Joe T. Chyle, Pisek, N.D., letter: Keep oil jobs in North Dakota

PISEK, N.D. -- The recent oil train accident increased calls to build the Keystone pipeline. We need to slow down and look at the reality of it. Take a good look at a map of the United States. North Dakota is just as centrally located in the country as southern Texas. It makes no sense to pipe oil all the way across the country from top to bottom, refine it, then transport the finished product back up to Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, etc. We surely should be able to build refineries right here, near the oil source, for the price of the pipeline. That would create many good long-term jobs in North Dakota. Refine the oil here at the source, then fan the finished product out across the country from here. That would dramatically reduce the amount of oil "travel," thus greatly reducing the chance of accidents, while also reducing the cost of the finished product. But the ones who would benefit from the pipeline have too many people in their back pockets. The reason the Koch Brothers want this oil down in Port Arthur, Texas, is so they can load it on ships and sell it on the open market, mainly to China. They have no plan to keep all the oil here in the U.S. once they get their hands on it. We need to wake up and do what is right for North Dakota, for the consumer and for our country.