It’s funny that when it’s your own ox is being gored (or having oil poured on it), your views can change.

Take our friend Sibby in Mitchell.

He’s all Mr. Rightwing/Free Enterprise when it’s someone else who has to bear the burden of the capitalists’ needs. But put a crude oil pipeline on his family farm (TransCanada), and well, he sounds absolutely, er, well, LIBERAL!

What about the environment, he asks? What about if the big evil company goes out of business, he asks? Why, why, why?

In a recent post he writes:

Even though TransCanada is putting forward a plan that should minimize the possibility of a leak, and agrees that they are responsible for all damages, they may not be around forever, whereas the easements do, as they are perpetual. So what happens when the pipeline is no longer needed, and TransCanada or any future owners of the pipeline are insolvent? Will the line be abandoned and residual hazardous material remains four foot below the surface of the landowner’s property.? These questions have been asked, but not adequately answered during the two sessions I attended.

Gee Steve, how do you think you’re able to live in a modern, industrialized world where we have gasoline powered vehicles? We have refineries, pipelines, bulk plants, gas stations, etc. Is there some degree of risk in all this? Sure.

But when’s the last time you heard about a crude line or a petroleum products line having a leak? And if it had a leak, what were the long term consequences? These things just don’t happen very often.

As tough as I thought Sibby was, I never pictured him as someone I’m sure he has great disdain for—a NIMBY. Because obviously, all NIMBYs are godless, communist, anti-capitalists who don’t believe in The American Way of Life—which is, of course, better living through industry, technology, and capitalism.

God, I love the irony of this.