So on Christmas day this year we found ourselves sitting in a hot tub in Glacier, WA talking to a nice guy named Hugh from Alberta, Canada, who turned out to be a contractor to Keystone XL as a pipeline worker.
We told him we were from Nebraska.
Hugh asked how we felt about the pipeline.
We told him we were the people he probably didn't like because we were against it.
He said he liked everybody. He wanted to know why we objected to KXL.
We told him about the spill concerns.
Hugh said, "But the route was moved."
We explained the route was moved to protect the environmentally fragile Nebraska sand hills, yet it still ran through some of the sand hills. But anyway the pipeline could not possibly be rerouted to avoid our precious Ogallala Aquifer, the source of all our drinking, farming and ranching water.
He told us about an oil tanker truck accident that killed dozens of people in a city Canada, so trucking the oil was just as dangerous.
We agreed that oil tanker truck accidents were dangerous and that the accident sounded awful. What a shame.
Hugh said, "There's a great demand for the oil. If there wasn't a demand for it there wouldn't be a need for the pipeline."
We agreed there was a great demand for energy. We clarified that the pipeline did not carry oil in the traditional sense; it carried diluted bitumen, or dilbit. Dilbit is moved through the pipeline by mixing it with very nasty chemicals that we don't want ending up in our soil or water, nor in anyone's soil or water. Therefore, we explained, we preferred that the entire pipeline process be shut down, and that the demand for energy be met with renewables instead.
Hugh said, "Well, I'm just a contractor. I don't have an opinion on it one way or the other. It's just a job to me."
And he got out of the hot tub and left.
Merry Christmas, Hugh! I guess if you can't take the heat, maybe you should get out of the water.
Of course later we kvetched about all the many other, perhaps more compelling arguments we could have made, fantasizing that we could have been so convincing as to inspire him to quit his job and even organize others against the pipeline. In other words, we wished we could have performed a Christmas miracle, right there in the middle of our relaxing mid winter holiday soak.
The reality is that we probably had about as much success in changing Hugh's mind about KXL as he did in changing ours.
But at least we had the conversation.
Maybe sometime Hugh will at least think about that nice family from Nebraska who shared a hot tub with him on Christmas Day 2013 and simply didn't want the pipeline he was building in their back yard.
Mon Dec 30, 2013 at 7:52 AM PT: To learn more about the disastrous KXL Pipeline and its status as GAME OVER for the planet, see: http://350.org/...
To help us fight the pipeline in any way (learn, like, act, donate), see:
https://www.facebook.com/...
http://www.boldnebraska.org/
Don't underestimate your power! One person CAN make a difference.