For years, TransCanada has been selling the Keystone XL pipeline

The billionaire philanthropist and environmental advocate Tom Steyer once declared with fierce clarity: “For years, TransCanada has been selling the Keystone XL pipeline to Americans with all of the enthusiasm of a used car salesman — and using all of the same tricks. However, one myth is more egregious than all the rest: this pipeline will enhance America’s energy independence.” These words cut through the illusions of commerce and politics alike. In them, Steyer unmasks the false promises that often cloak the pursuit of profit, reminding his listeners that not all progress is genuine, and not all promises of “independence” are rooted in truth. His words are not just a critique of an oil company, but a warning to civilization itself: beware the gilded chains that disguise themselves as freedom.

At the heart of this quote lies the tension between truth and deception, between the illusion of independence and its reality. Steyer calls out the seductive rhetoric that often accompanies great industrial ventures — the claim that such projects serve the nation, when in truth they may serve only a few. The image of a “used car salesman” evokes not only the tone of deceit, but the psychology of manipulation: appealing to pride, promising reliability, and disguising flaws beneath a polished exterior. In this, Steyer reminds us that in the modern age, the battle for truth is not fought on battlefields, but in boardrooms, advertisements, and political speeches.

The origin of this statement lies in the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, a project proposed to carry crude oil from the tar sands of Canada to refineries in the southern United States. Proponents claimed it would create jobs, lower fuel prices, and make the nation more energy independent. But environmentalists, scientists, and visionaries like Steyer saw the deeper cost: the devastation of ecosystems, the acceleration of climate change, and the perpetuation of dependence — not on foreign powers, but on fossil fuels themselves. To call this “independence,” Steyer argued, was to mistake addiction for autonomy.

This same deception has repeated across history. In the 19th century, nations claimed that industrial expansion would bring prosperity and progress for all — yet it brought also pollution, inequality, and colonial exploitation. The empires of Europe built railroads across Africa and Asia under the banner of “civilization,” but their true aim was control. Likewise, the modern rhetoric of “energy independence” often masks continued enslavement to oil, coal, and gas — forces that enrich a few while binding the earth and humanity to destruction. Steyer’s warning, like that of the prophets of old, is that false independence is the most dangerous kind — for it lulls a people into complacency while their freedom decays unseen.

Consider the story of Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring in 1962 awakened the world to the hidden poisons of industrial progress. Like Steyer, she saw that mankind’s quest for domination over nature was an illusion — that by seeking control, we were in fact endangering our own survival. The chemical companies of her day dismissed her as hysterical, just as the oil companies dismissed the climate activists of Steyer’s generation. Yet time revealed her wisdom: that real independence can only be achieved when humankind learns to live in harmony with the earth, not in conquest of it. Steyer’s message stands in this same lineage of truth-tellers — those who see beyond the glitter of progress to the moral cost beneath it.

The emotional core of Steyer’s statement is not anger, but disillusionment turned to purpose. He speaks as one who once believed in the promises of enterprise but has since seen their limits. His passion arises not from ideology, but from conscience — from the understanding that freedom without foresight leads to ruin. True energy independence, he implies, cannot be built on the same foundations that have chained the planet to climate crisis. It must arise from innovation, sustainability, and collective responsibility — from wind, sun, and wisdom, rather than from oil, greed, and deceit.

From this, a lesson shines for every generation: beware of false independence — whether in politics, economics, or spirit. The powerful will always offer easy paths to security, but true freedom is never bought cheaply. It demands vigilance, integrity, and courage to question what is convenient. Each of us must learn to discern the salesman’s smile from the sage’s warning, the glittering lie from the enduring truth.

So let us heed Tom Steyer’s wisdom not as a condemnation, but as a call to awakening. Let every nation, every citizen, ask not merely what profits today, but what endures tomorrow. For independence built upon exploitation is not independence at all — it is dependence disguised as destiny. And only when we learn to build with conscience, rather than consumption, will we find the freedom that endures — the freedom that serves both humanity and the earth, and not one at the expense of the other.