Politics of Symbolism Over Substance

In other words, the oil is coming out, and being transported, one way or another. The State Department concluded that Keystone construction is "unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands, or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States." Thus, the net impact on climate: not "significant," according to State.

One big caveat here involves the dramatic recent plunge in oil prices. At prices between $65 and $75 a barrel -- it's now below $50 -- the lower cost of transporting oil through the pipeline rather than by rail or truck could have a "substantial impact" on production.

How long oil prices will remain this low is a known unknown. What is known is this: Even assuming that the oil will be extracted only if the pipeline is built, that would add between 1.3 million and 27.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually to the atmosphere, according to State. Total emissions in 2013? Some 37 billion metric tons.

Hence my use of the word "tragically." The big problem is climate change; the big challenge is to take serious steps to reduce overall emissions -- not to focus so much effort on one relatively small contributor.

Which brings me to the second disturbing aspect of the Keystone dispute. It represents yet another elevation of the politics of symbolism over the need for real-world solutions.

Keystone has become a proxy for larger partisan political battles, reminiscent of the public option in health care reform. For the left, the public option was the essential element of successful reform; the enterprise was hardly worth doing without it. For the right, it represented the camel's nose under the tent of socialized medicine. Somehow, that argument has moved on.

Now comes another example of the dumb politics of symbolism: the withdrawal of Antonio Weiss as President Obama's nominee for treasury undersecretary for domestic finance. Weiss' transgression, in the eyes of liberal critics, was that he is head of investment banking for Lazard -- work that included helping Burger King acquire the Canadian chain Tim Hortons and then move corporate headquarters to Canada.

Thus Weiss' quasi-withdrawal -- he's going to serve as counselor to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew instead -- is viewed as a big victory for liberals, including Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who led the charge against his confirmation.

No matter that Weiss' actual politics seem entirely in sync with Warren's, as reflected in a 2012 Center for American Progress paper that called for raising $1.8 trillion in revenue over a decade by hiking taxes on the wealthy. This is the kind of nominee that should be alarming Republicans, rather than Democrats. Not in the current atmosphere of Washington, which promotes symbolism over substance, and cannot take in contrary arguments.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.