Congressman Roskam to Mother Earth: 'Drop dead'

In his eighth year as my Illinois 6th District Congressman, Peter Roskam has never, to my recollection, ever uttered one word about protecting the environment from the fossil fuel industry and global warming. To see if I was missing his concern for Mother Earth I searched his website www.roskam.house.gov. First I tried "Roskam and global warming". The computer said "Zero". Next up: "Roskam and renewable energy". Faggedaboudit. Then I tried "Roskam and environment". Wow - 31 hits. Only problem: every one has Roskam touting, not a good earthly environment, but a good business environment by, you guessed it, cutting back on governmental business regulation. Maybe the Congressman should check out the wonderful water the chemical industry is providing the folks in West Virginia courtesy of watered down (pun intended) regulation of toxic substances. That's one taste test Roskam will surely decline. Lastly I tried "Roskam and Climate Change". Just one measly hit, but alas, it wasn't about reversing climate change. Instead, it was about accelerating it by demanding the President approve the Keystone Pipeline which will desecrate the American breadbasket transporting the foulest crude oil extant across our sacred land for export on the world market. If that happens, chalk one up for Big Oil, and shed a big tear for Mother Earth. Roskam's sole argument is his claim that the State Department says XL will have no impact on climate change. End of research, so start gouging out the land to transport the junk. It won't go near Roskam's DuPage County house so what's the fuss?

Since you'll never hear a word of concern about the Keystone monstrosity from Congressman Roskam, consider:

1. Keystone will negatively impact national and local economies. NYU Law School's Environmental Law Center estimates burning recoverable tar sands oil will increase earth's temperature by 2 degrees Celsius resulting in a 2.5% long term cut in US GDP.

2. Keystone is no friend of job creation. The fossil fuel industry promoting Keystone is cutting jobs, not creating them. Between 2005 and 2010 Big Oil cut 11,000 US jobs, and 40% of all oil industry jobs are minimum wage service station gigs. The two year building project will only create about 4,000 person years of work, roughly 2,000 person years for each of the two years. This is roughly equivalent to building a large shopping mall.

3. Keystone will accelerate job losses from extreme weather events. Hurricane Katrina wiped out 130,000 jobs in Louisiana and Superstorm Sandy cost 85,000 jobs in the East. In 2011 alone, extreme weather events put a $52 billion dent in our economy.

If Congressman Roskam was really concerned about creating jobs, he'd dump the fossil fuel industry gouging at our fragile planet and get on board renewable energy. The solar industry is creating jobs six times faster than the overall job market. A transition scenario for the electric power industry by Synapse Energy Economics projects the following job growth over the next decade building new, lower emission facilities:
•444,000 job years for construction workers - that's equivalent to 44,400 construction folks working full time for he entire decade
•3,100,000 indirect jobs for the folks designing, manufacturing and delivering goods and services to support that energy efficient construction

Big Oil is a big contributor to Congressman Roskam ($25,100 in current election cycle alone) and they certainly get their money's worth. In truth, Congressman Roskam has never actually told Mother Earth to "Drop dead". But I'd rather have him say that a million times than spend another day as a career politician shilling for Big Oil and sticking his figurative head in the tar sands which are surely destroying the only hunk of real estate we'll ever occupy. That brings to mind an ostrich, a fitting Republican replacement for the elephant, an intelligent and wise creature that would sustain rather than suffocate Mother Earth.