Decline is a choice, but at the moment, it's not yours to make.
by John Hayward
01/18/2012
The State Department will shoot down the Keystone XL pipeline, closing off a valuable source of oil and discarding thousands of American jobs. Fox News reports:
For three years, the State Department has been reviewing the initial proposal to run a pipeline from Canada down to Texas through a sensitive Nebraska aquifer -- authority it has because of the transnational path the route takes. The pipeline had been through several other federal, state and local approvals, but the department backed away from signing off on the plan last year after environmentalists complained.
Industry workers and Republicans contend the project would create thousands of jobs, and Canada's prime minister has warned if the U.S. can't get on board, the North American nation will look to team with China.
"Unfortunately Prime Minister Harper of Canada just this week said because of the volatile indecisiveness on the part of this president, that they feel they are being held hostage and they will take their energy elsewhere specifically to Asia and China," Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told Fox News Radio.
Supposedly the State Department might still be willing to entertain an alternative route for the pipeline… but of course they’d dither forever, the President would repair to the golf course, and the “alternative route” will end up leading to Beijing.
President Obama wanted to keep his fingerprints off this by “delaying his decision” until 2013 or so, but in December, Congress forced his hand by requiring a decision within 60 days. Politico reports on the comical political scrambling by Democrats who realize they won’t be able to pin this disaster on George W. Bush, as energy prices are climbing, and $4 gas is right around the corner:
“There’s a good argument to be made to politically take it off the table earlier if the assumption is that the decision is going to be no,” one House Democratic aide said. “You take a contentious issue off the table before the State of the Union ... and you’re allowed the room for the president to give his positive vision.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said if Obama did break the news during his speech it would send a big political signal. "I think it will be a clear sign that the president is willing to take on the Republicans," she said. "That's sort of setting the tone of how he's going to be proceeding forward."
Lord knows the Obama 2012 campaign is far more important than securing affordable energy for America. We sure wouldn’t want any of the wrong “big political signals” being sent during that State of the Union address – which, by the way, will be held on Day 1000 of the Democrat Party’s appalling failure to pass a budget for the bloated and dying government they love so much.
Maybe the Chinese Communist Party could send someone to appear at the State of the Union and thank Obama for all that lovely Canadian oil. Former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is available to perform translations, if necessary.
An executive at independent refinery Tesoro Corp. told Politico he doesn’t think the president will take fatal damage from the Keystone XL decision, because “the dots connecting Keystone to leadership on economic issues is probably not sufficiently made in the minds of the undecided voters.” House Republicans are gathering to discuss their strategy at a retreat in Baltimore tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll get all the retreating out of their systems in Baltimore, and won’t be doing any when they return to Washington. They’ve got some dots to connect.
There is nothing complex or mysterious about Barack Obama ’s vision for Hospice America: less affordable energy to force consumer interest in the “solar energy” boondoggles he’s already fed so much taxpayer money, and which his top contributors have invested heavily in, coupled with high unemployment to sustain a larger dependency class, and a political strategy that relies on appeasing special interest groups such as radical environmentalists. A dying nation can then mumble superstitions and fairy tales to itself as it drifts into oblivion, and some other superpower gets to take the reins of history.
Decline is a choice, but at the moment, it is not your choice to make. You will have one last chance to weigh in, this November. Choose Obama if you find it too taxing to climb out of that hospice bed.
Update: President Obama issued this statement on the Keystone XL pipeline decision:
Earlier today, I received the Secretary of State’s recommendation on the pending application for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree.
This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people. I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil. Under my Administration, domestic oil and natural gas production is up, while imports of foreign oil are down. In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security –including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico – even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas. And we will do so in a way that benefits American workers and businesses without risking the health and safety of the American people and the environment.
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