Building a pipeline doesn’t make sense

To the editor:

Normally, if I see two letters to the editor that agree with each other - one from a former bank president and one from a current union president - I would assume that they are on the right side of an issue. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the letters from Henry Royer ('Bakken pipeline is needed improvement,” Nov. 29) and Bill Gerhard ('Sanders out of touch with Iowa families,” Dec. 5) regarding the Bakken pipeline.

One says we can't power the country on renewable energy. This is not true. The other says we need the pipeline for jobs, but the few jobs the Bakken pipeline will create are nearly all temporary.

Our world needs to begin to work hard to end our dependence on carbon-based fuel or we run the risk of losing everything. Much of the oil and coal left in the ground are going to need to stay there forever if we don't want climate change to continue unchecked. It doesn't make any sense to continue adding to the infrastructure of a fuel source that is at the end of its life span.

I'd suggest that Royer take a closer look at wind and solar opportunities in Iowa and get his friends to invest there instead. I'd ask Gerhard to consider this: Building something to create jobs is only truly beneficial if the thing they are building makes sense. In this case, it doesn't. Let's get your people busy building windmills and solar panels instead. That we could agree on.

Mike Wyrick

Cedar Rapids