Pipeline politics and bad ideas

While Pakistan is clutching at straws in its quest to solve the gas predicament via the contentious Iran-Pakistan pipeline, the US has the luxury of ‘delaying’ a pipeline project Keystone XL from Canada, citing ‘environmental constraints’. How we wish we could have the comfort of scutinising the effects of our projects with regards to global warming; however, as things stand we’d rather focus on overcoming a gas shortfall of one billion units per day, than fret about the vulnerability of the stratosphere. And Washington’s meddling is certainly becoming a nuisance in this quest – if nothing else.
The US recently called the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project a “bad idea”, and the reasons provided by the American hierarchy for this assertion ran the entire gamut from being pointless to being absurdly pointless. So, how exactly is the Iran-Pakistan pipeline a bad idea? Is it because fiscal deficit and energy shortage might be resolved at the respective ends of the pipeline? Or because after Asian giants snubbed the Iranian sanctions, it would mean that Pakistan would be following suit? Maybe Washington needs a tutorial on what qualifies as a bad idea.
Like for instance forgetting your wife’s birthday is a bad idea or wearing a leather jacket in a hot summer’s day in Jacobabad. Other illuminating examples of a bad idea would be The Treaty of Versailles or the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan. It’s ironical that the Obama regime is seemingly failing to comprehend the term because President Obama is no stranger to bad ideas. In fact if a bad idea were a hundred cubic feet of gas, Obama would have solved Pakistan’s gas shortage singlehandedly. Some noteworthy illustrations of his brain detonating can be found in his Health Care Reform and then there is his version of the “Buffet Rule” of taxation, the plethora of green energy tax credits and the criminally backfiring “clean energy standard” idea – and we’re still within the US jurisdiction in this little debate of ours. In fact it’s the latter kith and kin from where Obama traced his latest crop of horrendous ideas – cue Keystone debacle. In a bid to woo the environmentalists before the elections in November this year, Obama delayed the Keystone XL pipeline project at the tail-end of last year. Whether a sizable number from the environment lobby fell prey to the bait or not is a matter of conjecture; however, what has undoubtedly happened is that the decision has come into the spotlight amidst soaring gas prices in the US, which are touted to jump up by $4 gallon by March. And what makes this bad idea even worse, was the rationale provided for the decision: apprehensions over the risk of spills. US currently has a pipeline network of over 500,000 miles, and if in a hypothetical world of diminutive probabilities the 2,147 mile Keystone pipeline were to fall short of standards, it still wouldn’t be catastrophic for all practical purposes. Nevertheless, it’s the political decisions forestalling the practical decisions in this game, with the elections in mind – and Obama is losing out, despite being the one scribing the rulebook.
There is an opulent reservoir of oil in the central part of North America, and the easier its movement is the lower would be the price; and with the whole ‘energy security’ debate, wouldn’t it be more convenient for Washington to cover its oil imports via Canada than say Venezuela or the Middle East? By opposing this move, Obama is playing right into the Republicans’ hands, who now have him in the corner and are peddling overblown numbers to further exacerbate the shortcomings of the US president’s little grey cells. The American public hasn’t exactly been forgiving towards presidents who’ve had gas crises; as Richard Nixon found out after the 1973-74 embargo or Jimmy Carter realised in 1980 after 79’s gas crisis, much to the delight of Ronald Regan. And with this latest brand of faltering decision making, the odds are shortening on Obama biting the dust this time round. The Iran-Pakistan pipeline doesn’t look that bad an idea now, does it Mr President?

The writer is Sub-Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be reached at [email protected]