Patch Blog: Who Wants a Dirty, Stinking Pipeline? Me!

We've begun the process of moving from Studio City to La Cañada.  Phone calls turning utilities off and new ones on, cable companies, Internet and saying goodbye to dear friends in the community and our church.

While making a phone call today to the LA DWP for refrigerator recycling I noticed on the news that President Obama doesn't want the Keystone pipeline because the State Department hasn't done its due diligence.

I asked in the title who wants a dirty, stinking pipeline -- please let me unequivocally state that I do, and as been evidenced by the Alaskan pipeline so many years ago, so do many others.

Yet if you are reading this blog you ask what does a pipeline and oil exploration have to do with moving and my answer is everything because our main reason for moving is my wife is stuck on the 101 freeway for hours a day.  One of the blessings of being on the Studio City Neighborhood Council was I had to do my own research and meet hard working, honest folks from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and Cal Trans.

When I asked about traffic problems and solutions they'd give me fancy terms like "transit-oriented development," "light-rail," and my favorite was "smart-growth-walkable-communities!"  But if I asked how you paid for all those things I was always given a shrug of the shoulders and a pat on the back to keep up the good work and thanks for being such a positive guy, Todd.

When I studied state budgets from the previous ten years I found the one thread that alluded Governors Davis through our current one and it was this -- all of our budget issues, traffic issues and infrastructure issues could be solved if we opened up our coastlines and interior for oil exploration.

In another blog for another time I'll get into the facts but I sincerely challenge anyone who disagrees with me to go check out the numbers for yourself.  Want better schools, roads, sewers and even a high-speed rail?  You can have it all with oil exploration and drilling.

While I'm excited for this new chapter in my family's life there is also a melancholy feeling that pervades my soul knowing my wife's daily commute on the 101 freeway and us uprooting our lives could be solved with oil exploration.

In life we have to make real choices and if you elect someone like Senator Boxer who shamelessly panders to people who live on or near the oceans she's serving a very small number of people and not California and certainly not the United States.

As California goes so usually goes the United States except now so goes California so goes the same number of talented, hard working families to places like Texas, Utah, and New Mexico.

So the next time you think I don't want a dirty, stinking pipeline in my backyard remember you could be uprooting families and taking away the opportunities for millions of people to benefit from the economic stimulus that comes from that pipeline.

See you next weekend, La Cañada as our official move in date is the 28th.