A recent letter stated President Barack Obama was against drilling for oil out west and adding pipelines, costing our country good union jobs. That is just about as close as one can get from telling the truth.
The writer said Obama has banned drilling for this tar sand oil and it would cost our country good union jobs. Why blame Obama?
Pipelines would have to be installed, and the tar sand would have to be extracted with steam shovels, causing a mess. The tar sand oil is the same type oil being sent to BP's Whiting Refinery, creating jobs for union workers to upgrade the plant so gasoline and other by products can be extracted from tar sand oil with a lot of steam.
I would estimate more than 98 percent of the workers were; union and the other 2 percent management, non-union, but drawing better than union wages.
I haven't heard complaints from BP's management over the cost of upgrading the Whiting plant.
- John M. Bonich, retired steelworker, Crown Point
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