From Mitt Romney's victory speech last night:
We once built the interstate highway system and the Hoover Dam. Today, we can’t even build a pipeline.
I mean, yes, as Charlie Pierce points out, he doesn't seem to understand that he is praising two massive government works projects. And, obviously, the opposition to the XL pipeline is not based on the engineering—everybody knows that we are capable of building the pipeline. Although of course if the pipeline is built to Hoover Dam standards, including the corner-cutting that led to huge leaks, I think people will not be very happy.
No, my initial thought was that if you have some reservations, Gentle Reader, about the possibility of unintended and unforeseeable consequences to the environment, comparing the XL pipeline to the interstate highway system and the Hoover Dam does not seem to me to be calculated to ease your fears.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
But isn’t that exactly the point, that in the good old days we didn’t care about the environment and under a Romney presidency we could not care again?