Trump steeling (sic) unions!

The pipeline deal is a little unique, since (as I understand it) he'll forcing a private company who's using private funds to purchase made in America steel. If he can do it, good for him. But it's already a requirement for all bridges, highways, and rail projects. Reagan signed the Buy America act in to law in 1982, and Obama really upped the enforcement of it when he pushed out the ARRA stimulus projects. The only reason it will be a story in the future is that Paul Ryan opposes Buy America and tried to strip it out of the latest waterways bill. He thinks it's bad for the free market. Trump is going to have to get Ryan in check. http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/314304-trump-house-gop-could-clash-over-buy-america

What's in it for us?  All of the arguments that were lobbied at the Obama administration are still valid.  Construction jobs across several states from the Canadian boarder to Nebraska.  Property taxes along the pipeline route.  Increased work refining Canadian crude oil in US based refineries. 

Why are we in such a hurry to export our oil?

Some food for thought - The False Promise of "Buy American"

I have a few different thoughts on the pipeline overall.

First off, oil is a commodity that increases and decreases globally based on supply and demand, so it doesn't really matter if Canadian oil comes to the US or goes to Russia, it goes into global supply and price is the same. 
That being said there are shipping costs which do get baked in, but overall they're fairly small so I'm not entirely sure how much cheaper a pipeline would be vs. shipping.

Secondly the whole reason we have to import so much oil is because of the ridiculous environmental politics in the US that force oil companies to go to places like the gulf to get our oil.  We have way more oil in the US than they have in the gulf and need to be self sufficient.  If we do that then there's much less need for pipelines and scary oil ships.

Here's a study a few years back from the USGS.  There's many that believe there's far more and other that believe there's far less so just take it as a data point.

On the union side, I agree completely that the Dem's have completely turned their backs on them.  When Biden rides off into the sunset I'm not sure if there are really any Dem's left that care about the blue collar workers.

It's quite likely the "Blue Wall" has been broken down for at least a generation.

If you think I'm wrong, take a look at the people vying to lead the DNC.  They're all arguing over how racist they can be against white people. 
https://youtu.be/LDOdcsh435Q

That's totally what America cares about... /eyeroll

It's downright funny to watch the implosion. 

Tony, the extraction processes for much of that oil is incredibly damaging to the environment. 

and somewhat related http://www.energytrendtracker.org/2017/01/coal-is-cheapest-energy-n...

That's the old tired argument that's been used (quite successfully) for decades.  We'll see how well it works going forward. 

Tony, as an environmental PE, I feel as though I *might* have a better understanding of this issue than you do.  The "old tired argument" is incredibly important.  We have done untold damage to our environment and it impacts human health.

We've done untold damage to our economy and the citizens have decided they want a change. 
I'm being a little snarky, but there has to be a balance between responsible stewardship of the environment and utilization of resources.  The pendulum has swung way to far on the environment side and it is now swinging back.  I'm old enough to remember the nastiness of the late 70s and early 80's with pollution and litter all over the streets.  It was terrible and I'll stand right beside you and fight to make sure it doesn't swing too far back the other way. 

As long as Republicans continue to push for right to work laws, Democrats will keep the support of unions.

There's no question there's been a long history of Republicans going at it with Unions, but the Unions have been evolving as well as the Republicans.  Most blue collar workers fit very well into the conservative footprint of social and fiscal conservatism, but the labor laws were enough to keep them away.
Unfortunately the Dem's have done as much or worse to the Unions with the globalization push so the labor law negative doesn't have near the teeth it used to have and these same workers are falling back on the other conservative principles they hold dear.

Obvoiusly they came out in big numbers for Trump and his anti-globalization message.  I will be curious how it translates into other candidates in the future. 

Trump might have gotten blue collar support, but he did not get union support. Three unions endorsed him; police, border patrol, and immigration/customs. 42 unions endorsed Hillary. She got the electricians, teamsters, carpenters, laborers, operators, steelworkers, teachers...the list goes on and on.

She didn't get the rank and file......at least not nearly enough.  You know this.

I won't argue that. She lost a lot of traditionally loyal support. What can I say, she wasn't a very good candidate. lol. But Tony said the Dems are losing the unions. That it's likely the blue wall has been broken down for at least a generation. They're not and it isn't. Not as long as right to work laws are part of the GOP platform. 

I can't find exit polling on how union households voted in our governor's race. But I'd be willing to bet a beer that they overwhelming voted against Greitens and his right to work pledge. 

There's a very distinct difference between Union Leadership and Union Members.  I was referring to Union Members.
I wish we could both find the numbers but I'm not sure if they have a breakdown other than in pre-election polling which we all know wasn't so hot.

I think there's a bit of a populist movement even within the Union organizations because the Union leadership is about as corrupt as the globalist politicians in many cases.