The Government’s War on Pipelines Made Us Vulnerable to Attacks on Our Infrastructure
How was a single cyberattack able to derail an entire region of the most prosperous country in the world, disrupting the lives of millions of Americans?One answer is that we simply don’t have enough oil pipelines.
Regardless of how you feel about the long term use of fossil fuels, it is clear that they are critical for at least the short and medium term. Political decisions to halt the construction of pipelines just put our energy supply at risk and effectively creates yet another tax in the form of higher energy prices. The recent cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline illustrates an unnecessary single point of failure.
I'm not necessarily buying the line from the attackers that they didn't mean to cause problems but it is somewhat beside the point. Bad people will do bad things and all the security in the world can't make things 100% safe. If the market demands new pipelines then new pipelines should be built or everybody suffers. Alternative non-carbon based energy sources are great but until the technology progresses a little further, fossil fuels are still critical. The way forward to a "greener" future shouldn't be through punitive measures for those that need fossil fuels now.
The irony is that decisions like the recent executive order to halt the construction of the Keystone Pipeline harm the environment. The need for the oil does not go away just because the pipeline isn't there. It just means that most of that oil will now be shipped by rail, a more environmentally unfriendly and risky prospect. Actions like these are not unique to Biden. Governors and legislatures in some states have also blocked the construction of or are even attempting to force closure of certain oil and gas pipelines. The demand does not go away but the cost to the environment and your wallet go up.