A Republican online advertisement for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline mocks a Rachel Maddow spot praising New Deal public infrastructure spending. The Republican National Congressional Committee’s amateurish parody of Maddow’s “Lean Forward” Hoover Dam spot criticizes President Barack Obama for the administration’s decision to reconsider approval of TransCanada’s pipeline after Nebraskans and climate activists raised objections. Approval of the dangerous pipeline is opposed by Republicans and Democrats, ranchers and labor unions.
A young woman in a curly brown wig, playing “Rachel Maddow,” makes the false claims that the economy-threatening pipeline would “provide energy security and up to 130,000 jobs”:
We’ve got a project like this waiting for the President’s go ahead – supported by Republicans and Democrats, labor unions. It’d provide energy security and up to 130,000 jobs. We’ve got to figure out why the President thinks we’re not a country that can think this big.
Watch it:
ThinkProgress Green has prepared a helpful checklist explaining how the American Hoover Dam is different from the foreign Keystone XL pipeline:
| Hoover Dam | Keystone XL Pipeline |
|---|---|
| Public federal American project | Private Canadian oil company project |
| 5000 people employed for five years | 2,500-4,650 people employed for two years |
| Built to reduce the risk of catastrophic floods | Increases the risk of catastrophic oil spills |
| Manages water supply for farmers, ranchers, 8 million people in Arizona, Nevada and California | Threatens water supply of farmers, ranchers, 2 million people in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas |
| One of the largest concrete structures in the world, a tourist attraction for over a million visitors a year | A pipe buried in a trench |
| Provides electricity to 1.3 million Americans | Will pump oil to Texas refineries for foreign export |
| Sale of electricity benefits state governments | Sale of tar sands oil goes to foreign TransCanada oil company |
| Over its 80-year lifespan, has helped build the West | Over expected 50-year lifespan, would accelerate civilization-threatening global warming |
Previous in TP Green
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.