RUSH: Ross, in his semi but from Stew something. Hi, Ross? Where are you?

CALLER: I’m on from Nebraska, Stewart, Nebraska.

RUSH: Stewart, Nebraska. Okay.

CALLER: Highway dittos. I usually agree with you almost all the time, but —

RUSH: I know.

CALLER: — (unintelligible) if the Democrats like it, it’s gotta be, you know, bad, but we’ve been fighting this pipeline tooth and nail, especially my wife, she’s the one that’s been doing the majority of it, and there’s so many things, on the surface it looks good. I’m a huge capitalist, I’m all about making money, but there are so many things involved in this pipeline that, you know, they don’t tell you about. One of the biggest things is this stuff is sludge. It’s not oil. It’s highly corrosive, and there’s two things they gotta do just to get it to flow through the pipeline, and one is they gotta add five chemicals to it, and those five chemicals are all cancer-causing agents. And the water table is so high where we live —

RUSH: This is sand oil, right, this is oil — if I’m on the same —

CALLER: Well, it’s tar sand oil. I don’t know —

RUSH: Sand oil, okay.

CALLER: — the difference between sand oil and tar sand oil.

RUSH: You know, this is exactly — look, you’re an audience member and so forth, but you’re sounding like the people that opposed NAFTA. They were saying the exact same stuff about the Alaska pipeline, that it was gonna have rotgut poison and all these chemicals, that it really wasn’t oil. And they added it was gonna kill the caribou and now there’s more caribou than know what to do with up there because the heat has created all kinds of copulation.

CALLER: I get that, but their tactics that they have been using to obtain this land, they came in, they’ve made threats. The workers are showing up at people’s houses saying you need to sign this. Landowners are being told they’re gonna be made an example of and they’ve already put one pipeline through Nebraska, in eastern Nebraska about 25 miles east of where I grew up as a child, and that pipeline the first year had 14 leaks. And one of them was significant. Now, that being said, the soil over in that part of the state is much heavier and the water is much deeper. You’re not sinking right into the water, and as a rancher we have to be somewhat of environmentalists because if we don’t take care of the ground that supplies us with the nutrients for the beef and everything we don’t have anything to live on.

RUSH: Well, you know, if it weren’t for pipelines like this, the East Coast wouldn’t have any oil. Do you realize the jet A fuel pipeline that goes under New York City out to JFK airport, that probably couldn’t be built today, the environmentalists would say, “Well, if that thing goes bad we’ve got all that jet A, this kerosene and all those wonderful houses out in Jamaica, we can’t have that,” we’d never get anything done. These companies have decided that it is not sludge, which is why they want to use it. They use it in Canada. If it were sludge, they couldn’t use it. There’s a market for this. There are people willing to invest everything they’ve got to make this thing work out.

CALLER: I understand that, but there are refineries a lot closer and they sit there and they say that it’s all gonna be used in the United States. Well, if they’re gonna ship it — I mean if they’re gonna use it in the United States, why would you build a pipeline 1700 miles long when there are refineries a lot closer? They’re shipping it to a port for a reason. And I don’t know. I mean if you go up into Canada where they’re mining this —

RUSH: What is your number one concern with this? How is this going to change your life?

CALLER: I am afraid of what it will do to the water — I mean the water basically, I mean the state of Nebraska supplies —

RUSH: What, you’re afraid it’s gonna leak? You’re afraid it’s gonna blow up? You’re afraid it’s gonna rupture?

CALLER: I know it will. It’s just the law of averages. The oil they’re using is not sweet crude oil (unintelligible) it’s highly corrosive.

RUSH: Here’s my problem with this. Here’s my big problem with this. The New York Times opposes the pipeline. They didn’t mention any of this. They only oppose it because of the carbon emissions. The New York Times didn’t mention any of the things that you are talking, and, believe me, if it was guaranteed the pipeline was gonna rupture and the state of Nebraska would end up poisoned that would be the lead opposition reason of the New York Times. Let me tell you what the real reason here is, Ross. The real reason is February of this year, Reuters reported that Koch Industries were poised to be the big winners in the pipeline. David and Charles Koch, who I’m gonna tell you right now, I know these men. I’ve played golf with one of them. I’ve laughed at dinner with them.

They are some of the most decent, hardworking, I know their brother Bill, they are some of the finest people you would ever meet. They work hard each and every day. And because they are conservative and they give money to conservative causes — and they’re just one for every ten liberal groups like them. And because it is said that the Koch Industries bunch is gonna benefit from this, can’t happen. That’s why the left opposes it. Because Koch industry’s gonna benefit. It’s absolutely pure politics. And what you’re doing is throwing everything that possible can exist up against the wall and hoping something sticks in terms of persuading somebody.

In May of this year, Congressman Waxman, nostrilitis Waxman and Bobby Rush wrote a letter to the Energy and Commerce Committee citing the Reuters story which urged the committee to request documents from Koch Industries, which relate to the Keystone pipeline. It’s because Koch Industries is involved, which means they’re investing in it. This is pure politics and you’re being persuaded that it’s other reasons. ‘Cause there are pipelines like this all over the world, all over the country. It’s not gonna do anything to the water. The water sources of Nebraska are very deep. All of this can be overcome because it already has. This is an easily accomplished thing. Technology is there. I gotta go. I’m glad you called. You may not think you were, but you were a great caller out there.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Every time you hear Obama talk about his laser-like focus on jobs, creating jobs and stuff, just remember 20,000 jobs down the tubes delaying this pipeline or not approving it, and the only reason he did that was to keep campaign contributions coming. And you ranchers in Nebraska, I’m just gonna tell you something, if Obama wins reelection, this pipeline’s gonna be approved after the election. The only reason he doesn’t do it now is because it will upset his base. The only reason. He can’t do something good for the country without harming his reelection chances, it’s just amazing.