Brent Batten: Two views affirm pipeline safety as Obama balks on project

A hundred yards out the back door of the house where I grew up in Somerset, Ohio, was a dense woods populated by squirrels, salamanders and deer.

A babbling stream was bridged by fallen trees covered in lush green moss. It was shady cool in the summer and its oaks and pines blocked the winter wind. A boy of 7 and his mates could conjure countless adventures in its overarching embrace.

An equal distance out the front door, one of the largest pipelines in the country rose from the ground like a giant silver serpent and plugged into engines as big as locomotives that generated the pressure needed to speed billions of cubic feet of natural gas on the journey from Texas to the cities of the East Coast.

I couldn't help but be reminded of the contrasting images last week when President Barack Obama decided against proceeding with the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas.

What was particularly curious was the reason he offered: "As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department's report, I agree."

A full assessment of pipeline impact on the health and safety of the American people as well as our environment has been going on in this country for nearly 150 years, when pipelines first began replacing horse-drawn wagons and reused whiskey barrels as the primary means of moving oil from fields to refineries.

Pipelines are safe. That's not me saying it, it's the federal government.

Since when is it the State Department's job to assess pipeline safety? I thought they doled out foreign aid and engaged in frank discussions.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation, oversees pipeline safety.

Its stance on the efficacy of the 2.5 million miles of pipeline in the U.S. is made clear on its website, which states, "Pipelines play a vital role in our daily lives. Cooking and cleaning, the daily commute, air travel and the heating of homes and businesses are all made possible by the readily available fuels delivered through pipelines.

"Because such huge volumes of hazardous liquid and natural gas must be transported, the only feasible way to do so is through pipelines. Pipelines do not crowd our highways and waterways as trucks and barges would, nor do they contribute to traffic congestion or highway accidents.

"Pipelines, in short, are practical and safe."

Of course each pipeline presents a unique set of circumstances. You wouldn't build the Keystone XL out of toilet paper rolls and duct tape and run it under a city's drinking water reservoir. But those sort of engineering and routing challenges, which could be met thanks to decade upon decade of pipeline experience and advancing technology, won't even be addressed thanks to the president's decision.

The president cynically cites only the deadline imposed by Republicans as his reason for quashing the Keystone XL.

"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," he said.

But the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group boasting Robert Redford as one of its leading members, gives the president credit for motives that go beyond the ones he admits to: "This decision puts the health and safety of the American people above the interests of Big Oil. And it confirms President Obama's commitment to combating the threats of climate change, air pollution, and oil addiction."

Translation: This decision jabs a stick in the eye of evil business and is another step toward forcibly weaning Americans from their petroleum-based economy, even if it means fewer jobs, higher energy prices and greater reliance on oil from the Persian Gulf.