TransCanada Inflates Keystone XL Job Predictions

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

In September, I reacted with skepticism to very optimistic economic impact study TransCanada paid for to make its proposed Keystone XL pipeline look good. Now so has the National Wildlife Federation, which says TransCanada is exaggerating Keystone XL's job-creation potential by an order of magnitude in order to exploit American economic anxiety. They find private consultant Perryman Group inflating job numbers nearly 13 times over State Department estimates:

Comparison of State Department and Perryman Group Jobs Estimates for Keystone XL Pipeline, from National Wildlife Foundation, "TransCanada Exaggerating Jobs Claims for Keystone XL," November 2010 [click image to enlarge].

NWF also emphasizes the facts that TransCanada does not: that as few as one in ten jobs on the pipeline will go to local folks (just as we saw with the original Keystone pipeline), and that most of the jobs are temporary.

Of course, TransCanada isn't lying to us. They're just offering "forward-looking statements," which they can trumpet in their propaganda yet happily disown with the same fine-print disclaimers they use to avoid legal liability for anyone who loses money taking TransCanada at its word and investing accordingly. Even TransCanada will tell you that if you believe TransCanada (and its local quislings) and then don't get the benefits you were promised, you only have yourself to blame.