Pipeline company inflated job numbers Re: “Obama’s first priority is getting re-elected,” From Readers, Nov. 16
TransCanada Corporation, owner of the Keystone Pipeline project, has admitted that their original prediction that the project would generate 13,000 new jobs was flawed. In a recently released statement, the company acknowledged that they arrived at that number by doubling the actual number of jobs to be created (6,500) because that phase of the project is expected to last two years.
I am aware that The Examiner cannot publish corrections to every inaccuracy offered by readers, but you have a responsibility to present verifiable facts to the public whenever possible. Thus, I implore you to correct the abject lie, offered by a reader, that President Obama’s delay of the Keystone project will “eliminate some 20,000 … jobs.”
Unsubstantiated statements such as this can be heard every day on “conservative” talk shows by hosts who hate President Obama. The Examiner abdicates its journalistic integrity when it chooses to print these partisan “talking points” as fact.
Rodney Freeman
Tantallon, Md.
Editor’s note: In a Nov. 18 email to The Examiner, a spokeswoman for TransCanada told us: “Construction of the 1,600 mile pipeline is broken down into 17 pipeline spreads with 500 workers per spread – that’s 8,500 workers. Keystone XL also needs 30 pump stations …with 100 workers [each]- that’s 3,000 jobs. Add in another 600 jobs that will be needed for the six construction camps and tank construction at Cushing, Okla. A project of such magnitude needs construction and management and inspection oversight – the 1,000 workers here brings the overall Keystone XL total to 13,000 direct, on-site jobs.”
Concealed carry should be state decision
Re: “House passes concealed weapons permit bill,” Nov. 16
The House of Representatives messed up last week when it passed a national reciprocity “concealed carry bill.” We don’t need another federal law mismanaged by more D.C. bureaucrats.
What we do need is for all 50 states to cooperate with one another and recognize each other’s concealed carry permits — just like they recognize each other’s drivers licenses. We don’t have or need a national driver’s license, so why would we need a national carry permit?
The nine states that still don’t have “shall issue’ laws need to seriously look at crime before and after the CCW laws were passed in the 41 states that do have cogent concealed carry laws. Once they do, they will see that crime decreased and there were no gun fights in the streets among the lawfully armed citizens.
Say “No” to national carry. Say “Yes” to 50-state reciprocity.
Jeff Underwood
Simpsonville, Md.
Irresponsible Congress could learn from Mom
Growing up in the Western Pennsylvania coalfields during the 1940’s and 50’s, I used to kid Mom about having 100 different recipes for potatoes and cabbage to feed our family of nine. She bought groceries “on the book” at a store-front grocery until Dad brought home his pay from the mine.
If Mom were still around, she could tell Congress, whose menu seems based on steak and more steak, about the virtues of living within one’s means.
George J. Pitonyak
Kitty Hawk, N.C.
