published: Sunday, February 05, 2012

Fleecing by the oil industry

Editor:

The Keystone XL Pipeline "is not" in the interest of the American taxpayers or of the American security, or will it make America self-independent on oil.

The American taxpayers are again being fleeced by global powers. As for the jobs it will produce, most of the jobs will be outsourced to foreign companies. Canada has made a deal with Russia, India and China on the 1,700 miles of steel pipe, ignoring the American steel companies. Most of the American steel mills are now silent due to the outsourcing of all American industry. This caused widespread hardship on all Americans. My own relationship with the steel industry was cut short. I had more than 28 years in the steel industry when my plant was shut down. It was a top-of-the-line steel plant. It about destroyed my hometown. It also destroyed the pensions and health insurance of thousands of steel workers. It also cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars.

As for the oil that Keystone would produce, global powers control America's oil; it would be put on the world market, going to the highest bidder.

The Republican Party and Global Powers are in harmony with each other regarding outsourcing of the work on the Keystone XL Pipeline and the oil would be exported and not used in these United States; therefore, there will be "no taxes paid on this oil."

Brings to mind another very serious oil problem, America's emergency oil supply. Is America's emergency oil supply being put in danger by the high price of oil? Where is the transparency or accounting of all transactions of the emergency oil supply being bought with the American tax dollars? The reason I question the security of this emergency oil supply is that several years back, oil companies slant drilled into the emergency oil supply stealing millions of barrels of the taxpayers' oil. In today's world, that theft could all just be on paper transactions, where the oil was never delivered. I would ask and the American taxpayer would ask for a complete investigation on this matter on our emergency reserves of oil.

Our Alaska pipelines diverts most of our oil to foreign markets. America is competing with the world market for its' own oil. The American taxpayer must demand that companies which outsource our jobs, get no tax breaks and are not allowed to dump their products on the American market. Our tax laws should not be controlled by global powers.

Billie E. Jewett

Sebring