East River Hearts TransCanada and Keystone Pipeline

Veteran journalist and greenhorn blogger Bob Mercer notes that my friends at East River Electric, part of Madison's Democratic mafia (counterweight to the Republican mafia at Heartland), stand to gain nicely from the increased demand for electricity brought by TransCanada's Keystone pipeline. It will take a lot of juice to pump 590,000 barrels of tax-free oil each day across South Dakota. East River's 2008 annual report touts the promised increase in construction of power lines and substations, as well as the pipeline's potential to "relieve our dependence on Mideast oil by importing oil from a friendly nation." (At least they recognize it's still foreign oil.)

Boy, and I gave Senator Russell Olson a hard time for taking money from a TransCanada lobbyist. My guy Scott Parsley is assistant general manager at pipeline-loving East River.

At today's annual meeting, East River officials will likely express agreement with Tony's comment yesterday that increased energy consumption is good. I suspect the Sibsons and other South Dakota landowners might offer a reason or two to the contrary.