Pennsylvania State Representative Danielle Friel Otten’s ‘Nazi’ comment has been discussed at large in the Pennsylvania press and even garnered some national attention.
Today, an op-ed in the Delco Times points to an important history lesson Rep. Friel Otten and others would be wise to heed.
The United States has relied on pipelines at critical moments in our nation’s history. Keith Coyle, a Pennsylvania native and former member of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force, pointed to the Tulsa Plan in his Delco Times op-ed.
The plan, devised in the midst of World War II, was a response to aggressive targeting and sinking of US oil tankers along the eastern seaboard by the Germans hoping to stricken our oil transport. The military’s response was a thousand mile long pair of pipelines from Texas to New York that would allow for transport of crude oil safely and quickly to ports in the Northeast.
Coyle notes that German General Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rudstedt pointed to oil availability as a critical factor in the outcome of the war.
Rep. Friel Otten, before criticizing more pipeline workers, should note Coyle’s conclusion, which offered: “ …she might want to remember a little bit of history the next time she passes a pipeline worker in her district. Someone else in that industry helped her country beat the Nazis not too long ago – by building a pipeline that ran through Chester County, Pennsylvania.”