According to the Boston Herald, Scott Brown supports Keystone XL because it would create jobs. Similarly for the dirty natural gass drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Yet he opposes Cape Wind. So, question for Brown and any other KXL cheerleaders: how many jobs will it create in Massachusetts? How many jobs will fracking create?
Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would create several thousand temporary jobs in 6 Western and Midwestern states. In case anyone failed geography, Massachusetts is not one of those. The jobs would be in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Of the 2,650-4,500 construction workers hired nationally, about 10-15% would be local workers from those 6 states. See Cornell Global Labor Institute report, (page 8-9). All of the 127 permanent jobs would of necessity go to locals in the 6 pipeline states. So maybe Massachusetts residents willing to relocate for a while could get a few of the remaining jobs. But we’re just one state in 50. Assuming Massachusetts residents get about 2% of the total jobs (in proportion to our share of national population), that’s at most 81 temporary jobs. This is not factoring in the possibility that the pipeline actually leads to a nationwide net loss of jobs, a risk mentioned in the same report. Massachusetts is especially in danger, since one of the biggest risks is that KXL crowds out investment in renewable energy, where Massachusetts has 71,000 jobs and creates more new jobs annually than KXL would in total.
And since Massachusetts isn’t a frackable location, fracking creates no jobs here,
Compare that to Cape Wind, which is expected to create up to 1000 temporary construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs. In Massachusetts. The permanent jobs alone are more than the temporary KXL jobs likely to go to Massachusetts construction workers.
By embracing far right energy policies, Scott Brown has chosen to create jobs in Texas and Nebraska while destroying jobs in Massachusetts. He is truly a mini-Mitt.
