by Danielle Droitsch, reposted from NRDC’s Switchboard

A new report from the Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute shows how the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is an economic liability with the potential to cause significant job losses from a major tar sands spill.

Because tar sands oil is more corrosive and toxic than conventional oil, it can increase the frequency of pipeline spills.  Moreover, a  tar sands spill causes far more damage than a conventional oil spill. Take, for example, the 1.2 million gallon tar sands spill on the Kalamazoo River in Marshall Michigan in 2010 where the clean up costs have been 10 times higher than a typical conventional oil spill.

While there has been a lot of attention to the possible jobs created from the Keystone XL pipeline – far less than what proponents claim – there has been very little attention to jobs that could be lost from a tar sands spill. Keystone XL is expected experience up to 91 significant spills over a 50-year period.    Which jobs are at risk?  Hundreds of thousands of workers in the agricultural and tourism sectors contribute ten of billions of dollars to the economy in the Keystone XL pipeline states.  The Cornell report helps illustrate yet one more reason why the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline should be rejected.

Here are some of the key findings from the report:

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A bombshell op-ed in today’s New York Times highlights the toxic and destructive nature of unbridled capitalism. Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith — and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – explains “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs” after “almost 12 years at the firm”:

I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

This must-read piece underscores how self-destructive our largely unregulated plutocracy has become.

And for those progressives who think talking about this issue is politically risky, I’d note that in late November, Frank Luntz, arguably the GOP’s top messaging strategist told the Republican Governor’s Association, “Don’t Say Capitalism” Because Americans “Think Capitalism Is Immoral.”

As I’ve said before, “The Other 99% of Us Can’t Buy Our Way Out of the Impending Global Ponzi Scheme Collapse.” We have in fact constructed the grandest of Ponzi schemes, whereby current generations have figured out how to live off the wealth of future generations.

We are living unsustainably, and the ‘greed is good’ culture embodied by Goldman Sachs – where the only thing that matters is short-term profit – is one of the reasons why.

Here is more of this stunning piece, where we learn, among other amazing things, that at Goldman, managers routinely call clients “muppets”:

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Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) supports eliminating the Department of Energy (DOE), because the employees get to take off holidays like Presidents’ Day. Leader of an expensive witch hunt of the department’s support for renewable energy, Stearns has previously called for the firing of the Nobel-winning Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. At the same February 25 town hall meeting where he questioned Obama’s birth certificate, Stearns agreed with a constituent who called for the abolition of the nation’s nuclear, fossil, and clean-energy brain trust:

STEARNS: It seems to me we could take one — The Department of Energy is one that I feel we should probably cut their budget in half.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No! We ought to get rid of it! Get rid of it! Don’t cut it, get rid of it!

STEARNS: I’ve asked for it. And I’m on a bill to get rid of it. You see, in public I try to be a little bit — but the Department of Energy was not — before Jimmy Carter we didn’t have a Department of Energy. Now we have this Department of Energy, it does about $30 billion in revenues we give them. And what are they doing to make us energy independent? And they’ve got thousands and thousands of employees. Every one of you would like to have one of their jobs. They start anywhere from 50 to 75,000 dollars. You’ve got a thrift savings account. You’ve got health care. You’ve got — You get off all these legal holidays. Presidents’ Day. I mean when I operated my motels and restaurants I never had a day off Presidents’ Day, or Lincoln Day. I never got any of these days off. I gave Christmas off probably, but even Christmas if a desk clerk got pulled I had to come in and help. I never got any of these days off. So I agree with you on the Department of Energy.

Watch it:

Stearns is correct that DOE employees get health care and national holidays. They include nuclear physicists, economists, mathematicians, and engineers, who could demand considerably higher salaries in the private sector working for oil companies or defense contractors. Under Republican rule, the House of Representatives — whose membership includes only 9 scientists and engineers — is only working 109 days this year.

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