe” route.  Riley’s and Langevin’s positions demonstrate an understanding of neither the extraction, transport, and refinement of tar sands oil, nor the gravity of our climate problem.

Leading environmentalist Bill McKibben, whose group 350.org encircled the White House in an act of civil disobedience to stop the pipeline, was blunt in response.

“No one should be running for office on the promise of building the Keystone pipeline, not when our top federal climatologist says burning the carbon in those Canadian tar sands would mean “game over for the climate,” and not when the couple of thousand jobs it would create are vastly outnumbered by the good jobs that will be created when we make the real transition to renewable energy. I know the Koch Brothers want the pipeline, and I know they’re really rich, but that’s not a good enough reason.”

The environment is just one example of where I differ from my rivals, and the other points in the platform along with other issues of concern were discussed in a question and answer session following my press conference on Thursday, the 13th.

Let’s get America’s economy and democracy back on track in a sane way. You can check out the way I answered the questions posed to candidates on the WJAR primary debates by clicking on this link. Contrast Abel’s responses to the CD2 primary debate questions with other candidates here. 

At the presser in my campaign headquarters,  166 Atwood Ave. in Cranston I talked about these issues, the economy and a real green jobs program; along with taking Washington DC “off the auction block” (as Dennis Kucinich puts it) and the ongoing attack on our civil liberties that congressman Langevin just voted for this week with the extension of the FISA court exception (video to follow).