As part of CNSNews.com’s shilling for the oil industry, a Nov. 11 CNS article by Susan Jones repeats the claim that a proposed oil pipeline would “create 20,000 new jobs.” Later in the article, Jones uncritically quotes the head of the company that is proposing the Keystone XL pipeline making more job promises:
“We remain confident Keystone XL will ultimately be approved,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and chief executive officer. “This project is too important to the U.S. economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed.”
“Keystone XL is shovel-ready,” Girling said. “TransCanada is poised to put 20,000 Americans to work to construct the pipeline – pipe fitters, welders, mechanics, electricians, heavy equipment operators, the list goes on. Local businesses along the pipeline route will benefit from the 118,000 spin-off jobs Keystone XL will create through increased business for local restaurants, hotels and suppliers.
In fact, those job numbers are highly questionable. As Media Matters details, the TransCanada-funded study that generated those numbers uses an opaque and suspicious “person-years” job claim to come up with those figures. Meanwhile, others point out that TransCanada’s job numbers are wildly inflated, claiming instead that the pipeline will generate no more than approximately 5,000 construction jobs and as few as 50 permanent jobs.