[The Great RJ]

Unless the steel for the thousands of miles of pipeline is imported from China, I would think that a few steel workers might be needed to make the XL Pipeline. Ditto the makers of the heavy equipment used to lay the pipeline. These pipeline workers have to eat, have places to live and will buy a few six packs of beer so those small towns in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas will see quite a bit of economic activity as a result. Any first year economics student with a rudimentary understanding of supply and demand could tell you that increasing supply while demand remains steady causes prices to drop.

Barry Sotero also fails to see that government make work programs by his same standards don't result in permanent jobs either so once those roads, bridges and schools get built those jobs go away too. As a believer in Keynesian economics, which is the basis for all government stimulus plans, won't private investment in the pipeline also result in an economic multiplier effect? This is just another example of his street agitator economics.

[Fraxinus]

While I have my doubt about the higher numbers bandied about for building the pipeline, I suspect that there will be a few hundred part time jobs just doing vegetation management and fence upkeep.

While the pipeline to Port Arthur, TX is to put oil on ships, the destination is more likely to be NJ than anywhere in Europe. When the Keystone XL is completed would it be cheaper to ship oil by pipeline from Williston, ND to Port Arthur, TX then by ship to Quebec City QB than by train from Williston to Quebec?